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The Fifth American Good Film Festival

About

In the summer of 2023, Esperanto-USA hosted its fifth short film festival with cash prizes for the 1st–10th place winners and added honorable mentions for an additional ten films which each received $100. Films were accepted in any genre, but they had to be entirely in Esperanto, less than five minutes long, and feature at least ten unique spoken words and the required prop, which this time was a lantern.

Alex Miller announced this would be his fifth and final time hosting the competition as he was finishing up his term as vice president of the organization that summer. Because the festival had happened twice a year in 2021 and 2022 and Alex was unavailable to host the competition twice, the board of directors decided to spend the same total amount on prizes but concentrate it into a single competition. This doubled the cash prizes and led to twice the amount of submissions compared to the previous average.

Judges

  • Stela BESENYEI-MERGER
  • Richard DELAMORE
  • Gary GRADY
  • Carrie JONES
  • Derek ROFF

Prizes

  • First place – $1200
  • Second place – $800
  • Third place – $600
  • Fourth through tenth place – $200 each
  • Audience Choice Award – $200
  • Honorable Mentions – $100 each

Results

50 new Esperanto short films were created for this contest and sent in from countries all over the world. Here are the winners:

Unua premio ($1200): Forkapto

Dua premio ($800): Ni Ludu Plu

Tria premio ($600): Eta Kato

Kvara premio ($200): En Truo Unu Metron Profunda

Kvina premio ($200): Sub La Pontoj

Sesa premio ($200): La Ŝaltilo

Sepa premio ($200): Leciono pri Bilardo

Oka premio ($200): Bona Ideo (en 1973)

Naŭa premio ($200): Ĉerizaj Mufenoj

Deka premio ($200): Vespermanĝo

Elekto de la Spektantaro ($200): Honesta Homo

Honorable Mentions:

Honora Mencio ($100): Eskapu Baldaŭ

Honora Mencio ($100): Esperanta Verkisto

Honora Mencio ($100): Fazeoloj

Honora Mencio ($100): La Teleskopo

Honora Mencio ($100): Lanterneto Kaj La Arboj

Honora Mencio ($100): Mi Serĉas

Honora Mencio ($100): Ĉiutagaj Metodoj Por Savi La Mondon

Honora Mencio ($100): Malica Ĝojo

Honora Mencio ($100): Misio Glaciaĵa

Honora Mencio ($100): Blua Horizonto

And here is the complete playlist with all submissions.

Rules

  1. HOW TO ENTER: Each entrant should send an email with the subject heading “ESP105 – Name of Director” (for example, “ESP105 – John Smith”) to esperantokonkurso@gmail.com. Put this information in the body of the email:
    The Film’s Title / La Titolo de la Filmo:
    The Director’s Name / La Nomo de la Reĝisoro:
    Their phone number / Ties telefonnumero:
    Their email address / Ties retadreson:
    Their Venmo or PayPal address / Ties adreso por Venmo aŭ PayPal: 
    Attach the script and all necessary talent release forms to that email. That email will serve as your official entry for this contest.
  2. HOW TO SEND YOUR FILM: Films must be submitted electronically to the above address via Google Drive, Dropbox, or WeTransfer as an *.MP4 or *.MOV file.
  3. FILM TITLE AND FILE NAME: The film should be labeled as follows: ESP105_TitleOfFilm.MP4 (so a film titled La Ĉapelo and exported as an *.MOV file should be labeled ESP105_La_Ĉapelo.MOV). The film’s title must be in Esperanto (Lydia, for example, is not allowed, but Lidia, which only uses Esperanto letters, is permitted).
  4. DEADLINE: The deadline to submit your film is 11:59pm EST on Friday, August 25th, 2023. Any films submitted after that time can still be shown but are ineligible to win any prizes.
  5. FILM RESOLUTION: The film needs to be in high definition with a resolution of at least 1280 x 720 pixels (though 1920 x 1080 or 3840 x 2160 is preferred).
  6. FRAME RATE: Please use an NTSC frame rate of 23.98, 24, or 30 frames per second.
  7. CAMERA ORIENTATION: All films must be shot horizontally instead of vertically.
  8. FILM LENGTH: The film’s total length (including credits) must not exceed five minutes.
  9. NEVER BEFORE SEEN: To remain eligible, the film cannot be available for online viewing before the judges have announced the winners. Do not upload the film to YouTube until after that announcement.
  10. SUBTITLES: Your film must NOT contain any subtitles on screen. These films are meant to be listening practice. You can (but don’t have to) send subtitles to us in SRT or SBV files in multiple languages which we can upload separately. That would be very helpful.
  11. SUBMIT YOUR SCRIPT: Attach the script as a PDF with all the dialogue of the film so the judges can understand what is being said in case the audio is unclear. (The submitted script should be labeled ESP105_TitleOfFilm_Script.pdf).
  12. CREDITS: While the title and dialogue must be in Esperanto, the credits can be in any language.
  13. THE REQUIRED DIALOGUE: All dialogue must be in grammatically correct Esperanto and at least 10 audible Esperanto words must be used in the film. Proper nouns or repeating an Esperanto word do not count toward the necessary amount. A person who only speaks Esperanto should be able to understand the entire film.
  14. TALENT RELEASE: A signed talent release form is required for each person who appears (or whose voice is used) in the film. For minors, a parent or legal guardian needs to sign on their behalf. Unidentifiable people such as in a crowd or a passing car do not require a form. Please label them “ESP104_TitleOfFilm_TalentRelease1.pdf” for the first actor and “…TalentRelease2.pdf” for the second actor and so on. Download the release form. If the filmmaker is the only person in the film, this form is not necessary.
  15. THE REQUIRED PROP: A paper (not electronic) book must be clearly visible somewhere in the film. No one has to mention it; it simply must be visible.
  16. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: No copyrighted materials may be seen or heard in the film unless the filmmaker provides documentation of all necessary written permission to use that material. Material from the Creative Commons is permitted but all necessary attributions must be listed in the credits. Incidental use of a trademark for its intended purpose (such as a visible Nike logo on a character’s clothing or Toyota logo on a car) is permitted as long as the portrayal of that product is not negative or misleading, whereas wearing a full Spiderman costume or playing a song by The Beatles would not be permitted without written permission. See: The Do’s and Dont’s of TM Use and Product Placement in Productions.
  17. PUBLIC DOMAIN MATERIAL: Material that has entered the public domain in the United States is permitted. That means the material needs to have been published before the year 1927. For example, you could perform a scene from Zamenhof’s translation of Hamlet (Hamleto, published in 1894) or The Government Inspector (La Revizoro, published in 1907).
  18. ESPERANTO GRAMMAR REFERENCES: The reference guides for what is acceptable grammatically will be PMEG 2020, PIV 2020, and the 2010 edition of the English-Esperanto Dictionary by John C. Wells. Unofficial words like ri and ria are permitted, but not a word or structure listed as “evitinda” with asterisk marks in PMEG 2020 (such as far or graŭ) unless a character is directly commenting on how it is an unusual or improper expression. Use the Duolingo Esperanto Learners group on Facebook to find grammatical advice from experts.
  19. HOW FILMS ARE JUDGED: The 5 judges will individually choose their 10 favorite films and the films with the most points from those lists will be the winners. The films will be judged before subtitles are added so make sure your film is easy to understand without needing to read the script or dialogue. The judges will decide how many points to remove if a rule is forgotten but we encourage you to send your film in even if you forget a few things.
  20. JUDGES CANNOT WIN: No board member of Esperanto-USA or current contest judge or any of their immediate family members may be eligible to win a prize, though they can still submit a film for fun and are allowed to assist other filmmakers with information such as providing pronunciation guidance or advice on how to light a particular scene.
  21. INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT: Films containing sexually explicit, excessively violent, offensive, or vulgar content may be removed from consideration at the sole discretion of the judges and not shown on Esperanto-USA’s channels. You can send an email to the above address to check if a given word or scenario would be unwelcome.
  22. ANIMATED FILMS: You are welcome to use figurines or puppets or animation instead of actors on screen. People may appear in or work on multiple films, but a separate director is needed for each entry and that director alone shall be awarded the prize if their film wins.
  23. AGREE TO LET US SHOW YOUR FILM: By submitting a film, you agree that it may be uploaded onto Esperanto-USA’s various platforms such as their YouTube and Vimeo pages and that you possess all necessary rights to allow us to do that. Excerpts from the films may also be used as part of promotional materials for Esperanto-USA and their future film contests. You retain ownership of your film and may post it elsewhere after the judges have announced their final decisions.
  24. TAXES FOR WINNERS: Winners receiving cash prizes are solely responsible for payment of all applicable local, state, and federal taxes. Any necessary online transfer fees will be deducted from the total prize amount.
  25. JUDGES’ ANNOUNCEMENT: Winners will be announced in October of 2023 on the Esperanto-USA website and the judges’ decision will be final. Esperanto-USA will send payment to each winner within 30 days of that announcement using their preferred payment address listed in their entry email.
  26. EVERYONE CAN ENTER: People from all countries are welcome to participate and are eligible to win. All prizes will be in US dollars and the official rules and announcements will be in English per the bylaws of Esperanto-USA.

Resources

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