What is upfront! about?
Topic “Peace of Mind”
Dates and deadlines?
Who can participate?
Video genres?
Video requirements?
Video format requirements?
Language and subtitles?
What are you looking for and what style should I choose?
Do I need to have all my music and other rights cleared?
Costs?
What information is required for submitting?
What’s the difference between registering and submitting?
Declaration of consent
Who chooses the winners?
What prizes can be won?
Screening and award ceremony
What do I do with my other questions?
What is upfront! about?
upfront! offers young adults from all EU countries the opportunity to take a videographic stand on European topics and to promote artistic freedom of expression. We are looking for critical social and political art and documentary videos that reflect your view of Europe and the European Union – both positive and negative. We want your videos on the European issue of “Peace of Mind”.
TOPIC “Peace of Mind”
The first upfront! award gave you free range on what topics you could tackle with your videos. The second year around, the award is going to relate to the topic of “Peace of Mind”. What does that mean to you? What do you think about in relation to the EU when you hear the words “peace of mind”?
Dates and deadlines?
Submission period for videos: 01.10.2021 – 22.02.2022 20.03.2022
Award ceremony: planned for May 7th 2022
Who can participate?
The filmmakers (producer, director, and other key roles) must be between the ages of 16 and 26 at the time the video is released. The competition is open to residents of all 27 EU member states.
Video genres?
All video genres (narratives included) are allowed, provided they follow an art and/or documentary video approach. Our tip for you: Spoken language has equal status to a purely visual approach. A professionally produced “one-take video” with a personal statement can be more impactful than a 30-minute film produced on glossy film for the broad audience.
Video requirements?
The submitted videos must not be older than 2 years (first publication from 2019). All formats up to 4K and a maximum playing time of 15 minutes (without opening and closing credits) are allowed. Videos have to be submitted as MP4 with H.264 codec.
To submit your video to the upfront! award, you have to register. The upload function will be visible only after you register, and you can then send your video to us. You can use a digital format and the wetransfer function at the end of the data request. It is not possible to send your video via mail.
Video format requirements?
Video is a creative format, file types are not!
File-Types: MP4 with H.264-Codec
There are no specifications regarding the formats. However, should you want a recommendation, here are some proposals:
Aspect-Ratio: 4:5 or 16:9
Resolution: FullHD – 1920×1080 or 4k
Language and subtitles?
Every film has to either be in English or have English subtitles to be accepted.
What are you looking for and what style should I choose?
We’re looking for videos. That means creative, artistic or critical concepts. The boundaries are fluid! There is no exclusion of art videos, documentary videos, and narrative short films.
Do I need to have all my music and other rights cleared?
Yes! Absolutely! All used pieces and sounds must be either public domain or cleared. This also applies to visuals, of course.
Costs?
Participation and registration are completely free. Thanks to the support from EUROPE DIRECT Düsseldorf and the European Parliament, we are able to waive all fees.
What information is required for submitting?
You should have the following data handy for your submission:
- Team: Team-Name, (Website & Social Media), City, Country
- Contact: Name, Birthday, Education, Address, (Website)
- Video: Genre, Title, Length, Format, Language, Year of Production, Year of Publication, Initial Release, (Awards), Director, Age of Director, (Additional Crew, Cast and Personnel), Short Description, Synopsis, Stills or Posters (jpg, tiff, png).
- Video File: MP4 File with descriptive Title (Name or Team). Upload via dedicated WeTransfer Page.
You should have all information and the finished video ready, because the submission cannot be saved temporarily.
What’s the difference between registering and submitting?
Registering on our website is the first step. We only need your name and email for that so that we can keep you updated on the competition.
Once you have registered, you can log in and submit your video. Only after submitting your video will you officially take part in the competition.
Declaration of consent
We need your consent to be able to include your video in our screening and award ceremony at the Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf, which will be live-streamed and available on YouTube and our website.
In addition, excerpts of all videos (max. 15 sec.) may be used for promotional purposes and selected videos will be published on our website (upfront-award.eu).
Who chooses the winners?
The winners will be chosen by a jury of experts on video and European politics. Who is on that jury will be revealed at a later date.
What prizes can be won?
The upfront! award is giving out three prizes, with a combined value of 3000 €.
Screening and award ceremony
We are planning to have the award ceremony and screening on May 7th 2022 at the Filmwerkstatt in Düsseldorf, which will also be live-streamed and available on YouTube and our website.
What do I do with my other questions?
If you still have a question that is not listed here, or if there is a problem with your registration or submission, please email us at contact@upfront-award.eu or contact us directly on Instagram or Facebook.