[Aniwow!2024] White Poplar Awards Call for Entries 19th China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival, 2024 Open until: 2024.5.26

[Aniwow!2024]

White Poplar Awards Call for Entries

19th China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival, 2024

Entry Categories

[Aniwow!2024] Awards have 3 categories. Entrants should indicate which categoryto apply for.

A. Animation

Moving image work in which motion or character performances are created on aframeby-frame basis, including narrative and non-narrative categories.Animatedshort films may be produced by hand-drawn animation, computer animation,stop-motion animation and other frame-by-frame methods, but motion capture andreal-time manipulation of recorded puppet performances are not included. Animatedshorts should be less than 40 minutes in length, with 75% of the length of the filmproduced in a frame-by-frame format. For narrative animated shorts, theperformances of the main characters should be produced frame by frame. Where asubmission closely resembles a live-action video work in its final presentation,entrants should submit additional text, images and video material to justify why thework qualifies under this category. Trailers, commercials, clips from animated filmsor series of animated works are not eligible for this category.

B. Comic Art & Illustration Book

A complete story represented in a predominantly pictorial manner, which may usuallybe accompanied by text and presented through a series of frames or images. Clip of preexisting works or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature do not apply to this category.

C. Digital Media Art

Digital Media Art concludes digital artwork in which the user (the viewer) is involved in some way in the experiential process, including video games, virtualreality, augmented reality and other interactive works. Clip of pre-existing works or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature do not apply to this category. If your work is AI-generated, or partially involves generated elements with AI technology, please submit a supplementary material to explain its utilisation.

Awards

A. Animation

 1 White Poplar Best Chinese Animated Short Film ( 2,500 RMB reward )

 1 White Poplar Best International Animated Short Film ( 2,500 RMB reward )

 1 Best Directing in Animated Short Film ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Story in Animated Short Film ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Visual Design in Animated Short Film ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Character Performance in Animated Short Film ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Sound and Music in Animated Short Film ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Golden Petal（University Student）Best Animated Short Film Award ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Golden Petal（University Student）Best Image Design Award( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Golden Petal（University Student）Strongest Market Award ( 1,000 RMB reward )

B. Comic Art & Illustration Book

 1 Best Sequential Comic Art ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Illustrated Book ( 1,000 RMB reward )

C．Digital Media Art

 1 Best Game Production ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best Interactive Work ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best AI Technology Practice ( 1,000 RMB reward )

 1 Best AI Generated Work ( 1,000 RMB reward )

Requirements

1. Submitted works must be finished from Jan. 1st 2023 to May 26th 2024, including works made by students at universities and colleges (graduation work is applicable), and works made by universities / colleges cooperated with companies (universities / colleges in priority). Unfinished works made by students graduated in 2024 are also allowed to be submitted in the submission stage. If the work is shortlisted, then the finished work must be submitted, otherwise the finalists will be disqualified.

2. Works previously entered for selection at China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival cannot be taken into consideration.

3. Works can be registered either by individual or by team. One entrant can only send 3 works maximum. There is no limit to the number of entries from collective organizations. Please indicate whether your works have already been screened publicly before.

4. Each work should be finished by the author with full copyright. The author/artist will be responsible for all legal issues. Co-produced works could be submitted with the permission of all the other team members.

5. All works that have used artificial intelligence technology should be submitted to the digital media art category. Please indicate how artificial intelligence technology is used in the submitted materials.The selected works will be eligible for Best AI Technology Practice and Best AI Generated Work awards.

6. All contents of the works must not be against the law in China. And it is strongly prohibited that your works copy or imitate others. If you use other people’s work, please indicate the copyright, otherwise the festival has the right to cancel your qualification in the competition. Besides, if there is any negative influence on the competition, the festival will declare the legal responsibility of the related.

7. Whether participating in this festival as an individual, team or collective unit, the participant agrees to license the work to the Organising Committee for 18th China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival for offline screening and exhibition for public screening. The above authorization period is from May 26th 2024 to Dec. 31st 2024.

Selection

Selection process for [Aniwow!2024] awards is divided into Pre-Selection and Final Selection. Works will be chosen to be presented in the official selection in the PreSelection. Award winners and nominees will be decided in the Final Selection. The Jury is made up by renowned animation and digital art professionals, scholars, senior managers in related institutions. During the judging process, we will strictly follow the principle of equity.

Format Requirements

1. Animation works are recommended in formats of MOV or MP4. ProRes 422 or h.264 encoding is required. The video bit rate shall be no less than 6Mbps, the resolution no less than 1920x1080 pixel, and the audio bit rate no less than 128Kbps. High quality compressed or uncompressed works are preferred.

2. Comic works should be compressed in format of TIFF or JPEG only, and also submit a typeset file in PDF format. The size should be no less than A4, and resolution should be no less than 300dpi.

3. Digital Media Art works could be such multimedia files as interactive HTML pages, APK mobile APPs and executable files on Windows or iOS operating system (Simulator installation packages and accessory installation tools should also be submitted). In addition, a 3-minutes video shoot of the work (recommended in formats of MPEG and AVI), a documentation including name and type of the work, 3-5 screenshots, engine, instructions, description of the idea should be included.

4. All entries must submit one poster of the work and three or more digital files of stills of the work in TIFF or JPEG format.

5. Working cut is accepted at the submission phase. Once selected, a complete screening version must be submitted within seven days after being notified of the selection.

Registration and Receipts

In order to guarantee all the works could be safely received, carefully kept, strictly categorised, deliberately judged and accurately awarded, we will watch the whole procedure of the submission. All the entrants should read the instructions carefully, and submit the works correctly to avoid any mistake that would affect the selection.

(1) No registration fee.

(2) To facilitate subsequent review,it is recommended that contestants give priority to using the film festival delivery platform to submit their works.

Filmfreeway:

https://filmmakers.festhome.com/f/7418

Festhome:

https://filmfreeway.com/Aniwow2024DiShiJiuJieZhongGuoBeiJingGuoJiDaXueShengDongHuaJie

TouJiang(aWeChatPublicAccount)：

https://www.toujiang.today/filmfest/244

(3) Entries can also be submitted via encrypted links on Dropbox, Vimeo, etc. and sent with the application form to e-mail address: aniwowcuc@163.com. Please ensure that the download link to the website is valid before Dec. 31st 2024.

(4) We will appreciate if universities and colleges could collect their students’ works and submit them together. Each work submitted should have a digital application form with detailed contact information.

(5) The deadline for entries is May 26th 2024. All entries shall be submitted by the deadline.

(6) Please make sure that the application information is correct. The organizing committee will send prize-winners the certificate, challenge cup and reward.

(7) See more information about registration and submission on the official website: http://aniwow.cuc.edu.cn/ .

If not specially pointed out, in this info,

(1) The Organising Committee refers to Organising Committee for 19th China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival.

Post address: [Aniwow! 2024]

Communication University of China, School of Animation and Digital Arts, No.1 Dingfuzhuang Dongjie,Chaoyang District, Beijing

People’s Republic of China, 100024

Tel: +86 10 65783476

E-mail: aniwowcuc@163.com

(2) The director refers to entrant who has already fulfilled the entry procedure. The director should provide the factual information and identification. Although CISAF cannot check the information authenticity strictly, CISAF will block any entrants with false information during the festival.

(3) The work refers to the Animation or Comic work, academic thesis or the productions based on the selection that is made by the director following the stated way, no matter whether it will get a prize, the director will have the copyright according to the < Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China>.

(4) Publicity refers to publish the work in public according to the stated range. All the published work cannot be backspaced or deleted unless there is special situation.

(5) CISAF will reject the work below:

a. Against the State law.

b. Instigate the ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination, destroy the ethnic unify.

c. Insult or slander others, trespass others’ legal rights.

d. Other content which the law has banned

(6) For the sake of respecting the copyright, and protect the legal right of the director, all entrants should agree the declaration below:

I declare that I have the copyright of the work. I am responsible for any disputes arising from the copyright of the image, story and music. I consent that CISAF may broadcast, screen, exhibit and publish the work in relevant media according to the publicity and promotion needs of the competition, without payment of any remuneration. I have filled in the entry form correctly and I am responsible for the content of the entry.

(7) In principle, all the work would not be sent back, so the entrants should keep the original edition.

(8) About plagiarism:

a. Plagiarism is defined as knowingly presenting the work or property of another person as if it were one’s own.

b. CISAF doesn’t have sufficient ability to spy on plagiarism. However, if there is any plagiarised work being founded, CISAF has the obligation to cancel the qualification of the entrant. CISAF will not undertake any responsibility for plagiarism at other places, and all the legal responsibilities will be undertaken by the plagiarist him/herself.

c. CISAF has the obligation to provide the background information of any person who might have committed plagiarism when the judiciary or the copyright owner requires.

d. Entrant who submits the work to CISAF will all be regarded as he/she agrees all policies above. CISAF will not undertake the responsibility of breaching of faith or other legal responsibilities, including not undertaking theresponsibility of compensating to the entrant who has been cancelled the qualification by CISAF due to unacceptance of the charge of infringement.

CISAF has the explanation right for all the information above. If there is any conflict with the relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, the laws and regulations shall prevail.

[Aniwow! 2024]

Organising Committee for 19th China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival

School of Animation and Digital Arts

Communication University of China

Apr. 2024

The Official Website: http://aniwow.cuc.edu.cn/