Cinema Touching Disability

Rules for Submission

ANNUAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

This is a competition for the best short film about, starring, or made by a person who has a disability. There are two separate divisions, one for documentary and another for non-documentary disability films. The best three films from each division are featured at a live screening in a movie theater at the festival.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM DIVISION
Submissions to the documentary film division must be between 3 and 20 minutes long and be about disability, a person with a disability, or made by a person who has a disability. Every submission to this division must meet the following criteria:
1. the film Must be received by 12:00am Sunday, July 31, 2022.
2. The film must have open captions.
3. The Film must either be about, star, or be made by a person who has a disability.
4. The film must not be either demeaning or discriminatory about disability or people who have disabilities.
5. The film must not have been previously submitted to the Cinema Touching Disability short Film competition.

NON-DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM DIVISION
Submissions to the non-documentary film division must be between 3 and 20 minutes long. They can be a historic drama, narrative, comedy, music video, or animation short film. They must be about disability, a person with a disability, or be made by a person who has a disability.

All submissions to this category must meet the following criteria:
1. the film Must be received by 12:00am Sunday, July 31, 2022.
2. The film must have open captions.
3. The Film must either be about, star, or be made by a person who has a disability.
4. The film must not be either demeaning or discriminatory about disability or people who have disabilities.
5. The film must not have been previously submitted to the Cinema Touching Disability short film competition.

OPEN CAPTIONS

Your film must have open captions to enter the Cinema Touching Disability short film competition. We require open captions because they make films accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OPEN CAPTIONS AND SUBTITLES

Open Captions are different than subtitles in some important ways. Subtitles are a transcript of what the characters in a movie say while open captions provide both this transcript and a description of important background noises. Open Captions do this to provide accessibility for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Open captions need to meet several requirements. They must be in a font that is easy to read. Lucida Grande, Arial and Helvetica Neue, and APHONT are recommended fonts because they are very legible. Open captions must also describe important background noises. This can include things such as the sound of a door opening or a conversation in the background. A noise should be described in open captions if it is important to the film.

There also must be a strong contrast between the color of the font and the color of the background. White text on a black background is usually used while some people prefer to use yellow for the color of the font with a black background. The text must also scroll at a pace that can be easily read.
Guidelines for open captions can be found on the website of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) https://www.nad.org/resources/technology/captioning-for-access/what-is-captioning/.