Calling all California filmmakers, artists, and storytellers! Over the past year, our small screens have been our lifeline, keeping us connected, informed, and entertained, more than ever before. Now we invite you to join KQED’s second Annual Homemade Film Festival and do more than just watch! Roll up your sleeves, go make something and get ready to show the world you’re the next iPhone Fellini and you’ll be eligible to win cash prizes!

Submit your homemade short film to the KQED Homemade Film Festival now! The winning films will culminate in a week-long online broadcast held on KQED’s Main YouTube channel and website.

Create something meaningful, whether it's funny, profound, challenging, or just downright strange. We are seeking authenticity and modern folktales of “the now,” raw, unpolished, honest, and real. So step up and get to work! The stories of our lives and times are now streaming. This year we have three cash prizes. One grand prize winner will receive a cash award of $1000! An Audience Award (determined by views on your video upload on our YT Channel) will receive a $500 cash award and our youth submission winner will receive a $250 cash prize. It will be possible for one film to win the audience award, the youth award and the grand prize award if the winner is under 18. Sorry to the older than 18 folks - but you can’t receive the $250 youth submission.

GUIDELINES:
Only residents of California are eligible to submit.
All submissions must have been made during the last year. Entries produced before March 2020 will be disqualified.
All films must be made at home, making use of the recording equipment, props, people, and sets that comprise your immediate surroundings. Animation and computer-generated films are fine as well.
Films must be under 10 minutes in length.
Films do not need to adhere to a theme but should reflect the idea and aesthetic of “homemade”, whatever that means to you.
Films must not contain music, footage, photographs, lyrics, trademarks, or material of any kind that has a copyright that is owned by anyone other than the filmmaker who is submitting the film. (aka no third-party material). In other words, all material in the film must be original.
Landscape-oriented films are preferred but we will accept vertical-oriented submissions.

Through all of this, we hope to build an even stronger, more connected community. Don’t miss your moment.

In the words of the wise Ms. Frizzle, “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

Preferred Tech Specs:

For the Novice:
1920x1080
H.264 Export
Stereo sound

For the Pro:
Shoot at 4K / 30fps on the phone if possible (for best quality)
Edit at 4K if possible
Deliver at 1080P/ 30fps/ h.264 w. target bitrate above 10Mbits (16 is ideal)
Audio: Stereo, 48K, audio quality=”high” at 320 kbit/sec.

Festival and Awards:
The KQED Homemade Film Festival will be a virtual week-long festival with a new film released every day for a week. Finalist films will be selected for the KQED release and the grand prize winner will receive $1000, the Audience Award winner $500, and the Youth Submission winner, $250.

We will be judging submissions based on creativity and entertainment value. We are not looking for the most polished, expensively produced, or painstakingly edited film. Rather, we encourage you to use what limited resources may be readily available to you now to create something meaningful to you and your community.

OFFICIAL RULES | KQED Homemade Film Festival
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN
Contest Runs Thursday, March 11th - Friday, April 30th, 2021. Festival runs starting daily week of June 7th, 2021
1. Description, Contest Entry Period, and Sponsor: The KQED Homemade Film Festival (“the Contest" or “Festival”) begins at 5.00 pm Pacific Time ("PT") on Thursday, March 11th, 2021, ending at 11.59 pm PT on Friday, April 30th, 2021 ("Contest Period"). The sponsor of the Contest is KQED Inc. (KQED), located at 2601 Mariposa St, San Francisco, California, 94110. The Contest is void wherever prohibited or restricted by law. The Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. By entering, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of KQED, which are final and binding in all respects. The grand prize winner will be awarded $1000. Additional categories for cash prize-winnings includes and an audience award for $500 and a $250 award for Youth Submissions (Ages 13-18)
2. Eligibility: The Contest is open only to natural persons who are legal residents of California, who have Internet access, and who are 13 years of age or above (“Entrants”). Employees, producers and directors of KQED, their respective affiliated and subsidiary organizations, advertising and promotional agencies and the immediate family members (spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, ward, daughter or son) or members of the households of such employees or directors or family members (whether or not related) are not eligible to enter or win the cash prize. Limit for entries is up to two entries per person.
3. How to Enter: To enter the Festival, entrants must submit their short made-at-home film to our KQED Homemade Film Festival FilmFreeway Page, and agree to the outlined submission requirements. Entrants must verify that all rights are cleared and all rights of use are granted to KQED before submitting their films (see Rules 5 and 6). KQED will choose the winning entry on the grounds of creativity, entertainment value, originality and compliance with all entry instructions. The winner will be contacted via the contact information provided in the contestant's FilmFreeway submission. A number of films will be selected from eligible for release on KQEDs online platforms from June 7th- June 11th, 2021.
Instructions: Short films up to 10 minutes in length will be accepted. The films must be made at home and submitted to KQED via our KQED Homemade Film Festival page on FilmFreeway.com to the correct category. Submission via FilmFreeway should include a downloadable link to your film, a film description, film title, and credit list are required upon submission. Submissions that fail to provide a downloadable link will be contacted directly, however, failure to provide the film’s file within 24 hours will result in disqualification. Submissions must be submitted through FilmFreeway at the following link: https://filmfreeway.com/KQEDHomemadeFilmFestival
In order to submit your entry you will need to agree to FilmFreeway.com’s terms of service. Preferred Technical requirements are 1920 x 1080 & stereo sound. Vertical Iphone videos are fine.
4. Judging: At the end of the Contest Period KQED will select one grand prize winner, one audience award winner and one youth submission winner. (“Winner”). The determination of the Winners will be at the sole discretion of KQED. Judges will consider each film based on the following criteria: (a) creativity, originality and entertainment value (50%); and (b) compliance with all entry instructions (50%). The determination of the KQED Presents staff shall be final and binding.
5. Submission Requirements: Entries, (each a “Submission”) must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity. If an Entry contains any material or elements that are not owned by the Entrant, and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, the Entrant must have obtained, prior to submitting it, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the use and exhibition of the Submission including, without limitation, name and likeness permissions from any person who appears in or is identifiable in the Entry. KQED may request proof of these permissions from you at any time. Failure to provide such proof may, if requested, render Entry null and void. Entries must be free of profanity, references to sex, violence, drugs and/or inappropriate language. Entries must be in good taste and suitable for viewing by persons of all ages. Entries cannot contain any offensive, obscene, inappropriate or sexually suggestive material, propaganda, potentially misleading information, or defamatory or disparaging material about KQED or its programs or activities, other people or companies, or endorse any form of hate or hate group or terrorist activity or discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, national origin, disability, handicap, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Entries cannot directly promote or speak negatively about any particular faith, political action, legislation or party, or promote or encourage the violation of any law, as determined by KQED at its sole discretion. Entries must not contain anything else that is not in keeping with the image of KQED or that is not in compliance with these Official Rules. Please note that KQED has the right, but not the obligation, to review and monitor entries.
6. License: By entering the Contest, each entrant grants an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to KQED to reproduce, adapt, distribute, and display the Submission (including any design components) in any media (current plans include the selection of the top 5 films to be released via KQED’s YouTube and PBS Media Manager App). Additionally, excerpts from the Submission, including stills, may be distributed in any KQED-related promotional materials in any media. Such licenses will be exclusive to KQED until June 30, 2022, after which KQED’s license will continue on a non-exclusive basis.
KQED will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use. KQED may use the name and likeness of all entrants, including the Winner, for advertising, fundraising, promotional or publicity purposes without further compensation.

7. Agreements: By submitting an Entry to KQED, you hereby:
· agree to be bound by these Official Rules including all eligibility requirements;
· agree that the conditions of submission set forth in these Official Rules, and all documents and agreements incorporated in these Official Rules by reference, solely govern the relationship between Entrants and KQED in connection with this Contest;
· waive any privacy expectations that you may have with respect to any such entry submitted by you to KQED.
· agree to hold KQED and its affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees sponsors and assigns harmless from and against, and hereby waive any right to pursue, any claims of any nature arising in connection with the inclusion in, publication via or display on any KQED site, or any other use authorized under these Official Rules, of any Entry submitted to KQED by you;
· warrant that you are at least 18 years of age
· agree not to knowingly damage or cause interruption of the Contest and/or prevent others from utilizing the Contest.
The Entrant acknowledges that by entering the Contest, the Entrant agrees a) that no form of cheating will be tolerated, and b) that the Entrant and the Submission meet all Official Rules. Any person found cheating or otherwise violating the Official Rules, as determined in the sole discretion of KQED, will be immediately disqualified from the Contest. By participating in the Contest, an Entrant agrees to be bound by these Official Rules, and by all decisions of KQED as the contest sponsor.
8. General Liability Release: KQED assumes no responsibility for illegible, lost, delayed, misdirected or incomplete entries, system errors and failures, faulty transmissions, or other telecommunications malfunctions. KQED reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend part or all of this Contest if, in KQED’s opinion, there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering with any portion of the Contest, or if virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention or other causes corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or integrity and proper play of the Contest. In such circumstances, the Contest may be cancelled by KQED. In such an event, KQED may void any Entries that cause such a disruption and award prizes from among all eligible Entries received up to the date of cancellation. KQED reserves the right to cancel the Contest for any reason it deems appropriate. KQED reserves the right to disqualify any Entry for any reason, in its sole and absolute discretion.
9. Anticipated Number of Contestants: KQED cannot accurately predict the number of Entrants who will participate in the Contest.
10. Prize: The Grand Prize winning entry will be awarded a prize of $1000, the audience award winner, $500 and the youth submission winner, $250. The audience award winner will be determined by view count on our YouTube Uploads. The film with the most views by 11:59pm PST on 6/18/21will be deemed the Audience Award Winner. It will be possible for the Audience Award winner to also be the Youth Prize Winner and the Grand Prize Winner however the Youth Prize Winning is only eligible to entrants under 18. Winnings will be awarded within 30 days of KQED’s receipt of all documentation required from the winner, including an invoice and W2 for winnings claim.
11. Prize Conditions: Any and all taxes and other costs, fees, and expenses not specifically stated within these Official Rules as being awarded are the sole responsibility of the prize recipient. Prize may not be transferred or substituted. Specifics of the prize are at KQED's sole discretion.
12. Prize Notification: The grand and youth prize winners of the Contest will be notified on or before Friday, June 11th, 2021 via the contact information provided by them during the submission process. The Audience Award Winner will be notified no later than June 18th, 2021 The selected short films to run throughout the festival period will be published starting June 7th through June 11th, with the prize winner announced publicly on June 11th. The winner will be required to complete and return Affidavits of Eligibility/ Liability Release and Publicity. If the Winner is under 18 years of age, the Winner’s parent or legal guardian must sign all required paperwork. A failure to do so will result in disqualification. All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the Winner – however, if the winning entrant does not respond to KQED within 48 hours, the prize will be awarded to the second-favorite Entrant. In addition, the winner may be announced in multiple places including but not limited to on www.KQED.org, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.
13. Publicity Release: Except where otherwise prohibited, entry into the Contest and acceptance of the Prize constitutes permission for KQED and its promotional agents to use the Winner’s name, likeness, and prize information in any and all media for any purpose including for commercial, advertising and promotional purposes without additional notice, compensation or consent.
14. RELEASE AND INDEMNITY: By participating in this Contest, Entrant agrees to release, discharge and hold harmless KQED and its related organizations, their agents and employees from and against all claims, liability for any injury, including but not limited to personal injury, bodily injury (including without limitation wrongful death or disability), property damage, or loss or damage of any kind arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from delivery, non-delivery, acceptance, participation or use of a prize or from participation in this Contest, or any contest-related activity, whether or not such injury, loss or damage arises in whole or in part from the negligence of KQED, its affiliates, subsidiaries and agencies and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents and any and all Internet servers and access providers from any and all liability with respect to the prize won and participation in the Contest. KQED reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate, suspend or otherwise cancel the Contest at any time. Income and all other taxes are the responsibility of the prize recipient. KQED is not responsible for any expenses incurred in connection with participation in the Contest.
The Contest is not administered, sponsored, endorsed by or associated with Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
14. Governing Law: This Contest and these Official Rules are governed, construed and interpreted under the laws of the State of California and any or all claims related to this Contest and these Official Rules shall be brought in the courts of the State of California. Any provision of these rules deemed unenforceable will be enforced to the extent permissible, and the remainder of these rules will remain in effect.
15. Winner: KQED will post the Winner’s name on Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, and Instagram.com, and KQED.org. To obtain the name of the Winner, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to KQED Presents Attn: Aine Henderson at 2601 Mariposa St. San Francisco CA 94110 on or before June 30, 2021.