The 2008 Machinima Festival Rules and Regulation

The Academy encourages entries from any independent filmmaker or company (all eligibility requirements must be met).

Submission Criteria
Submitting a Machinima work to the 2008 Machinima Festival certifies that:

• That the information provided in the entry form is complete and correct.
• The entrant will indemnify and hold harmless The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences, its judges, sponsors and partners, individually and collectively, from and against all claims, demands, losses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses including legal expenses arising out of or in connection with any and all claims, or third party claims based on material submitted to The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences.
• The entrant owns the production they are submitting or are authorized in writing by the owner to submit this entry.
• By submitting their entry form, have understood and agrees to all the 2008 Machinima Festival Rules and Regulations

Official Selections
In order to recognize Machinima films of all types, the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences may select certain entries outside award nominees to represent a specific program/genre, honoring these selected films with a “Official Selection” seal. These films will be selected by a review board, and will be included in the screening program at the 2008 Machinima Festival.

Eligibility
All entries must have been developed in a real-time virtual 3D environment or real-time 3D game engine. Entries must not have been submitted to the Machinima Festival before.

Machinima Criteria
AMAS will only accept entries to the festival that meet criteria set forth by the Board of Directors. This criterion is defined as “Any body of visual storytelling that is made within a real-time virtual 3D environment“. While we feel this definition is fair and all encompassing, it should be stated that the definition may change at any time as defined by a ruling vote of AMAS board members.

Representation
Entries must be the sole work and/or justly represented by the entrant; collaborative pieces must include credits for additional contributors. Entries that fail in this requirement will be disqualified.

Clearance of Submitted Works
The entrant agrees that he/she has obtained all rights to display and/or distribute submitted works. AMAS reserves the right to disqualify any submissions that do not comply with this rule. In addition, AMAS cannot be held liable in the event the rights have not been obtained and places sole liability on the entrant in securing these rights.

Entrant Rights
The entrant submitting works to the festival retain all rights to their work, save the rights for the festival to use the work for promotional purposes as stated in section marked “Authorizations” of the entry form.

Final Submission Guidelines

Format. Upon a Machinima receiving an award nomination and/or is selected for screening, the entrant will be required to submit a high-quality version of the work. This format should comply to broadcast NTSC resolution of 720 x 480 in a digital format (AVI/MOV with DV codec or MPEG2).

Deadline. All entries and submission materials must be received by the Academy by 11:59pm EST, Sept. 19, 2008.

Materials. Each selected entry must include the following items:

- A completed entry form.

- A high-quality broadcast version of the final work to be uploaded to the Academy’s FTP site.

- A synopsis of the work (not to exceed 250 words).

- Two (2) screenshots of the entry in JPG format at 640×480 minimum resolution.

Disclosures. AMAS reserves the right to disclose and distribute the names of all entrants for public viewing.

Judging

The Academy will distribute entries for review. The voting panelists will have approximately 30 days to review the materials and vote. Winners will be announced at the 2008 Machinima Festival on Saturday, November 1st, 2008.

A panel review board (”PRB”) made up of various industry professionals (game, media, film) will determine the winners for each of the 2008 Machinima Award categories.

Each PRB member will review each submission for each category. Scoring for selection of the winners is based on: creativity (40%); technical skill (30%); and execution (30%). Judges’ decisions are final and binding. In the event of a tie, the entries involved will be re-judged by the panel to determine one final winner.

Winners will be announced at the awards presentation ceremony to be held on November 1st, 2008, New York, NY. One award will be provided to the key individual honored at approximately two months after the awards ceremony, at the latest. Additional statuettes can be purchased by winners through the AMAS if deemed appropriate.

© 2008 The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. All Rights Reserved. AMAS™ and the AMAS logo is the exclusive trademark of The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.