Now in its 61st year, the CINE Golden Eagle Awards honor originality and storytelling excellence in media across genres and platforms.

Our evaluation system is built on transparency and accountability. Every submission is judged by members of the media industry whose professional credentials are available to view, along with their feedback, at the conclusion of the process.

Our jury of notable filmmakers, producers and former CINE Golden Eagle Award recipients will select up to five CINE Golden Eagle Finalists in each category, and one CINE Golden Eagle Award recipient. Jurors may also elect to give a special commendation for Outstanding First Feature, so please note feature debuts on your entry form.

Jury winners from our CINE Select Festivals — events that share our core values based on standards of excellence, festival history, jury award system, industry influence and audience demographics — receive complimentary entry into the CINE Golden Eagle Awards. CINE Select Festivals include the 100 Words Film Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival, DC Shorts Film Festival, Heartland Film, HollyShorts Film Festival, Milwaukee Film, Newport Beach Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival and Tallgrass Film Festival, with more festivals to be announced.

CINE Golden Eagle recipients will receive a beautiful trophy, and Finalists will be presented with certificates.

The CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Independent & Emerging Media consider independently-produced short and feature films, episodic content, and virtual reality productions.

To be eligible for the CINE Golden Eagle Awards, a production must meet the following criteria:
—Film must be submitted to, have screened or be scheduled to screen at a U.S. film —festival after January 2017
—Film may not have a commercial digital, theatrical or broadcast distribution deal at the time of entry (unless automatically nominated by a CINE Select Festival). Productions may be self-distributed.
—Film may not have been originally commissioned by a professional entity (client or distributor
—Film was not produced in a school or educational program
—Film must have been completed after June 30, 2016

61st CINE GOLDEN EAGLE AWARDS FOR INDEPENDENT & EMERGING MEDIA
RULES AND TERMS OF AGREEMENT

Please read this agreement carefully before you submit your production. By submitting your entry, you expressly acknowledge and agree that you shall be bound by the terms of this agreement.

GUIDELINES FOR ALL ENTRIES.

Productions must have been completed after June 30, 2016. All non-English language films must have English subtitles. A separate entry application and entry fee must be submitted for each entry.

ENTRY FORM AND PREVIEW MATERIALS FOR ALL FILMS.

All films must be submitted and paid for through cine.org or a partner platform such as FilmFreeway. Illegible or incomplete entry forms will not be accepted. Entry forms that do not include full payment of entry fees at the final deadline will not be accepted or reviewed. Preview copies must be included with the submitted entry form. Submissions may not be withdrawn once they have been entered, except at the sole discretion of CINE. There are no refunds for entries with incomplete entry forms, or incorrectly formatted preview materials.

ONLINE SCREENERS.

CINE only reviews online screeners. We accept online materials through Vimeo.com (preferred), YouTube or a streaming service that does not require a paid subscription. CINE cannot watch entries uploaded to any other platforms. Private links must be accompanied by a valid password. To ensure that material can be reviewed through the entire judging process, links must be active through June 19, 2018. CINE, its directors, employees, and volunteer reviewers and jurors are not responsible for broken, expired or incorrectly submitted URLs or passwords.

FINAL ENTRY AND MATERIAL DEADLINES.

All entry forms must be completed and submitted with online links included no later than 11:59 PM EST on March 30, 2018.

REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS.

All entries are screened by CINE in consideration for an award. Submissions will be watched by CINE reviewers, a volunteer group of CINE award-winning alumni, professional media makers and critics. CINE reviewers and jurors are contractually bound to keep all screening materials and judgments private.

Productions will be evaluated using the criteria outlined. Productions will receive a score and a written review; all entrants may review these comments at the conclusion of the review process by logging into their CINE account. CINE staff monitors the review process for quality control and may remove any reviewer scores or comments deemed unprofessional or inappropriate.

Top scoring productions are sent to CINE jurors for a second stage of evaluation. CINE jurors — recruited from a pool of distinguished CINE alumni, past presidents and board members, and media professionals — score these productions using the same criteria and evaluation form, and select, at their discretion, up to five CINE GOLDEN EAGLE FINALISTS, and one CINE GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD WINNER.

CINE reserves the right not to name finalists or give a CINE Golden Eagle Award in a category at the discretion of CINE reviewers, jurors or staff.

NOTIFICATION OF FINALISTS AND AWARD WINNERS.

CINE will publish the complete list of official finalists and winners for each category on cine.org by June 22, 2018.

COMMUNICATIONS.

CINE will send notification for each submission to the attention of the contact listed on the entry form. Please make sure all contact information — mailing address, email address and phone number — is accurate. Change of contact information can be sent to info@cine.org. CINE is not liable for emails delayed by spam filters, server rejections or outdated addresses. CINE staff can be reached by email at info@cine.org, or by mail at CINE, 1003 K Street NW, Suite 208, Washington, DC 20001 USA. The office phone number is +1-507-400-2463.

TROPHIES AND CERTIFICATES.

Beginning with the 58th annual CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Professional Media, CINE presents one complimentary Golden Eagle Award trophy to each CINE Golden Eagle Award winner, and one complimentary certificate to each CINE Golden Eagle Finalist.  CINE awards will be inscribed and shipped at the request of the recipient. Additional CINE Golden Eagle Award trophies and certificates may be purchased, and CINE Finalists may also purchase plaques. Prizes are subjected to change, and any updates will be posted online at www.cine.org.

PUBLICITY AND MARKETING.

All selected entries may be excerpted for publicity purposes; entrants will be given the opportunity to submit a preferred excerpt. CINE reserves the right to promote any entry to print, broadcast or internet media as required to market the CINE Golden Eagle Awards or CINE. No production will ever be screened, shared or distributed in its entirety without the permission of the entrant. CINE may use your name, approved likeness, biography and other information regarding your submission for the purposes of marketing, advertising and promoting the Golden Eagle Awards and CINE’s mission of promoting quality media.

THEATRICAL SCREENINGS.

CINE will package certain CINE Golden Eagle Finalists and CINE Golden Eagle Award recipients for showcases at partner festivals and film schools. Participation is not guaranteed, and CINE will contact filmmakers before finalizing each showcase for non-exclusive screening permission. All ticket sales are property of CINE and/or accredited partner festivals.

INTERNET BROADCAST.

CINE will promote CINE Golden Eagle Award recipients through the CINE Films portion of www.cine.org. Any production that is made available by the production team on a free website that does not require a subscription or password (Vimeo, YouTube, etc.) will be embedded on its listing on CINE Films. Productions that are available on subscription sites (Netflix, Hulu+) will be linked from their listings on CINE Films. Productions that are password-protected will not be shared publicly.

COPYRIGHT AND CLEARANCES.

The individual or corporation (entrant) submitting an entry to CINE and the CINE Golden Eagle Awards hereby warrants that they are authorized to submit the media project for consideration. Please ensure if you are submitting an entry that contains copyrighted material by anyone other than yourself or your collaborators, if a joint work, that you have obtained proper clearances and/or licenses for that material used. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless CINE, its organizers, judges, sponsors, and partners, individually and collectively, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees, and court costs) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to submitted material. The burden of determining that any material is not protected by copyright, trademark, rights of privacy, publicity or any other proprietary rights rests solely with the entrant. The entrant shall bear the sole liability for any damages resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm which is alleged as a result of such a submission.

CONTROLLING LAW, VENUE AND SEVERABILITY.

This License shall be governed by the laws of the United States and the District of Columbia without consideration of conflicts of laws provisions and principles. All claims between the parties, regardless of legal theory and whenever brought, shall be resolved in the state or federal courts of the District of Columbia, USA, and you stipulate that you expressly submit to the personal jurisdiction of such state and federal courts, and you further agree that any judgment may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision, or portion thereof, of this Agreement to be unenforceable, the remainder of this License shall continue in full force and effect.

COMPLETE AGREEMENT.

This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the use of productions and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous understandings regarding such subject matter. No amendment to or modification of this License will be binding unless in writing and signed by an authorized representative of CINE. Nothing in this Agreement constitutes a waiver of CINE’s rights under the United States of America patent and copyright laws or any other Federal or State law, nor of any of CINE’s rights under the rules or laws of any country, territory, republic, and/or province.

CINE reserves the right to remove an entry from consideration for any reason or for no reason and shall not be liable for any refund or claims of any kind arising out of such removal.

CINE may, at our discretion, transfer a portion of your submitted work to a compilation DVD, tape or online video file for promotional purposes. This will be done if the production contact has not provided promotional material by an agreed-upon deadline.

By submitting to the CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Independent & Emerging Media, you agree to the general rules and terms and conditions. You agree that failure to adhere to any of the general rules or terms and conditions may result in disqualification for which no refund for entry fee(s) is due.