Amateur Category
Filmmaking is different now. At anything less than a $2 Million budget it’s video production. Frankly, even with a $200 Million budget it can be video production. What’s really different however is that we now have overlap between consumer and professional equipment—1080 high definition images and affordable editing software that, in the hands of the determined, can yield products of significant quality.
And then sometimes those with nothing more than the spark of an idea and a cell phone create something special. That’s what this category is about—the recognition that artistic sparks happen among the non-professional, that self expression in the form of film and video is now open to all. We’re looking for those nuggets that deserve an audience larger than one’s friends, family or even anonymous YouTube viewers.
This new Amateur category is an experiment to see what shows up. It’s completely open to whoever has created something they feel needs to be seen.
It’s hard to predict what these films will be like. They will have flaws that exclude them from competing in the traditional categories. They may be experimental or atypical. Then again, they may be perfectly traditional in structure but have poor sound. But they will have a special quality, something that convinces us to look beyond the shortcomings and marvel in some intangible way—an amazing performance, a unique story, an important documentary subject, an emotional tug, a laugh worth sharing.
We may accept no projects to this category or we may accept a dozen.
Show us what you've done. Make us smile and say yes.
