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The Sixth American Good Film Festival

About The Festival

Klaku ĉi tie por legi ĉi tion en Esperanto!

Esperanto-USA is pleased to announce the return of its short film competition, now underway. We are delighted to welcome Catie NEILSON as the new host of the festival and deeply appreciate the financial support of the Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF), which has generously offered to match donations to Esperanto-USA. We also extend our sincere gratitude to Brandon Dyer, whose significant contribution has made it possible to host the festival once again in 2024 on behalf of his project, www.ana.so.

The American Good Film Festival encourages people to create films in the constructed language Esperanto, which was designed in 1887 to be the easiest language in the world to learn. Five judges chosen by the host will evaluate each submitted film and give out cash prizes to the top ten that they choose. Esperanto-USA will also give an audience choice award to the film that receives the most likes on YouTube.

Anyone can enter and there is no entry fee. Your film simply has to be less than five minutes long and entirely in Esperanto with at least ten unique spoken words and a visible required prop (to ensure that the film is newly made for this contest). The required prop this time is a bottle.

In previous years, virtually every film submitted was shown on our YouTube channel. To avoid presenting films with poor audio quality or incorrect grammar or pronunciation, our previous host assisted many filmmakers in translating their films and editing their audio levels and showing them which lines to record again to remove mistakes. As the festival has continued growing, offering that level of assistance is no longer feasible. Because of our growth, we are also in a position to be more selective about which films we decide to show. To that end, the judges will now select which films are shown on Esperanto-USA’s channel and those not selected by us are welcome to be submitted by their directors to other film festivals.

This year, films are required to include a separate Esperanto subtitle file as part of their submission. In the past, the host and a few other volunteers individually typed and aligned subtitles for each film after the final deadline. This delayed the films appearing on YouTube as well as the announcing of the winners. This new policy will spread the workload more efficiently and speed up the winners receiving their prizes. For a full list of submission rules and helpful resources, continue reading below.

Prizes

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

Judges

  • Vinĉjo Allison
  • Maĥiac Tyson
  • Dušan Juretić
  • Anthony Bodineau
  • Enrique Haro Márquez

Results

The winners will first be announced on Esperanto-USA’s YouTube channel and later posted here.

The contest is happening now! The deadline to send your film is October 22, 2024.

Rules

  1. HOW TO ENTER: Each entrant should send an email with the subject heading “EPO106 – Name of Director” (for example, “EPO106 – John Smith”) to filmfestivalo@esperanto-usa.org. 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 retadreso:
    Their country / Ties lando:
    Their preferred payment method / Ties preferita pag-metodo (Elektu unu)
    PayPal address / Paypal adreso:
    Venmo address / Venmo adreso:
    Zelle address / Zelle adreso:
    Attach the script, the subtitles file, and all necessary talent release forms to that email. That email will serve as your official entry for this contest. If any of the above are missing, your entry will be considered incomplete and cannot be accepted.
  2. HOW TO SEND YOUR FILM: Films must be submitted electronically to filmfestivalo@esperanto-usa.org via Google Drive, Dropbox, or WeTransfer as an *.MP4 or *.MOV file. If your video file is sent via these methods using a different associated email address than the email address you used to submit your entry, please include the other email address in your entry email, or send a follow-up email with this information. If we cannot associate your entry email to your film due to mismatched email addresses, your entry will not be accepted.
  3. DEADLINE: The deadline to submit your film is 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024. Any films submitted after that time can still be shown but are ineligible to win any prizes.
  4. FILM TITLE AND FILE NAME: The film should be labeled as follows: EPO106_Title_of_Film.MP4 (so a film titled La Ĉapelo and exported as an *.MOV file should be labeled EPO106_La_Ĉapelo.MOV). The film’s title must be in Esperanto so that its correct pronunciation is internationally understood (Lydia, for example, is not allowed, but Lidia, which only uses Esperanto letters, is permitted).
  5. 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.
  6. THE REQUIRED PROP: A bottle (plastic or glass is acceptable) must be clearly visible somewhere in the film. No one has to mention it; it simply must be visible.
  7. CAMERA ORIENTATION: All films must be shot horizontally instead of vertically.
  8. FILM RESOLUTION: The film should be in high definition with a resolution of at least 1280 x 720 pixels (though 1920 x 1080 or 3840 x 2160 is preferred).
  9. FRAME RATE: Please use an NTSC frame rate of 23.98, 24, or 30 frames per second.
  10. FILM LENGTH: The film’s total length (including credits) must not exceed five minutes. There is no minimum length requirement.
  11. SUBTITLES: Your film must NOT contain on-screen subtitles that cannot be removed or deactivated because these films are meant to be listening practice for learning Esperanto. You must send subtitles to us in SRT or SBV files in Esperanto which we will upload separately so that they can be chosen later. Please use standard Esperanto letters when needed (Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĥ, Ĵ, Ŝ, Ŭ, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ) instead of the X-system (Cx, Gx, etc.) in your subtitles. If you do not include an Esperanto subtitle file, your entry will be considered incomplete and will not be accepted. Including additional subtitle files in additional languages (English, Spanish, your native language) is encouraged but not necessary. The Esperanto-USA YouTube channel will have a tutorial video for creating a subtitles file if you need help.
  12. SUBMIT YOUR SCRIPT: Attach the script as a PDF with all the dialogue of the film so the judges can understand the story in case the audio is unclear. (The submitted script should be labeled EPO106_Title_of_Film_Script.pdf).
  13. CREDITS: While the title and all dialogue must be in Esperanto, the credits can be in any language and there is no requirement to include credits. Because some cultures place family names before personal names, Esperanto customarily uses all capital letters for the family name (for example, Mary Tyler MOORE and YANG Huaili). Feel free to incorporate that in your films for added specificity. Note that the words for a film’s Director and Editor are Reĝisoro and Muntisto, respectively, and are not the same words we use for the director of a bank or the editor of a newspaper.
  14. ANIMATED FILMS: You are welcome to use figurines, puppets, or other animation instead of actors on screen and the required prop can be animated.
  15. TALENT RELEASE: A signed talent release form is required for each person who appears (or whose voice is used) in the film. Use the same form for adding any original copyrighted music from a musician. 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 “EPO106_Title_of_Film_TalentRelease1.pdf” for the first actor and “…TalentRelease2.pdf” for the second actor and so on. Download the release form. You can print, sign, and scan the document or complete it electronically for free using a program like LibreOffice Draw.
  16. 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 filmfestivalo@esperanto-usa.org to check if a given word or scenario would be unwelcome.
  17. 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 publicly to YouTube or anywhere else until after that announcement.
  18. 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 and permissions 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.
  19. 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.
  20. PUBLIC DOMAIN MATERIAL: Material that has entered the public domain in the United States is permitted. That means in 2024 the material needs to have been published before the year 1929. For example, you could perform a scene from Zamenhof’s translation of Hamlet (Hamleto, published in 1894) or perform your own original translation of Cole Porter’s 1928 song “Let’s Do It.”
  21. 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.
  22. 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. Proper nouns and 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. You can use the “(Duolingo and Other) Esperanto Learners” group on Facebook to find grammatical advice from experts but when in doubt, only use a word or expression that appears in at least one of those first three resources listed above.
  23. HOW FILMS ARE JUDGED: The five judges will individually choose their favorite films and those films will receive points. For example, the favorite film will receive 10 points, the second favorite will receive 9 points, and so on until their 10th favorite receives one point. The films with the most points overall from those five lists will be the winners. The films will be judged before subtitles are added so make sure your film is easy to hear and 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.
  24. JUDGES CANNOT WIN: No board member of Esperanto-USA or current contest host or 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.
  25. JUDGES’ ANNOUNCEMENT: Winners will be announced in November of 2024 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.
  26. EVERYONE CAN ENTER: People from all countries are welcome to participate and are eligible to win. People may appear in or work on multiple films and agree to split their winnings with the rest of their team, but a separate director is needed for each entry and that director alone shall be awarded the prize if their film wins. All prizes will be in US dollars and the official rules and announcements will be primarily in English per the bylaws of Esperanto-USA.
  27. OFFICIALNESS OF RULES: Legally, only the English version of the festival rules is official. We strove to clearly and faithfully translate every rule into Esperanto, but those wordings on that page are only meant as a helpful resource. The English version of each rule is the authoritative one where any differences can be found.

Resources