The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards contest rewards outstanding filmmakers in four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, Student.

The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards supports creators in order to protect the image rights of all artists.
 

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards

CONTEST

COMPETITION RULES

Definitions:

“Competition” The four categories, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, Student, that comprise the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards contest as set out in clause 1, 2 and 3 below, incorporating

"Competition Rules" The rules of the Competition as set out in this document

“Entry” Each video submitted into the Competition as set out in clause 2 below

“Entrant” Each individual entering the Competition

“Event Partners” Companies that serve as Partners to the Promoter for the Competition; for the avoidance of doubt Event Partners include but is not limited to Sony Corporation,

"Judges" A panel of judges appointed by the Promoter.

"Prize" The prizes awarded for the overall winning Entry, Finalist and Shortlist Entries, details of which can be found at www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com

"Terms and Conditions" The terms governing the access to and use of www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com, accessible at www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com

In these Competition Rules:

(a) the singular includes the plural and vice versa and the use of any gender includes the other genders; and

(b) any phrase introduced by the terms “including” or “in particular”, or any similar expression, shall be construed as illustrative and not limiting of any preceding words.
 

1.1 By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions. Any capitalised terms that are not defined in these Competition Rules shall have the same meaning as given in the Terms and Conditions. These Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions shall together be the "Official Rules".

1.2.1 The Competition is free to enter.

1.2.2 The Competition is open to all members of the public except:

1. employees of Promoter or its holding or subsidiary companies; or
2. employees of agents or suppliers of Promoter or its holding or subsidiary companies, who are professionally connected with the competition or its administration.

1.2.3 The Student category is only open to Students attending an institution that has a formalised film course/credit/module which is taught at higher education level (diploma/degree). Student filmmakers must still be registered as a student at the time they enter the competition to be considered. 

1.3 Any Entry must be submitted by 07:00 AM (CT) December 12, 2024.

1.4 By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that the Promoter is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information will be used by the Promoter in accordance with its Privacy Policy. See also clause 3.2 with regard to the announcement of winners.

1.5 The promoter of the Competition is Creo Arts Group Limited of 9 Manchester Square, London, W1U 3PL, United Kingdom (the "Promoter").

2. To enter, you must fill in the URL of your Entry, upload the accompanying image via the Promoter website at www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com (the "Website") and follow the on-screen instructions.

2.1 Entry must be produced from January 1 2023 to December 12 2024.

2.1.1. Submissions must be created in the format of a short film, for example feature-length films edited into shorts cannot be entered. 

2.1.1.1. Works submitted to previous editions of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards are not eligible however, if a previously submitted work has been significantly edited then it can be entered.

2.1.1.2. Works-in-progress are not eligible for submission; all entries must be finished works i.e. have gone through the whole post-production process including picture lock, online editing and audio mixing.   

2.2. All Entrants must be able to supply a high-resolution Entry with resolution of 1080 pixels ProRes HQ MOV and a minimum of 24 frames per second.

2.3 Entrants must meet all requirements specified per category in the entry requirements and category description requirements. 

2.3.1 Each Entry in the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories must be between 5 and 20 minutes in duration and can be shot on any device.

2.3.1.1. Each Entry in the Animation category must be between 2 and 20 minutes in length and be at least 75% animated.

2.3.2 Each Entry in the Student category must be between 5 and 20 minutes in duration and can be shot on any device.

2.4 Entries should be hosted on an online screener, for example YouTube or Vimeo, and the URL link should remain active until July 2025. Submissions entered as files / downloads will be disqualified. Accompanying Images should be no smaller than 1MB and no larger than 5MB. The supporting image submission should be a JPEG file. Any Entry that contains significant non-English dialogue must include on-screen English subtitles at the time of submission.

3.1 The Competition will run from 07:00 AM (CT) on July 11 2024 (the "Opening Date") to 07:00 AM (CT) on December 12 2024 (the "Closing Date") inclusive. All Entries must be submitted by no later than 07:00 AM (CT) on the Closing Date. All Entries received after the Closing Date will be automatically disqualified.

3.2 A shortlist of up to ten (10) Entrants for Fiction and Non-Fiction categories and a shortlist of up to five (5) entrants for Animation and Student categories. A winner will be selected by the Judges and announced on the Website and during the Awards night. The Promoter will publish the surname and country of winners and their winning Entries. If You object to any or all of Your surname, country and winning Entry being published or made available You must contact the Promoter.

3.2.1 ALL Entrants understand that all shortlisted and winning Entrants, once notified in accordance with clause 3.2 and 3.3, will be required to submit a 30 second trailer of their Entry. The Trailer will be used during the Award Ceremony and for the promotion of You and the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards and You agree that the trailer will comply to the Official Rules and in particular clauses 4 and 7.

3.2.2. Each shortlisted filmmaker will be required to submit their short film with on-screen English subtitles regardless of the film’s original language plus a clean version.

3.3 The winners will be voted for by the Judges and will be revealed during the Awards night. The shortlist will be notified by email prior to the Awards ceremony.

3.4 The decision of the Judges and the Promoter is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.

3.5 Each Entrant can submit across more than one category.

4.1 The Promoter reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by Entrants (“Entry”), as follows:

4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of each Entry.

4.1.2 You have the right to make Your Entry available to the Competition.

4.1.2.1. To enter any of the four categories you must hold the ownership rights and/or have the permission of the rights holder to the film you are submitting. The Promoter reserves the right to demand appropriate proof of these rights and to reject the submission upon failure to provide it. The workshop program at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California is created for directors and cinematographers. 

4.1.3 Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content.

4.1.4 Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law.

4.1.5 Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, including:

4.1.5.1 trademarks owned by third parties.

4.1.5.2 copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions).

4.1.5.3 Entries that contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of the Promoter.

4.1.7 No animals were harmed or manipulated in the making of the Entry.

4.1.8 Each Entry complies by the terms and conditions of any 3rd party platform used in hosting the Entry as set out in clause 2.

4.1.9 All Entries must originate from and be directed by an accredited person in the crew.

4.1.9.1 Each Entry may incorporate the use of various experimental and digital processes across different stages of the film’s production.  

4.1.9.2 If AI assisted in creating any elements of the film this must be clearly stated in the entry process and include exact details and timestamps.

4.2 You agree to fully indemnify the Promoter and/or its Event Partners in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.

4.3 You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

4.4 In accordance with clause 3.2 and 3.3 all shortlisted and winning Entrants will be contacted by email to ratify the Entry and arrange for the awarding of the Prizes as soon as reasonably practicable after the Announcement Date, using the contact details provided with the Entry. If the Promoter does not hear from the Entrant by the date specified in any correspondence and is therefore not able to ratify the Entry, that Entrant will be disqualified and replaced by another Entrant.

4.5 You acknowledge that the Promoter reserves all rights to disqualify You if Your conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the Competition or otherwise not in accordance with these Competition Rules.

5.1 If you are under 18, you have Your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to participate in the Competition.

5.2 If the Promoter does not receive a valid signed parental or legal guardian consent form for any winner under the age of 18 within 7 clear days of the Entrant being declared a winner (excluding the day on which such declaration is made by the Promoter) the Promoter will be entitled to select an alternative winner from among the Entrants.

6. The Promoter may run an online rating process whereby members of the public may vote for a favourite Entry. If there is sufficient evidence (in the Promoter’s sole discretion) to suggest malpractice and manipulation of the rating process by an Entrant, then the Promoter has the right to remove the relevant Entry and, if necessary, award the Prize to a different Entrant. The Promoter’s decisions are final.

7.1 The Promoter recognises the author of each Entry retains full ownership of the copyright in such Entry.

7.2 All Entrants understand that any Entry submitted to the competition may be used by the Promoter, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of You the Entrant and the Competition only, for a maximum of three years after the Announcement Date. Entrant grants the Promoter and its Event Partners a non-exclusive, irrevocable, sub-licensable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of You the author and the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards Contest event and/or competition, including, but not limited to:

(a) judging the Competition

(b) displaying the trailer of the winning Entry and runners up at public screenings promoting You the author and the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards Contest

b(i) if an opportunity arises to display the winning Entry and runners up at public screenings promoting You the author and the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards Contest, the Promoter will ask for You the author’s permission

(c) inclusion within the Website, or similar

(d) inclusion within any materials in any media promoting the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by the Promoter and/or its Event Partners, in the promotion of the Promoter and/or its Event Partners

(e) sub-licensing the Entry to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any screening

(f) allowing viewers of the Website and/or Event Partners websites to view Entries on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.

(g) displaying the winning Entry at the Award Ceremony

7.3 All Entrants understand that the Entrant’s information, including Entry name and description, may be shared with Event Partners and media as per clause 7.1, 7.2 and 8.

8. Any Entry used by the Promoter or its Event Partners shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as the Promoter or its Event Partners uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.

9. The Promoter assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and the Promoter assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failures of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The Promoter assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entry. The Promoter is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to the Promoter on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, the Promoter assumes no responsibility.

10. Each Entrant releases and holds harmless the Promoter, the Event Partners, and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, shareholders, employees and agents (the “Released Parties”) from any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the Prize won except where it is caused by the negligence of the Released Parties. Each Entrant agrees to indemnify and hold the Released Parties harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) and liabilities (including settlements), brought or asserted by any third party against any of the Released Parties due to or arising out of your Entry or your conduct in creating an Entry, including but not limited to: claims for trademark infringement; copyright infringement; violation of an individual’s right of publicity or right of privacy; or defamation.

11. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.

12. The workshop program will be conducted in English with no translation available.

12.1 There are no cash alternatives available for Prize winners.

12.1.1. Valid Visas to the US are needed to attend the ceremony and workshop program. It is the responsibility of the Entrant to acquire their own visa. The Promoter is not responsible for the Entrant’s visa application.

12.1.1.2. Includes flights and accommodation for the shortlisted filmmaker. Should the filmmaker have worked with a cinematographer / director on the selected film, and that individual be credited accordingly, they may also attend the four-day program, but their associated costs (including flight and accommodation) must be covered at their own expense.

12.1.2.1. Each shortlisted filmmaker must attend all elements of the on-site program. If the filmmaker does not take part due to reasons within their control, then they may be disqualified.

12.1.3.1. If the shortlisted filmmaker is unable to attend the on-site program for reasons out of their control, i.e. unable to obtain a visa, then the shortlisted filmmaker is invited to attend the following year only.

12.2 Prize winners may receive camera equipment as part of their Prize and in such cases equipment may be sent to them. In some countries income tax may be applicable to prizes. It is the winner’s responsibility to pay any income taxes related to the Prize in compliance with their own country’s law. In such cases the winner agrees to indemnify and keep the Promoter, its parents, affiliates or partners indemnified against any tax liability, charges, fines, penalties or interest or any other liability incurred by the winner which liability arose as a result of Prizes provided to the winner.

13.1 If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these Official Rules, the Promoter may, at its sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude You from participating in the Competition.

13.2 The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel, or amend the Competition where it becomes necessary to do so.

13.3 These Competition Rules shall be governed by English law, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.