Submissions are open until end of day on March 5, 2017. (Sorry for the relatively short notice!)
Categories
There are five categories for the COAF 2017 contest:
- Upbeat / Dance Music: We’re looking for fast-paced fun.
- Intensity: Action, suspense, wild digital effects, conflict, triumph, drama, and despair!
- Instrumental Music: Any style of AMV, but no words in the music.
- Random Amusement: Weird. Funny? Surprising!
- Trailers: Now playing at an AMV contest near you… (Fake commercials also fit in here.)
Content Restrictions
We try to run a clean show. All videos submitted must be PG-13 or below. This means we want NONE of the following: panty shots, exposure or fondling of ‘private parts,’ gross or gory dismemberment, profanity (swear words,) or themes likely to insult or disparage by race, social class, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality – because that’s NO FUN for anybody.
Also, you can make your own subtitles, but you should remove subtitles from your source material. You must also remove any broadcast logos and any other commercial logos (such as DiVX) from your video. (One exception to this rule is if the AMV is a parody of incompetent video editing…)
What counts as anime?
Anime is animation created first in Japan by Japanese artists and studios, including Japanese games. All entries must have at least 90% anime by frame count. Compositing anime onto other stuff makes it count as anime.
Submitting and Video Formats
Submit the form (linked below) with a link to your video.
Videos must be downloadable as standalone video files (e.g. not YouTube) and accessible without a paid account. We recommend download pages from or AMV fansites such as Anime Music Videos .Org, AKROSS, AMV News, etc. where possible. We can also download from SendSpace and similar free services. (We're happy to make alternate arrangements as well if need be.)
Link us to the best quality you can provide because we run our contest in 1080p and we want to show off your hard work as best we can. The minimum acceptable video size is 480 vertical lines because anything less would look terrible. And it’s 2017, so there’s no such thing as a maximum file size. (Just maybe don't send a HuffYUV file.)
Videos should be playable without additional codecs or configuration in VLC or MPV. These support a vast array of codecs and containers, so it shouldn’t be a limiting factor. But if your video can’t be played in either of those players, we would need to convert it to be shown in the contest regardless, and the quality will be better if you export a supported format than if we transcode your ideal format into something that we can easily play.
- Preferred containers: MKV, AVI, MPG, and MP4.
- Preferred video codecs: H.264 and MPEG-4.
- Preferred audio codecs: AAC, MP3, and AC-3.
Deadlines
Submissions must be sent in by 11:59 PM Mountain Standard Time (UTC -7) on March 5, 2017.
A panel of judges will convene to review all entries and select up to six AMVs per category. The judges’ decisions on the playlist is final.
All entries must have premiered or been created no earlier than January 1, 2016.
Prizes
Every winning video will receive a cash prize. (Who doesn't like cash?)
- The winner of each category will receive $50.
- The winner of the Judges’ Choice award will receive $50.
- The winner of the Best In Show award will receive $100.
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!