Animation/Film Showcase Rules

Overview

Advanced Media Entertainment Society is pleased to offer the opportunity for high school students in comprehensive or skill center programs to compete against each other in our Film and Animation competitions. Scholarships may, pending funding, be offered to top ranked team(s).

Dates

Defined dates being used for rules are: 

Starting Date: 3/10/2025, 7pm

Final Team Selection Date / Projects Due: 5/8/2025, 7pm

Showcase Date: 5/31/2025

Requirements

Students wishing to participate in this contest must meet the following conditions:

  • Students must be current High School students who have taken (or are currently taking) at least one Film, Animation, or CTE Visual Arts Course (or locally authorized equivalent). Students who have taken a related Skills Center or other 540-hour program may NOT participate in the Comprehensive (90-180 hour) contest. Students who have taken multiple years of a Comprehensive program above 540 hours MAY compete at Comprehensive level if they have not also taken a Skills Center or other 540-hour program.
  • Students may work in teams of up to five students who meet the above standards.
  • Students must have an Instructor/Advisor who has registered to participate in the Showcase.

Application Materials

Applicants must submit all of the following items to their instructors before the local due date, which must be no later than Final Team Selection Date:

1.   A project for review by the Film & Animation Advisory Committee as detailed below.

2.   Endorsement from the program instructor that indicates that, in the teacher’s best good-faith judgment, the student produced the project by themselves with no direct assistance from the instructor or outside assistance (reference books, websites, videos, etc. ARE acceptable) and that the work was performed during the 2 months of the competition. All competitors entered into the competition by their instructor are assumed to meet this criterion.

Showcase Project

Applicants must submit a film they have personally produced without direct assistance by their instructors or others.  All work is to be completed between the Starting Date and Showcase Date.  Because this is a competitive event, the expectations for this project are also very high: the project should be well designed, entertaining, and complete.  In all respects this project is expected to reflect the high professional standards of the industry.

For the project, applicants are required to provide the following:

  1. Final film project
  2. Any source files used (raw footage, editor files, etc)
    • Source files should NOT be submitted to contest, but instructor should have them available if requested.
  3. An itch.io page for the project, submitted to the Showcase “game jam” site.
    1. Page should include, at a minimum:
      • Video (link or stream)
      • Credits as needed
    2. It is recommended that teams create, at a minimum, a placeholder page submitted to the jam as early as possible. 

Each project will be evaluated according to the judging criteria rubric (separate document)

Method of Submission

Film should be downloadable OR viewable online via the project’s itch.io page no later than Final Team Selection Date. Embedded video linking to youtube/vimeo/etc is fine as long as the embed is easily accessible to judges. Source files should also be turned in to team’s Advisor. Incomplete submissions will not be evaluated.

Presentation

The winners of the local contests will be determined at the local level no later than Final Team Selection Date. Advisory Panel (“Judges”) will screen videos prior to the Showcase Event. During Event, Judges will provide feedback and/or Q&A with individual teams before “locking in” their final scores. Once Judges have finalized their results, competition winners will be announced. Prize announcements may be delayed as much as one week.

Advisory Panel will make the final decisions on the contest winners (and resultant scholarships, if available, including the right not to award any scholarships if no qualifying films are shown).

For More Information

If you have further questions about the Animation/Film Showcase, please contact Jim Flatmo at jflatmo@gmail.com

(rules addendum 1 deliberately skipped to keep numbering consistency between rules packages)

Rules Addendum II: Non-Team Asset Work Contrubution

If other students who are not directly on the team want to contribute an asset, but do not want to contribute on the team itself..

  • Out of team assets from students are allowed as long as the total non-direct team member additions to the project are less than 10% of the total project itself. This includes all aspects of the game, and everyone who has worked on it must be credited, along with their contribution. 
  • Contributions to team in the form of Acting, Voice Acting, and/or playing an instrument do NOT count against “Team Size” requirements, providing that their contributions are limited to the above listed duties. Note that writing/direction/composing/etc are all considered “out of scope” for this rule (for instance, a Team Member writing a song and having a non-team member sing it is OK, a non team member singing an original and/or copyrighted song is not – they either count as part of the 10% above or are counted as a Team Member due to the writing performed)