Northwest High School Film Festival

1. Films must be completed between April 2024 and April 2025 and must only be produced by a student or students (with the exception of teacher advisory help) enrolled in a video class in a Puget Sound region high school between May 2024 and May 2025.

2. ***NEW RULE added in 2019 - Films that include school logos as described here will not be accepted: This is a competition and screening event designed to allow students to gain recognition for their hard work and excellence in producing compelling media. In an effort to keep the focus on the student filmmakers and not the school media programs they attend, films submitted cannot include school logos/animated logos as part of the movie file. Usually this occurs at the beginning or end of a film. Sometimes identifiable school facilities are part of a film’s setting by necessity as in news features or for the story. This is acceptable. Students sometimes also thank their programs or teachers as part of the films credits at the end of the film. This is also acceptable. After all, film credit thank you’s are very important in the industry and creating these credits is a good habit to get into. What we want to avoid is tacking on extra program-identifying clips that pull the focus away from the student producers. We understand that such school-identifying logos may be acceptable or even required for some other competitions or presentations, or for legal reasons. For our festival, students are responsible for providing a correct movie file, free from school logos. Neither teachers nor festival organizers will make changes or correct movie files after they have been entered.

3. Use of copyrighted material: Copyright is “the right to control copying”. Published material including songs, videos, graphics, pictures and movies are copyrighted. This article by Mark Levy, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law, says, “If your work is for educational purposes, then use of copyrighted material falls under the “Fair Use” provision, which allows reasonable use of copyrighted work, without permission, for research, criticism, or education. A notice at the beginning or end of your production giving credit to copyright owners for their work is usually sufficient at educational festivals like this one. Be aware, however, that not citing sources, or attempting to pass off copyrighted material as your own work, is not considered ‘fair use’. It is plagiarism and can result in harsh penalties.” Any submission containing plagiarized content will not be accepted, so credit your sources on your entry form and in your film's credits! This applies to ALL CATEGORIES (not just Music Videos or Art Films). You do not necessarily need to give credit within the video itself but it MUST be included on your entry form.

4. ​Students who record their own original soundtracks will receive extra consideration from the judges.

5. There is no time limit on the film length except for the commercial and PSA/Anti-Ad categories. However, judges are only required to watch the first three minutes of a film. Further viewing is up to the judges' discretion. Because of time constraints at the festival screening, long winning entries may be only partially shown.

6. Each entry can be submitted to only one category.

7. All videos must have school appropriate content. This is an educational event. The intended audience is students and their families. Teachers and students from some recent festivals have raised concerns about the level of violence, and particularly the violent use of guns, in some of the student productions. Entries with questionable language, violence, or other content like people engaging in illegal or dangerous activities, must include a justification for this on the entry application. If the jury does not agree, the film will not be judged. If the judges do agree, the production might be awarded, as has happened in the past, but it may not be shown at the event.

For additional information you may contact your video teacher.