Uni Shorts 2014 confirms date, extends entry deadline

Press Release - 17 March, 2014: Auckland, NZ
Uni Shorts 2014 confirms festival date, extends deadline for entries

Uni Shorts International Student Film Festival 2014 organisers have announced an extension to the submission entry deadline and confirmed the dates for this year's festival in September.

The entry deadline has been extended from 28 March to 30 April 2014. This will allow film schools and tertiary institutions to submit student films that have only recently been completed this year. The entry fee of NZ$40 (NZ$100 for three or more films), and free entry in the New Zealand secondary schools section will remain.

The date for the festival has also been confirmed for 12-14 September 2014. This year's festival will again be held at Unitec Institute of Technology in Mt Albert, Auckland. Uni Shorts welcomes all educators, students and emerging filmmakers to attend the festival in September. Panel sessions, guest speakers, a workshop for media studies teachers and the screening of selected films for competition will run over an exciting weekend.

The full programme for Uni Shorts 2014 will be finalised at the end of April and registrations for the festival will open on our website at www.unishorts.unitec.ac.nz.

"We've extended the deadline to allow recently completed films to be entered," says Uni Shorts committee chairperson, Alex Lee. "There's also a surge of interest following on from last year's event where we tripled the number of entries from the inaugural year of this event in 2012. We're hoping to receive more student works particularly in the animation, experimental and high school categories. There will be come great prizes so plenty of motivation there for student filmmakers and multimedia artists."

How to enter your film

Uni Shorts 2014 is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students attending New Zealand and international film schools, animation/design schools, universities, polytechnics, tertiary institutions. Secondary schools in New Zealand are also invited to submit film works by their media studies students.

The entry categories are as follows; Fiction (undergraduate & postgraduate), Non-Fiction/Documentary, Animation, Non-Narrative/Experimental and High School (New Zealand Secondary Schools only).

Films must be entirely student-made as part of a course of study and no longer than 20 minutes running time. We accept short films made from November 2012 - January 2014 (if you have a film not completed you can send us a DVD screener on the proviso you send the finished version if selected). Your film must be signed off by a supervising tutor/teacher.
It's so easy to enter! Follow the 3 easy steps:

1. Fill in the entry form online at www.unishorts.unitec.ac.nz

Entry fees:
Received on/before Early-Bird Date 28 February: $30 per film/$80, 3 or more films
Received on/before Final Deadline 28 March: $40 per form/$100, 3 or more films
* Free entry for NZ Secondary (High Schools) only.

2. Send us your DVD Screener, either by:

(i) Post:
Uni Shorts Film Festival c/o - Department of Performing and Screen Arts
Unitec Institute of Technology
Private Bag 92025, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
(ii) Courier:
Uni Shorts Film Festival
Department of Performing and Screen Arts
Unitec Institute of Technology
Building 6 (Level 2), Entry 1, 139 Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand

Please ensure you mark your package for customs clearance with 'No Commercial Value'; For film festival. We will accept all film entries postmarked on or before the deadline dates.

(iii) Or via a secure online Vimeo link:
i) English subtitles for foreign language films must be embedded
ii) Formatted to 1080 x 720HD
iii) It is a link that we can download from on our end.

WE ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING FORMATS:
* DVD PAL/Multizone
* Blu-ray Zone B
* Ratio must be 16x9
English subtitles must be embedded for all foreign (non-English) films
Please advise if you have an Apple ProRes file for the film in the event we decide to screen using such a format.

3. After you've entered your film, send us your film's synopsis/tagline, production credits, a brief director's biography (80 words max) and a JPEG file head shot photo of the director. Send by email to: unishorts@unitec.ac.nz

More details on the website www.unishorts.unitec.ac.nz

ENDS/

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