1. The Dam Short Film Festival welcomes short films with any content and in any style, whether it be live-action, documentary, or animation. Entries must have a total runtime of 40 minutes or less. The year of production does not matter and there is no premiere requirement.
2. The festival has eight award categories, all based on audience votes: Best Drama, Best Comedy, Best Documentary, Best Animation, Best Sci-Fi / Horror, Best Music Video, Best Nevada Filmmaker, and Best Student. In addition, there is one Audience Favorite award, also chosen by the audience. The Leslie Paige Award for Excellence in Filmmaking will be awarded by the festival board of directors; in addition to a special award statue, the Leslie includes a $1000 cash award. Audience votes are tallied by the festival board of directors and all decisions are final.
3. The Student category is open to students only. The submitted film must have been created while the film's director or directors were enrolled at a school, college, or university.
4. The Nevada Filmmaker category is open to any short that was created while the director or directors were residents of Nevada, or any short in which production primarily took place in Nevada.
5. All film must be submitted through FilmFreeway - there are no exceptions. Links to films or other external submissions will not be excepted. Selected films must provide one of the following formats for exhibition: DCP (Digital Cinema Package) or a .mov (Quicktime) with sufficient quality to convert to a DCP. Selected films must provide an exhibition copy by January 26, 2021. Electronic/online delivery of exhibition copies is preferred. Physical copies of exhibition copies mailed on thumb drives or disk drives will be returned after the festival. Failure to submit an exhibition copy by January 26, 2021 will disqualify selected films from all award considerations. Once a film is selected, it cannot be withdrawn from the festival.
6. Non-English language films must be subtitled with subtitles in English or contain minimal dialog.
7. Selected films will be notified by email on January 1, 2021.
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8. A press kit is not required for submission. Upon selection, filmmakers are highly encouraged to provide a high-quality digital stills, and poster from the film if they are not already available via FilmFreeway.
9. The festival programmers do not share festival selection committee comments or ratings with the public or submitting filmmakers. In fairness to all filmmakers, fee waiver requests will be declined.
10. The festival programmers may program selected films in any category or programming block deemed appropriate; after announcement, the festival schedule cannot be changed.
11. All submission fees must be in U.S. funds. Films submitted without the correct payment will be disqualified.
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