Zenkaikon 2023 AMV Contest with Winners!

[CDLang84]

Hey guys its that time of year again! I'm proud to announce the Zenkaikon AMV Contest is up and running and accepting submissions! Sorry its a little later than I planned but if you plan on submitting an entry please follow the rules below!

Click this link to sign up!https://zenkaikon.com/events/amv-contest/

See our rules and submission guidelines below.

The deadline to submit your videos is March 3rd @ 11:59pm EST.
You may submit up to three (3) videos, to three (3) separate categories.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any attempt to submit work belonging to anyone other than yourself will result in a permanent blacklisting from future Zenkaikon AMV contests.

For quality and downloading purposes, entries should be submitted in .mp4 format (no quicktime, wmv, rp please) and with either a 720p or 1080p resolution.

All entries must be a minimum of one (1) minute in length up to a maximum of five minutes thirty seconds (5:30).
Entries must contain at least 75% Japanese animation, with the exception of Free Range Fandom submissions (see below).
New category – FREE RANGE FANDOM

Have you had an idea for a non-anime music video? Maybe a cool Marvel MCU video? Or something Star Wars-related? How about a Rick and Morty video? If you’ve had an idea for a non-Japanese live-action or cartoon video that you’ve not been able to submit to other cons because they only accept anime videos, now’s your time to shine! All contest rules apply to Free Range Fandom videos just as any other category (with the exception of videos containing at least 75% Japanese animation).

Any submission with significant audio/video degradation, watermarks, logos, anime titles, Japanese-produced opening and closing credits, and/or fan-produced (fansub) or licensed subtitles will not be accepted and result in disqualification.

For legal reasons, we cannot accept any submission that contains English audio. Japanese audio is acceptable, however.
Video submissions will be accepted via Google Drive (preferred method) or Dropbox links only. Any other form of submission will result in entry disqualification. Please ensure before submitting your video that your Google Drive or Dropbox link is set to allow anyone to download your video file.

Please have your video file labeled in your Google Drive or Dropbox as:
Real Name_ Username_ category (Example: Colin Langdon_ cdlang84_ Action) 

Please do not insert bumpers, video titles, or credits anywhere into your video. We will be creating Zenkaikon-specific bumpers to introduce each entry for the contest finals.

Our contest is rated PG-13 but the following excessive materials are not allowed: nudity, excessive blood, major dismemberment, overly foul language/lyrics, racial or verbal obscenities, and any form of suicide. Entries with this content will be immediately disqualified. If the content is questionable it will be put in a special screening to see if it’s acceptable for showing to a con audience.
DVD copies of the contest will not be available due to legal concerns.

Zenkaikon reserves the right to reject any video submission for any reason.
Contest rules are subject to change at any time.

Also I'm excited to announce that we are returning to trophy awards. If you didn't get your digital award certificate from last year please send me a pm or email me at colin.langdon@zenkaikon.org and I'll get you sorted out.

[CDLang84]

Okay, there was a lot of hard decisions to make especially for me and my team. You guys really knocked it out of the park this year. But in the end I can only fit so many videos in a 2 hr time slot. There was a lot of really good stuff submitted this year. I had some leeway with time to add more slots for Free Range Fandom and added in 8 slots compared to five. I think you guys would even give last year's finalists a run for their money. Without further ado here are the list of the finals!

Action

Pack a Punch- Nashironeko
Dancing with Blades- Speedy 180 with Neko Kitkat
Unlimited Sin- Takeshi
Our Last Stand in Babylon- Krystal Kitty
Hail the Furious Dead- Silkamv

Drama

All My Demons- The DestineeAMV
Aus Der Traum- Gina Nelson
Playing House- Seasaltmemories
Love is Not a Victory March- Doppler Do
All the Talented Are Heathens- Krystal Kitty

Romance

Flying Freely- Seasaltmemories
Aggressive Years- Tyken
Love Persevering- Rider4Z
Autumn- Pierced Sky
A Goldfish Wouldn't Love You Twice- Doppler Do

Upbeat

POELtergiest- James Blonde
Liberated Woman- TritioAFB
Bocchi the Video Star- F- Zero TV
Psychic is the New Electric- Violet Skies
Food Porn- Speedy 180

Comedy

Super Loid Bros.- SpuddStaaa
A Thousand Bops- Zeonic Freak
Real Men on Ice!- Silvercoat
The Retired Yakuza- Nuke
Wings Out- Gestalt

Free Range

Family Tree- PerkyPastry
Final Final Final Fantasy Adventure- Silvercoat
Legopunk Brickrunners- Silkamv
Unstoppable- RIder4Z
The Ballad of Boba Fett- Zeonic Freak
Purrgatory- Violet Skies
Pray- SliceofLIfe
Prodigal- Tyken

Best in Show

Prodigal- Tyken

Coordinator's Choice

Our Last Stand in Babylon- Krystal Kitty

I'll be contacting the winners that were not there at the show to confirm your addresses so I can start sending out the awards! Well deserved wins!

[Zeonic Freak]

Dropped in 3 videos

[SilkAMV]

For legal reasons, we cannot accept any submission that contains English audio.

Can you clarify this? What do you mean by English Audio? Technically that would disqualify most music used in AMVs since they have English language lyrics.

And it doesn't seem like you want the video titles in the filenames? Only the editor names and categories?

[SpuddStaaa]

For legal reasons, we cannot accept any submission that contains English audio.

Can you clarify this? What do you mean by English Audio? Technically that would disqualify most music used in AMVs since they have English language lyrics.

And it doesn't seem like you want the video titles in the filenames? Only the editor names and categories?

I actually checked with them and they said the English audio was specifically for dubbed anime. English audio from songs should be safe.

[BladEra123]

Sent one for action. Let me know if additional information is required. Thank you!

[CDLang84]

For legal reasons, we cannot accept any submission that contains English audio.

Can you clarify this? What do you mean by English Audio? Technically that would disqualify most music used in AMVs since they have English language lyrics.

And it doesn't seem like you want the video titles in the filenames? Only the editor names and categories?

Its audio from dubbed anime series. Japanese audio would probably be okay. Ive seen plenty of submissions at other contests. Audio from movie trailers are okay too. Trailers are okay as long as you use parody logos and nothing mentioning the FCC. I'll probably put a more detailed list next time since that's from the old rules list. But as for the file names yes its mainly to help me keep a more organized system I can tell who is who a lot easier. If you put the title of your vid in the file name as long as its like this (example: Realname/Username/ AMV Title/ category) I'll take that as well. As long as the rest of the info is on the forms you're good. I think after the contest I'll make a post about what things you would like to see clarified more on the rules since they probably need to be updated anyway.

[CDLang84]

Sent one for action. Let me know if additional information is required. Thank you!

Thanks for submitting!

[CDLang84]

Dropped in 3 videos

Thanks for submitting!

[SilkAMV]

But as for the file names yes its mainly to help me keep a more organized system I can tell who is who a lot easier. If you put the title of your vid in the file name as long as its like this (example: Realname/Username/ AMV Title/ category) I'll take that as well

Ah, I wasn't sure so I put the AMV title first in the filename when I submitted. I hope that's okay. All the other info is there.