The Contest Host will be responsible for organizing and operating the contest and will be the final judge of rules compliance. If you have any questions please feel free to email us: amv at animefestivalorlando dot com with a subject similar to “AFO AMV Contest” - email is the most efficient method to reach us.

BY SUBMITTING A VIDEO TO THE CONTEST, YOU ARE AGREEING TO THE ENTIRETY OF THIS DOCUMENT. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY AND ASK QUESTIONS AS NEEDED.

Content Restrictions, Release of Use, and Indemnifications
1. Video entries should consist of video footage at least 75% of animation in the Japanese style, a.k.a. “Anime” and an audio track of 6 minutes or less. Live Action videos will normally not be shown.
2. Pre/Post Bumpers (titles, credits, studio logos) are highly discouraged, but not banned. The total length of any bumper, before and/or after the video cannot be in excess of 10 seconds. Bumper length will be added to the video length in considering the 6 minute time limit restriction. CONTEST STAFF RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT OUT BUMPERS since if time permits we will be adding our own title cards for EACH video.
3. PLEASE do not use corporate trademarks, movie studio logos, or “Movie Rating” images, or any other protected material that would imply that your video was created or approved by a real company with real lawyers.
4. The AFO AMV Contest and AFO Staff can not be held responsible for any Copyright or other infringement of law that your contest entries may contain. Please ensure that all submissions fall under Fair Use provisions. Remember folks, we're doing this for fun, not profit. AFO shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of, or in connection with, the AMV Contest or your submissions.
5. Videos must be viewable by a general audience to be eligible for a judged award; that means a PG-13 rating at most. Anything that is questionably near a PG-13 rating WILL NOT be shown. Please especially avoid scenes of sex, violence, excessive gore, drugs, gratuitous nudity, or alcohol use among characters that appear to be underage. This rule frequently necessitates disqualification of many popular Anime titles such as Attack on Titan, Berserk, Demon Slayer, Elfen Lied, etc. so if you plan to use these sources, please choose the cinematography content carefully. For more clarification on the PG-13 rating please see http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means – and again, but due to our agreements with the convention and venue, anything that is questionable in this regard will likely be disqualified due to upholding family-friendly restrictions in the main convention hall.
6. DO NOT USE SUBTITLED OR WATERMARKED FOOTAGE. It is distracting and you will most likely not be allowed in the judged contest.
7. You agree to allow your video submissions, and shortened clips thereof, to be shown in any forum or format without further permission, including, but not limited to, marketing materials such as postings on social media, panel presentations, broadcasts on TV, etc that are released by the AFO Convention and their agents, in perpetuity. Attribution will be of course given where possible, but cannot be guaranteed, depending on the format of the medium.
Keep it Fresh (and remember, up to PG-13 only please!)
1. AMV Contest submissions must be your own work. Only the original author of the work should be submitting. This has been a problem in the past, so please be aware we will be looking for it. Anyone found submitting plagiarized videos will be disqualified, even if it is discovered after results have been decided.
2. Preferably, entries should not be previous award winners at other AMV contests. Now don't get us wrong, award winning videos are always allowed, but we encourage you to submit your latest, greatest work. This is not meant to discourage submissions, but instead to cut down on that “Hey, We already saw that” feeling, since many of our convention guests do attend other international AMV contests. We also want to give new creators a chance to gain recognition. Videos that have won awards or prior honors at other conventions will be taken into consideration, and award preference will be given to newer / premiere videos.
3. Videos should be no older than, or completed longer than, 18 months prior to the contest.
Awards
1. Judged awards will be given for categories (including but not limited to): Best Drama/Romance, Best Comedy/Parody, Best Action, and Best of Show. Additional award categories such as Honorable Mentions are TBD at the discretion of the Judges after reviewing the submissions. There may also be cake. These awards are for virtual bragging rights only; there are no guaranteed monetary or tangible prizes unless we are granted prizes by our benevolent convention sponsors.
2. We will once again do our Fan Favorite Award, subject to live voting at the Contest, via mobile web. The interpretation of the voting and determination of the winner will be carried out by the AMV Contest Host. In the event of a tie, we will hold a run-off between the top two for five minutes. If a winner can not be determined within time constraints, or the results are inconclusive, the winner will be decided later based on a thorough review of the votes and announced after the contest.
Eligibility
1. Submissions from out of the area ARE always accepted. Please specify when submitting if you will be attending the contest in person by the checkbox on the form so we can save you a seat in the front row, and rank your submission accordingly!!! Make sure you RSVP with us via email after submitting.
2. Any videos submitted by staff of AFO or the AMV Judges are not eligible for a judged award. General volunteers are not considered staff in this case.
3. Videos that are found to not qualify for the main contest for any reason will not void clause 1.7 and can still be presented in other formats (such as in separate exhibition hall events to fill time). Disqualified videos may not be eligible to receive an award from the judges.
Number of Submissions
1. We will accept up to 3 entries from each contestant. Additional entries may be submitted for exhibition hall events (but they will not be judged). If you submit more than one video, please rank the videos so we can prioritize which videos you would like to be shown/judged based on your preference.
2. Out of area submissions will be cut to allow precedence to at least one submission from persons attending the contest. Again, please notify the contest host and confirm that you will be attending the contest in person to ensure your submissions are given priority.
Final Judgment
1. The Host of the AFO AMV contest and/or the Chairperson of AFO reserve the right to reject any video for any reason, including, but not limited to: content, video quality, video content, sound quality, Force majeure, and time constraints. The decisions of the Host, Judges, and/or Convention Directors are final.
Submission Requirements
1. Please read the following carefully as it has changed from previous years. We will not be taking submissions via physical medium, we have moved to an online-only submission format. It is important for all parties to get the best possible presentation of your video for both judging and viewing by the other AFO attendees.
2. All Contestants must register on the AMV Contest Website to be considered, and provide their entry information via the contest web page: https://afoamv.theforgotten.com
3. All digital submissions should be in one of the following formats:

● MP4 file with an X.264 or similar high-quality video codec. No 10-bit video please.

● OR AVI XviD/DivX

● OR an MPEG-2 file with a standards-compliant audio stream.

● Formats like WMV or MOV should be avoided.

● Audio should be uncompressed (FLAC), or lossless AAC, or mp3 audio codec, CBR.

1. Don’t stress about this too much. Popular contest conversion/export profiles and/or using amvtool to standardize it should be fine.

● But… if it cannot be played with a player like VLC, it likely will not work for us.

1. All videos should be encoded at a minimum resolution of 640 x 480 with at least 23.98 frames per second. Widescreen DVD or 1080p HD resolution @ 16:9 AR is highly recommended. The aspect ratio and resolution it will be displayed at cannot be guaranteed, as it will be adjusted by our editing software and the player it is displayed in for the show.
2. Videos may be submitted by giving us a download URL to pull it, or pushed to our FTP site. FTP access will be automatically granted on our site once your email address has been confirmed. Videos submitted to the FTP site must not be over 512 MB in size. Otherwise, please utilize a legitimate content distribution network service such as DropBox, Google Drive, Vimeo, or similar cloud storage site. Max submission size via URL download delivery is 512 MB. There are plenty of good codecs that can get a 6 minute video down to under 50 MB; remember it's likely going to be played with a media player or on a DVD, so an extremely high bitrate is unnecessary.
3. Each submission which is received will be confirmed via an automated email, then confirmed again when the video has been checked into our judging system. If you do not receive a final confirmation email from a human, please contact the Contest Host.
4. Your personal information is being collected for identity verification purposes only, and will not be willingly shared or sold. However, for security purposes, please remember to use a secure password that cannot be guessed and that is not used on other sites!
FINAL WARNINGS REGARDING SUBMISSION & DEADLINE
1. All videos will be captured/converted by our editing software for display to the judges and presentation during the AFO AMV contest. Submitting your video in a common format is your best control over how your video will look, please consider it wisely.
2. Entries must be uploaded and confirmed by the beginning of the day (12:00 AM Midnight GMT-4) Sunday June 01, 2025 (or the end of the day Saturday May 31). Obviously we would like to get entries in well before then so that we have time to compile the show, but this is the absolute latest that we will be looking for new entries unless we grant an extension or you have spoken with us ahead of time. We have an early deadline to allow staff time to process entries and produce the show.
3. Lack of sufficient entries may result in a poor contest. So submit early, and submit often!
CONFIRMATION OF SUBMISSIONS
1. You will receive an email confirming that your video has been received. If you have not received an email by 3 business days from the deadline, please contact the contest administrator. The host will make every reasonable effort to allow you to participate in the contest, but we also need time to review and compile the entries.
AMENDMENTS
1. These rules are subject to change without notice as the Contest Host and AFO see fit.
2. Please see the latest rules on the website afo.amvawards.org.
FEEDBACK/SUGGESTIONS WELCOME
1. Feel free to contact us at afo at animefestivalorlando.com to discuss this year's contest with your feedback and suggestions. After all, we do this for the AMV Creators and their Fans. Without you, the people, this event has no meaning.

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