* ESPAÑOL *
ECOFILM es un Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes ambientales, que se realiza anualmente en México. Responde a la necesidad de sensibilizar a la sociedad sobre la problemática ambiental, promoviendo la producción audiovisual y la cultura ecológica con soluciones que equilibren al ser humano en interacción con su medio ambiente.

* ENGLISH *
ECOFILM is an International Environmental Short Film Festival, held annually in Mexico. It responds to the need to raise awareness on environmental topics, promoting audiovisual production and ecological culture with solutions that balance human beings in interaction with their environment.

1. NATIONAL COMPETITION

Exclusively for Mexican citizens, whether by birth or naturalized. The following awards will be given out:

● Best Short Film of the ECOFILM Festival 2019 $1,000,000.00 MXN (one million Mexican pesos and 00/100) * The winner of this award may not be chosen in any additional categories.

● Best Fiction Short film $100,000.00 MXN (one hundred thousand Mexican pesos and 00/100)
● Best Animated Short film $100,000.00 MXN (one hundred thousand Mexican pesos and 00/100)
● Best Documentary Short
$100,000.00 MXN (one hundred thousand Mexican pesos and 00/100)
● Best Cineminute Short film
$100,000.00 MXN (one hundred thousand Mexican pesos and 00/100)
● Best Universitary Short film
One camera

Scholarship for an intensive course at the Vancouver Film School (VFS), with the following conditions:
a) The scholarship covers 100% of the cost of the VFS’s Digital Design program.
b) The program is scheduled to start in January 2020
c) The contestant must have an English certification: TOEFL (80 iBT points or 550 PBT points), IELTS (Band 6.5) or a Duolingo online test (61 points or above).
d) ECOFILM Festival and VFS will not cover the travel costs or room and board of the winner; these costs must be covered by the winning contestant.
e) It is the responsibility of the winner to have a valid passport and entry visa for the country in question.
f) Once the contestant has been awarded to the scholarship, VFS will directly provide them further information on the program.

2. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Exclusively for foreigners, whether residents of Mexico or living abroad. A cash prize of $2,000.00 USD (two thousand U.S. dollars and 00/100) will be given to the Best
International Short Film.

* ESPAÑOL *
Visita www.ecofilmfestival.org

* ENGLISH *
Visit www.ecofilmfestival.org/en

Mexican citizens, foreigners with residency in Mexico and foreigners living abroad may participate provided that they are of legal age. Both individual and collective works may be submitted.

Short films submitted by individuals or legal entities that have participated or are currently participating in the organization and development of the 2018 or 2019 ECOFILM Festival (production of campaign materials, publicity, sponsorship and production) will not be accepted and/or will be disqualified, as will short films that do not meet the technical specifications contained in this call for submissions.

Only Mexican citizens, whether by birth or naturalization, can participate in the NATIONAL COMPETITION. The INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION is for foreigners, without regard to their country of residence.

The four categories accepted for submissions are:
Animation, Fiction, Documentary, Cineminuto

III CATEGORIES ANIMATION, FICTION and DOCUMENTARY

For the NATIONAL COMPETITION: Short films must have been made after March 26, 2019 and have a minimum length of one minute and a maximum length of 15 minutes, including credits.

For the INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION: Shorts films must have been made in 2018 and/or 2019 and have a minimum length of one minute and a maximum length of 15 minutes, including credits.

CINEMINUTE For the NATIONAL COMPETITION: Short films submitted in this category must be made after March 26, 2019 and must not have been screened, spotted or otherwise made available in any form of mass, electronic, digital or alternative media. The total length of works in this category must be exactly 60 seconds.

For the INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION: Short films submitted in this category must have been made in 2018 and/or 2019 and must not have been screened, spotted or otherwise made available in any form of mass, electronic, digital or alternative media. The total length of works in this category must be exactly 60 seconds.

IV SUBMISSIONS

The cost of submitting short films for the NATIONAL COMPETITION will be $150.00 MXN (one hundred and fifty Mexican pesos and 00/100) per short film and, for the INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, will have a cost of $10.00 USD (ten U.S. dollars and 00/100) per short film.

Participants must register their short films through the web platform filmfreeway.com. Registration constitutes the acceptance of the terms and conditions contained herein. For all legal purposes, it will be understood that all audiovisual works submitted to this competition must meet all of its requirements, and so the individual or legal entity submitting them, from the moment of their submission, holds harmless the organizing committee, the convening individuals or institutions, partners, directors, employees, agents or commissioners from all legal responsibilities that may arise from the claims of third parties regarding said works or their contents, and it will be the sole and exclusive responsibility of the contestant to respond to any legal actions against them, as well as any economic consequences that may arise therefrom.

ECOFILM Festival reserves the right to disqualify any works that do not meet the requirements contained in this call for submissions or the technical specifications contained in this document, published on the websites https://www.ecofilmfestival.org and filmfreeway.com, as well as the works in the category competitions (Subsection III.1) and in the Cineminute competition (Subsection III.2) or that fail to meet the minimum audio and video quality standards (low-resolution images, overexposed footage, saturated or inaudible audio, etc.), or if it can be proved that any of the information that was provided at the time of submission is false or inexact.

V SUBMISSION DEADLINES AND FORMATS

The submission of short films will begin as of March 26, 2019 and will end at 23:59 (CST) on June 27, 2019. Short films must be submitted through filmfreeway.com Each contestant must create a username, fill out the registration form and upload their audiovisual work to the aforementioned platform.

Submissions must be sent to FilmFreeway in one of the two following formats, on the understanding that, if accepted, the material must be sent in accordance with the guidelines contained in Subsection VIII.3 Upload Compression: H264 Format: Any high-quality video format Size: 10 GB maximum Audio: Stereo Link with password FilmFreeway accepts videos sent via a YouTube or Vimeo link.

If this option is used, the short film must be set to “private” on either of the platforms and a password must be shared with the festival’s staff and jury so they can access the video. Any submission that does not meet the specified characteristics will be disqualified. Without any exception, submissions whose original language is not Spanish must be sent subtitled in either Spanish or English. The submission of a short film does not imply the transference of its copyright to FilmFreeway.

VI COPYRIGHT

Each participant may submit up to three audiovisual works (individually or as part of a team), filling out a form for each work submitted, regardless of category. For the purposes of this call for submissions, the individual who submits the audiovisual work to the competition will be considered to be its Producer and, therefore, is assumed to be the rightsholder for each audiovisual work submitted to the competition.

The above is without prejudice to the rights that may correspond to the other authors of the audiovisual work, in accordance with the terms of Articles 68 and 96 to 99 of the Federal Copyright Law (the Law). The Producer must duly prove that they have obtained the copyright of the audiovisual work from its other authors (Direction, Script, Adaptation, Story, Cinematography, Music, Animation), as well as from its actors or voice actors, through the corresponding contracts, on the understanding that, if this does not occur, the audiovisual work will be automatically disqualified.

These contracts must comply with the rules contained in the Law and must be capable of being submitted to the Public Registry of the National Institute of Copyright (INDAUTOR). All audiovisual works that are submitted to the competition must be original and unreleased. Their content must not incorporate parts or fragments of literary, musical and/or artistic works whose rights are held by third parties, unless the corresponding prior, express and written permission has been granted, nor may they employ phrases, statements or signs that attack third parties or that insult the prestige, reputation or beliefs of others. If these requirements are not met, the Organizing Committee and/or Jury will automatically disqualify the work in question. Nor may any commercial trademarks for products or services appear on screen, whether widely known or not. For all legal purposes, the individual submitting an audiovisual work to the competition described in the present call for submissions, by the act of submission, expressly authorizes the Organizing Committee to use the audiovisual work submitted in public screenings, transmissions via television and electronic media and/or digital media, including pages, portals, websites or applications accessible online, as part of the event known as the ECOFILM Festival and/or in coordination with its sponsors and partners.

This use of the audiovisual work does not imply an obligation to pay any amount of money to the individuals who appeared and/or participated in the creation of said audiovisual work; the contestant, representing all those who appeared and/or participated in said work, grants the Organizing Committee, the convening individuals or institutions and/or those responsible for organizing the ECOFILM Festival the broadest leeway possible under law with regards to the particulars, not reserving any freedom of action or rights on this point. The Producers of each audiovisual work, as the rightsholders of each and every one of the works that may be selected as winners, must sign the contract to license the use and exploitation rights for said works to Hombre Naturaleza A.C., which will be provided to them by the Organizing Committee. Failure to sign this contract will result in the disqualification of the work in question and the revocation of any awards and/or prizes received. Any situations not foreseen in this call for submissions will be resolved at the sole discretion of the Organizing Committee and their decisions cannot be appealed.

VII PRESELECTION

All materials submitted will be evaluated in two stages: Preselection, which will be conducted by a Committee made up of environmental, film and public policy specialists, as well as academics, filmmakers and film industry professionals. The audiovisual works selected will advance to a second stage as part of the ECOFILM Festival 2019 Official Selection and Competition. The Official Jury will be made up of figures from the industries of film, advertising, journalism and the environment. This Jury will analyze the works submitted to the competition, considering the clarity of their messages; their relevance in terms of educating and/or raising the consciousness of their audience; and their creativity, originality, content and importance.

The Jury’s decisions cannot be appealed.

VIII ECOFILM FESTIVAL 2019 OFFICIAL SELECTION AND COMPETITION

Contestants whose audiovisual works have been selected to form part of the ECOFILM Festival 2019 Official Selection and Competition will be notified via the email address they provide on the registration form. Selected works will also be announced on the festival’s official websites. Furthermore, contestants whose audiovisual works form part of the ECOFILM Festival 2019 Official Selection and Competition must send the file for screenings in different sites during the festival’s week of activities through a download link to the email address: cortos@ecofilmfestival.org

The file must meet the following requirements: Format: QuickTime H264 HQ (.mov) Dimensions: 1920 x 1080 Audio: Stereo PCM SHORT FILMS IN mp4 FORMAT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED Once the contestants has been notified that their submitted short film will form part of the 2019 Official Selection, if they have still not registered their audiovisual work with INDAUTOR as a “Cinematographic Work,” they must immediately complete this registration process in order to continue as part of the Competition.

For further information, visit the following website: www.indautor.gob.mx/tramites-y-requisitos/registro/obra_cine.html The decisions of the Official Jury will not be appealed. The winners will be revealed during the Awards Ceremony, whose date and location will be announced on the website https://www.ecofilmfestival.org/ and the festival’s other official websites.

Contestants whose audiovisual works form part of the ECOFILM Festival 2019 Official Selection and Competition, in any of the festival’s categories, will be immediately contacted via the email address they provide on the registration form. In the event that the winning producer does not send the documentation required for the award corresponding to the category in question (Certification of Registration with INDAUTOR, an official photo ID, Taxpayer Identification Number and current address of the rightsholder) within a period of 90 (ninety) business days following this notification, the award will be declared to be unclaimed and they will lose any future possibility of claiming it.

IX AWARDS AND PRIZES NATIONAL COMPETITION Exclusively for Mexican citizens, whether by birth or naturalized.

OTHER AWARDS Other awards not mentioned in this call for submissions may be announced at a later date via the website https://www.ecofilmfestival.org/ and the festival’s other official websites.

X PUBLIC SCREENINGS The selected short films for the ninth edition of the ECOFILM Festival will be screened in public spaces, movie theaters and forums, on television and via electronic media. The rightsholders accept that their short films, or extracts from them, will be exhibited for their dissemination in non-commercial events as part of the activities organized by the ECOFILM Festival and its sponsors or partners.

The screening locations will be announced via https://www.ecofilmfestival.org/ and other official websites.

XI PERSONAL INFORMATION In compliance with the Federal Law on the Protection of Personal Information in the Possession of Third Parties, “THE LAW”, ECOFILM Festival states that the personal information it obtains as a result of this call for submissions, any services rendered or any other contractual relationship that may arise between the parties, will be handled confidentially, in accordance with the aforementioned law, and will only be used for the purposes stated in this call for submissions.

ECOFILM Festival may not use, share, transmit to third parties or publish the personal information of contestants without requesting and receiving prior written authorization from the contestants in question; this request which must explain the ends for which this information will be used and be signed by the third party that will receive the information, which must also comply with the provisions of the aforementioned law. For the effects of the above, ECOFILM Festival has made its Privacy Notice available for all contestants at https://www.ecofilmfestival.org/aviso-de-privacidad/, which spells out the terms of its use of personal information.

For further information about this
Call for Submissions may be requested by writing to the following email adress:
hola@ecofilmfestival.org
Or by calling: + (52) 55 5662-0553 and + (52) 55 5662-6227
Or visit our website: www.ecofilmfestival.org

Mexico City,
March 26, 2019

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Luis Saldaña

    Excelent festival. They were so nice and responsable with the contenders. We are very thankful.

    June 2020
  • Jorge Sancheza

    We won "Best international film". They lost communication with us and we never received any price: not the award neither the promised cash.

    We send several emails to the organization but finally they decided to not answer us.

    Great organization but did'nt keep what they promise.

    Love over all: wish them the best for the planet health.

    June 2020
  • They are the best! Everything and everyone were perfect hosts... Closing ceremony in Soumaya museum was so yummy and nice. They are showing all proyects around the country, i want to thank them!

    February 2020
  • Miguel Villa

    El festival EcoFilm se ha ganado un lugar en la exhibición de trabajos fílmicos en México, sin duda la experiencia valió la pena. Fue una gran ceremonia de entrega de premios y estuvimos muy contentos de ser seleccionados por nuestro cineminuto. Repetiríamos la experiencia.

    January 2020
  • Ernesto Anaya

    Fue un gran festival, me sorprendió por la calidad de los trabajos y la seriedad de este, las proyecciones fueron en grandes cedes y con gran calidad, y la premiación un gran lugar de encuentro con los realizadores, además de un buen ambiente.

    November 2019