INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION REGULATIONS 14-21 JUNE 2020

This regulation has been updated on 30th of April 2020.
Due to the conditions COVID- 19 virus pandemic dictates, which has affected all over the world, the International Migration Film Festival has been decided to be held as an online festival.

The festival will be held between 14th and 21st of June 2020 and hosted by FestivalScope platform. https://www.festivalscope.com

A) ORGANIZER
Directorate General for Migration Management is the founder and organizer of the International Migration Film Festival. The festival is carried out by the Festival Committee composed of professional figures of the film and culture industry.

B) DATES
The International Migration Film Festival – IMFF will take place between 14th and 21st of June 2020 and hosted by FestivalScope. https://www.festivalscope.com The submission deadline for the festival was the 9th of March, 2020 and will not be extended.

C) OBJECTIVES
IMFF aims to call attention to migration all over the world, starting with Turkey, by welcoming films that explore the issues regarding the communities that either migrated or were subjected to migrating.

The Festival mainly focus on films with themes on immigration, immigrants, refugees and cultural impacts of immigration and / or films directed by an immigrant director.

Migration Film Festival aims to draw attention to and raise awareness about refugees in Turkey of whom the numbers are increasing daily, and to create sympathy and understanding towards them via cinema. During the festival, panel discussions, exhibitions, workshops -both on cinema and immigration / refugee subjects- and concerts will take place in addition to the film screenings.

D) PROGRAMME
Festival Committee chooses and invites films to Festival Competition Programme sections, as well as non-competitive Festival programme.
Fiction features, shorts and documentaries can be selected for the following programmes:

Competition Programme – Feature Films
Competition Programme – Short Films
Non-competitive Festival programme

Films with themes on immigration, immigrants, refugees and cultural impacts of immigration and/or directed by an immigrant director will be considered for the Festival Programme.

E) JURIES
The films in the competition section are evaluated by a jury composed of leading figures of the film and culture industry. The jury members are appointed by the Festival. Persons directly associated with the production or the rights of usage of the competition films and people that are related to them in the first degree cannot serve as jury members. The Chairpersons of the Jury are decided by the jury members or the Festival.

The Jury may watch the films before or within the festival period from online secure links on FestivalScope Platform, at www.festivalscope.com.
The Jury will have an online decision meeting via Zoom or similar private, secure online meeting platforms.
The Festival may appoint an observer who does not have the right to vote in the jury decision meeting. The observer may also be in the role of moderator in the online meeting if or when necessary.
Since the decision meeting will be held online via a secure meeting platform, there will be an additional part of the meeting which will be recorded with the knowledge and permission of the jury members, on which all jury members will confirm the decisions. This part will substitute the signed decision paper.

F) COMPETITION PROGRAMME – FEATURE FILMS

  1. Feature films that are over 60 minutes of duration; printed on DCP and suitable for the screening in movie theaters are accepted.
  2. Fictional, animated features and documentaries can be selected for the competition. Films with themes on immigration, immigrants, refugees and cultural impacts of immigration and/or directed by an immigrant director will be considered for the Festival Programme.
  3. The competition titles must have been produced not before than January 2018
  4. Priority is reserved for the films that will have their Turkish or Regional premiere in the Competition Programme of the Festival
  5. The festival committee selects and invites the films participating in the competitive section.
  6. The films that are selected for the competition will be announced by the festival by the mid of May 2020.
  7. The films in the competition will be screened in their original language with English and Turkish subtitles. The screening copies of the applicant films whose original language is not English must have English subtitles on them. A dialogue list in English must also be sent to the Festival in due time, together with an online secure link. The International Jury will evaluate the films in the following categories:
    -Best Film
    -Best Inspiring Script – Not artistically, but thematically.
  8. The Jury has to select the Best Film and Best Inspiring Script among the competing films. The Jury might also select a third film for the Special Jury Award.
  9. Best Film, selected by the Jury, will receive a monetary award of 15.000 Euro and the Festival Award. The awards are given to the producer of the film. This award cannot be split between films. Best Inspiring Script, selected by the Jury, will receive a monetary award of 5.000 Euro and the Festival Award. The awards are given to the script writer of the film. This award cannot be split between films.
  10. The Jury, in the case that it sees necessary, may give a Festival Award due to outstanding achievement in only one of the categories of directing, screenwriting, acting, directing of photography, editing, music and art direction.
  11. The documents that are requested by the festival have to be sent by the applicant until May 10th, 2020.
  12. The screening copies of the films that are accepted for the Festival must arrive at the Festival or FestivalScope by May 20th, 2020.
  13. The award winner is obliged to attend (or send a representative) the Online Award Ceremony. A live or pre-recorded video message from either the director or the producer will suffice as ‘attendance’. Competitors who do not attend (or send a representative) the ceremony without a legitimate excuse lose their claim to any prize including the monetary prize.
  14. Award winners are expected to mention the award as announced, nationally as well as internationally, in related publicity and promotional material.
  15. The monetary awards will be paid in 6 months following the festival closing ceremony.
  16. Films are also competing for Audience Awards.

G) COMPETITION PROGRAMME – SHORT FILMS

  1. Short films of all genres with a running time of no more than 25 minutes are accepted.
  2. The competition titles must be completed after 9th of January 2019 and must be shown for the first time in Turkey. Films that are screened, released and /or broadcast elsewhere in Turkey are not eligible for the Short Film Competition. Entries from Turkey are excluded from this rule. Films including Turkish titles, have neither been presented on television nor on the Internet / VOD are also not eligible for the Competition.
  3. The festival selects and invites the films participating in the competitive section. The films will be expected to focus on themes on immigration, immigrants, refugees and cultural impacts of immigration.
  4. The films that are selected for the competition will be announced by the festival.
  5. The films in the competition will be screened in their original language with English and Turkish subtitles. The screening copies of the applicant films whose original language is not English must have embedded English subtitles. A dialogue list in English must also be sent to the Festival in due time, together with an online secure link. There will be two separate competition categories and awards for short films.UNICEF International Short Film Competition
    -Best Short Film UNICEF award.Same Boat Short Film Competition
    -Best Short Film Same Boat award.
  6. The Jury has to select the Best Short Film among the competing films.
  7. Best Short Film UNICEF Award, selected by the Jury, will receive a monetary award of 5000 Euro and the UNICEF Festival Award. Best Short Film Same Boat award selected by the Jury, will receive a monetary award of 1000 Euro and the Festival Same Boat Festival Award. The awards are given to the director of the film. Either of these awards cannot be splitted.
  8. The Jury might also give a Special Jury Award for artistic and technical achievement.
  9. The documents that are requested by the festival has to be sent by the applicant until May 15th, 2020
  10. The screening copies of the films must arrive at the Festival Centre by May 20th, 2020.
  11. The award winner is obliged to attend (or send a representative) the Online Award Ceremony. A live or pre-recorded video message from either the director or the producer will suffice as ‘attendance’. Competitors who do not attend (or send a representative) the ceremony without a legitimate excuse lose their claim to any prize including the monetary prize.
  12. Award winners are expected to mention the award as announced, nationally as well as internationally, in related publicity and promotional material.
  13. The monetary awards will be paid in 6 months following the festival closing ceremony.

H) SCREENING

  1. The film program -both competition films and the others- will be screening on Festival Scope platform.
  2. The audience must register to the Festival Scope platform in order to watch the films.
  3. Unless agreeing differently, each film will be seen by up to 1000 people during the festival. Once reached that number, the film will be considered as sold out and although they will still be visible on the program, cannot be watched anymore.
  4. The tickets will be at no charge.

I) REGISTRATION
Registration for the festival is free. The submission deadline for the festival is on 9th of March, 2020 and will not be extended. Applicants must fill out the online entry form and send following materials by email to: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

Entry Form:
https://filmfreeway.com/MigrationFF-Gaziantep

Please DO NOT send any printed materials (DVD, Press Kit, Printed Entry Forms etc.) to the festival office.
a) An online downloadable secure link (vimeo, cinando, festivalscope, etc.) The password should be valid until the end of May 2020.
b) A synopsis of the film
c) A complete technical and artistic fact sheet of the film
d) English subtitles and / or the dialogue list (with the time codes) of the film in English
e) Press file, poster and stills of the film (TIFF or JPEG, 300 dpi min.)
f) A résumé, a filmography and a photograph of the director (TIFF or JPEG 300 dpi min.)
g) An online downloadable link of the trailer or 2 copies of the trailer of the film with no such mark on it as a logo, time code or subtitles, in Avi/Quick Time/Mkv/Mp4 format, to be used in the Festival Advertisement Film and TV advertisements
h) Film Usage License (for the Turkish films that apply for the International Competition)

J) GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION AND AUTHORITY

  1. The Festival will not pay any rental or screening fees for the films in competition.
  2. Films that do not have sufficient technical and legal qualifications may be left out of the program by the Festival.
  3. The films that are selected for the competitions may use the Festival logo in their publicity.
  4. Festival committees have the power to settle, decide or implement changes on regulations and also reserves the right to make decisions for any matters that are not covered by these regulations.
  5. Registration and participation in the Festival imply the acceptance of all the conditions that are stated in the Regulations.
  6. The participants are obliged to send all the materials mentioned in the regulations form to the festival above mentioned e-mail address.
  7. All preview copies and submitted entry information may be available for viewing in a video library by individual accredited guests. All preview copies may be stored in the festival archive and used for research purposes. In case of selection, the festival reserves the right to use stills and excerpts from the films for promotional purposes, not exceeding 10 % of the running time, or a maximum of 3 minutes.
  8. The above-the-line crew of the films, i.e. the director, the producer and the main cast member, are expected to participate in the festival’s live and pre-recorded events on different social media and meeting platforms. These events are, but not limited to, short video messages, live Q&A sessions, masterclasses, live Talks and seminars.
  9. The records of the live and pre-recorded events, added with Turkish subtitles, will stay on the festival’s social media accounts and websites for up to 60 days after the festival ends. The footages created from the events mentioned above may and will be used in the future, to promote the festival’s next editions. The extracts for this purpose cannot be exceeded 5% of the whole shooting.

K) CONCLUSION
The participation in the International Migration Film Festival implies the acceptance of rules and regulations. The rightful owner of the production is responsible to warn the film team about regulations.

Festival Committee reserves the right to make decisions on matters not specified herein.

You can also download Rules & Regulations as a pdf file.

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