Student Cuts film festival (7)

Festival start: 24 May 2018      Festival end: 24 May 2018

Student Cuts film festival is aimed at young authors in the early stages of their film careers. Their independence lets them work on unconventional, creative, energetic and subtle ideas. Such films are an important insight into the local environments and everyday themes seen from a different perspective. By joining Student Cuts network the authors not only gain access to the big screen, but a network of audiences all over Europe, contacts with experts and simply gain exposure. In the end, films are made to be watched.

The awards given by Student Cuts are a way to extend the hand to young film creators in their first steps into cinema. A miniature director’s chair symbolises the talent of winners and serves as encouragement for authors to continue on their path and eventually enjoy their own, full size, real director’s chair.

The festival jury, during the main event, awards prizes in five different categories:
Experimental films
Animation
Ads
Fiction films
Documentary films

The festival awards the best film by audience as well.

IMPORTANT
We will accept only films, registered through the registration form at www.studentcuts.eu!

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1. INTRODUCTION:
Student Cuts film festival 2018 is an international film festival, organized by the Institute of Media Communication in cooperation with Vetrinjski dvor, Academia and RTV Slovenija – regional center Maribor. Apart from showcasing audio-visual works the event will host a practitioners program and social events.

2. RULES AND REGULATIONS:
The festival is reserved for independently produced youth films without assistance of professional production companies or individuals. The director of the registered film had to be under 30 years old when the film was finished. We accept submissions of films produced between January 1st 2016 and April 1st 2018. Films, which were already part of Student Cuts film festival (under any name) in previous years, cannot be registered again. The festival accepts short films up to 15 minutes in length in the following categories:
- fiction,
- ads,
- documentary,
- animation,
- experimental films.
Submissions to the competition section of the Festival must conform to the following criteria:

• Film director must have been under 30 years old at the end of production
• Films must be made independent of any support of professional production organisations
• Films must be under 15 minutes long
• Films must be in English language or have English language subtitles provided
Films not conforming to these rules can be submitted and become a part of Festival affiliate events network.

3. SELECTION:
Producer i.e. the copyright holder decides on the desired category to be included for the selection. Should the film not fit the requirements for a particular category the organizers reserve the right to include the film in a different category.
Applications must be made through an online form found on the festival website. By registering, the authors agree with the festivals terms and conditions for their films. Online submission must include the following:
- Text document with a short plot summary
- Text document with full cast and crew
- Text document with technical information (length, format etc.)
- At least 5 still photographs from the film
- A photo of the director/author
- Text document with a short biography and filmography of the director/author
Do not send the above in paper or email form.
All submitted films not in English language must have English subtitles. Subtitles have to be in a separate SRT file format. In exceptional circumstances a film can be submitted for selection without subtitles with prior approval by the organizer. Selection results will be published on www.studentcuts.eu.

4. RIGHTS AND DUTIES RESULTING FROM SELECTION:
By submitting a film you give the festival the right, without compensation, to present the work to the public in whatever form, media, online or at a public screening, with the purpose of promoting the festival. Current list of public screenings of registered films can be seen at www.studentcuts.eu.
The author allows free public broadcasting of the work in scheduled programming of RTV Slovenija, including broadcast by satellite, and the right to exchange the work with other public broadcasters outside of Slovenia. All copyrights remain property of the author.

5. SUBMITTING THE FILM FOR SELECTION
To submit a film you must fill out the official festival application form. Films must conform to the following technical specifications:
- Video: H.264 video encoding at up to 15 Mbps bitrate (MS Windows compatible codec)
- Audio: at least 44.1kHz sample rate and at least 128kbps bitrate
- Subtitles: srt format, UTF8 encoding
Failing to conform to the specification can result in eliminating the film from the selection without further explanation. Film has to be uploaded to any online service or storage and providing organizers the link, where film can be downloaded.
Application deadline is March 23th 2018. No applications will be possible after the deadline. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. Deadline date is considered as the date of data saving in the database.
There is no application fee.
Further information will be available on www.studentcuts.eu or via email info@studentcuts.eu.

6. JURY AND AWARDS:
Films are going to be evaluated in 2 rounds. In the first round each film is going to be judged by two independent experts. Films are going to be assigned to evaluators randomly, where the evaluator had no role in the process of film creation. Based on their evaluations a final selection of 5 films per category and up to 10 extra films by festival program section will go into round two.
Round two will be judged by a festival jury. Festival organizers will appoint a jury of at least 3 members of which one will be the president of the jury. The jury selects the winners in each category. The decision of the jury is final and cannot be appealed.
Festival awards are granted for each category and an award by the audience.
The festival reserves the right to a special award. Festival reserves the right for Slovene or international organizations to present their own award. Should such an organization decide to present an award it must submit a copy of the rules before the beginning of the festival and provide the awards to be presented. Further information will be available on www.studentcuts.eu.
7. PROGRAM:
Program is subject to change depending on the number of submissions in individual categories and will be available at www.studentcuts.eu.

8. THE RIGHT TO COMPETE:
Any person as specified in paragraph one of point two of these rules has equal right to compete in the festival. By submitting a film you agree to comply with these rules. Should there be any doubt regarding the rules the Slovene version is to be consulted. Organizer reserves the right to decide regarding matters not covered in this document.

9. ARCHIVE:
Festival archive contains selection copies of all films ever submitted to the festival. The festival can use these films for:
- Promotion in other festivals and events
- For other screenings (TV, web) with the purpose of promoting and spreading the festival
- Educational workshops