Lightbox SEA Animation Awards 2024
Short Film submissions criteria and rules and terms:
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: In order to qualify to participate in this competition, you MUST be a Citizen or a Permanent Resident of one of ten ASEAN member state country. (Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia). Passport or Identity Card or other Govt. verification and such declaration in writing will be required ONLY if your film is selected as a finalist film. Failure to produce the necessary documentation upon request will result in disqualification.
1. Duration and Format:
a. Duration: The acceptable duration ranges from a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum length of 40 minutes. Entries that exceed 40 minutes will not be accepted.
b. Format: Resolution options include 1080p, 2k, or 4k, with a frame rate of either 24fps or 25fps. ProRes, H.264 and H.265 are all acceptable codecs.
2. Submission fees and deadlines:
a. Submissions open: March 15, 2024, at 11:59pm (G.M.T. +8, Singapore time)
b. Closing of Submissions: July 16, 2024, at 11:59pm (G.M.T. +8, Singapore time)
c. The festival is not obligated to consider entries submitted after the deadline. Following the final deadline date, online access to digital submission forms will be unavailable.
Best Short Film (Professional): USD$15 entry fee
Best Short Film (Student): USD$5 entry fee
d. Kindly be aware that we do not offer waivers or discount codes. We appreciate your understanding.
3. Submissions criteria and process:
a. Professional category entries can be done by a production company or an independent animator and the filmmaker must be 18 years and above.
b. Student category entries must be a full-time or part-time students from a recognized high school, private or tertiary educational institution and must be done as part of their school curriculum. Student entries done outside of the school curriculum will not be considered as student work.
c. There is NO theme for the competition submission but please note that any obscene or ultra-violent materials will not be allowed and will be disqualified.
d. The Festival will recognise up to three directors in total for each film only. For submission with more than three directors such in the case of group work, the filmmakers will be asked to nominate only three directors to be awarded as the potential winner of the prize.
e. The year of production for the short films must be in the year 2023/24 from the 1st of January 2023.
f. Any short film that has been previously broadcast (television, online free/open festivals, streaming sites or video-on-demand) shall be deemed ineligible for competition.
g. All animation techniques are accepted except motion capture, AI and real-time puppetry.
h. At least 75% of the film has to be animated.
i. Under no circumstances will AI generated animation will be accepted.
j. All languages of film are accepted. Submissions and screeners of non-English language films must contain English subtitles.
It is advisable to adhere to a standard broadcast safe area for titling or subtitles to prevent potential cropping during projection in certain venues
k. Please upload content to FilmFreeway only. We do not consider submission links from Google Drive or Dropbox.
4. Selection:
a. If selected, you will receive information about the final date by which your content must be submitted to the festival. Successful applicants will be provided with additional details on uploading their content to our cloud server.
b. If selected, we will require a high-resolution digital copy of the film for exhibition.
c. The preferred format is Pro Res, specifically ProRes 422 or ProRes 422 LT; alternatively, H.264 is acceptable. Subsequently, the file will undergo conversion to DCP for screening at the festival. The exhibition files or DCPs must maintain a frame rate of either 24 or 25 frames per second.
d. If selected, the participant consents to the festival's use of up to one minute of their film (whether visual or audio) for promotional purposes. Such utilization may encompass screening a clip on television, radio, the festival's website, promotional reels, and/or social media platforms.
e. All finalist films will be sent for classification by the IMDA. Pending the ratings, the films will be screened during Animation Nation festival 2024.
f. Upon selection as a finalist film, screening rights and permission must be granted to the festival organizers to screen the film during Animation Nation festival 2024. Also, the finalist and winning films of Animation Nation 2024 may be screened together as a traveling film festival package.. Permission must also be granted for a period of one year from 1 Jan 2025 to allow the festival to tour the films. Animation Nation will notify the filmmakers of which festivals or screening events the films will participate in. Animation Nation reserves the right to withdraw any further screenings after the 2024 festival.
g. No financial compensation will be given to have these screening rights as stated above.
h. Winners of the Awards will receive a Cash Prize in USD dollars (the prize amount will be announced before the Closing Date of Submission) which will be transferred internationally from Singapore directly to their respective Bank Account at the day's bank exchange rate. The winners are solely responsible to provide the correct and accurate personal and bank information to the festival. A festival award will be sent to the winners at the festival expense. The festival will not and cannot be held liable for any disputes or taxation arising from the disbursement of the cash prizes in their country or the delivery of the awards.
i. For the Award winners with 2 to 3 directors of one short film, each respective director must provide their separate bank account details and the cash amount will be divided equally amongst the winners. Only one festival award will be given to each category.
5: Claims
a. Due to the high volume of submissions, the festival is not able to provide any feedback.
b.The festival reserves the right to disqualify any films that do not meet the submissions criteria. Under no circumstances will any monetary refunds be made for any disqualified submissions or withdrawal of submissions.
c. In the event of a dispute, the festival reserves the right to have final say over such matters. The decision of the jury on the winning films is final.
d. The festival reserves the right to make any or subsequent changes to the submission criteria or prizes monies at any time on FilmFreeway or its website or other communications. For any further clarification, please contact the festival office.
