Framefest is an annual short film festival that celebrates of the freedom and creativity unique to animation. With a history as old as cinema itself, animation has always been a medium where fanciful ideas, concepts, and aesthetics could be explored cheaply and with a minimum of expertise.
It is with animation that the traditional arts meet cinema, where entire worlds can be created on screen without actors, where the technology used can be the latest 3-D modeling software or nothing but a simple sewing needle and a piece of celluloid.
No matter the method, every great animated piece shares one common element: the single frame. It is the single frame, and the change to the next frame, that gives a movie life. The change from frame to frame creates the illusion of movement, and is cinema at its most basic.
Framefest exists to champion this shared soul of cinema, and the incredible human spirit that fills it with life as expressed on the screen.

Framefest is a new part of the Northside Rock n’ Roll Carnival, a free annual community event that takes place in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood during the July 4th holiday weekend. The Carnival is primarily a music festival where local and national acts perform outdoors in Northside’s Hoffner Park. Framefest is a SHORT film event, and selected films will screen in between musical acts during the festival. Unlike traditional film festivals, Framefest guarantees an audience for selected films, since they will already be in the park for the music.

Awards & Prizes

With the exception of a Junior Animator entry, there are no categories; all films will judged for inclusion equally (but not exclusively) by the selection committee for the following qualities:
•Overall creative idea
•Technical creativity (use of the animated medium)
•Entertainment value
•‘Heart’
Junior Animator (JA) entries are films made by artists less than 17 years of age or under. If a JA film is selected for screening, the JA entrant must be age certified. JA entries are only judged for selection against their peers, by their peers, and will be programmed together on a special night TBA.
Awards are determined by audience vote. Online voting will commence the week after the Framefest event and will continue until the end of July. Award categories include, but are not limited to:

•The Spirit of Northside Award
•Local Hero Award
•Best Animal Film
•Top Junior Animator
•Low-tech Luddite Award

Rules & Terms

Framefest accepts new original works of animation less than 5 minutes in length.

Submissions must not be currently viewable on youtube, vimeo, or any other internet-based viewing platform until after the FrameFest screening date. Entry into other film festivals is permitted, provided they do not include on-line screening as part of the particular event.

Works can be executed in any animated format – clay, computer, 3-D, hand drawn, stop-motion, etc. are ALL acceptable. However, for the purposes of projection during the festival, all entries MUST be available as 1080p digital QuickTime files.

Framefest is part of the Northside (Cincinnati) Rock n’ roll Carnival, a public family-friendly event. As such, entries must be restricted to those films that would qualify for PG-13 rating. However, films are not required to have ratings; decisions about the suitability of the entries are at the discretion of the Selection Committee.

No work intended as advertising, or works advertising products, services, positions, etc. are permitted.

No more than two separate submissions by one individual or group are permitted.