Rules

Hello, and welcome to the AnimeCon AMV Competition 2027!

We further improved the rules for the oldest AMV Competition of the Netherlands

First things first, and most importantly: a deadline. We’ll need your submission before or on March 31, 2027. That’s a Wednesday, if you’re wondering. Videos submitted after this date might not be eligible for the competition as we need to be able to check the videos, make title cards, edit voting screens, have a life, and so on.

If there is something wrong with your submitted video you will get some time (even after the deadline) to make it work. This will be discussed with you personally through direct/private messaging. This extra time is meant to fix minor mistakes in content or playback.

In order to be able to participate, there are some things you need to do, might want to do, or outright can’t:

What you MUST submit
An animated music video, including a credit screen of 10 seconds at the end. This part is preferred to be silent white on black, mentioning the sources used, but not your name or alias, to enable other people to vote unbiased. 

If you want, you can send us another version with credits to you as well. If you do, we will only use the version without personal credits for the competition, and retain the full version for showings outside the competition.

What you CAN submit:
Animated footage from East Asia, preferably with emphasis on Japan
Game footage from East Asia, preferably with emphasis on Japan
Spoilers
More than one video. We can have only one per editor enter the competition, though, so we will ask you which one will participate in the end.

What you MIGHT be able to submit (but is ultimately at our discretion due to overt use, for instance):
Stills
Risque content
Cartoon violence
Offscreen violence
Implied erotica, bouncy boobs
Explicit lyrics (we might allow it after all, but think about if you’d want the song be played to a prepubescent family member that will sing the song at the most unfitting moment)
Animated footage from the rest of the world

What you absolutely CANNOT submit (or should at least ask us about):
Generative AI content
Visible blood and gore, or (bodily) horror in general. If it’s inevitable, you can colour correct the gore, which might help tip the scales in your favour
Directly visible violence
Sex
Footage with fansubs and/or fansub logos (if you get your source material from dubious origins, we rather don’t want to know)
A video that has competed in another Dutch contest 

If you do need to add something from the above list, please contact us. We need to draw the line somewhere, and if you can convince us that there’s a mighty need, we will at least listen to your arguments.

Length: 
Maximum 4 minutes and 10 seconds, or 250 seconds in total.

Be aware that very short videos aren't well-received by the audience, so keep that in mind, but do not make your video 4 minutes because you feel the need to maximize your time.

Resolutions, frame rates and aspect ratios:
640*480 to 4096*2160
1.33:1 (4:3)  to 1.78:1 (16:9)
If you want to send something in 2.39:1 (Cinema Scope), please reconsider. It might be aesthetically pleasing to your video, but you will waste a lot of space above and below.

Our screen will be 1.78:1, 600*345 cm, with a video chain resolution of 1920*1080. Recommended frame rate is 29,97fps. If you want to go higher, you’re welcome to, but we can’t guarantee the outcome.

Make sure you don’t have important bits of content at the very edge of the screen. We usually need to mask the edges of the projector’s output somewhat due to the wide angle lens we need to use.
We will also have screens on the left and right of the big screen. These are approximately 300*175 cm, with an estimated 250 cm gap between the screens. You’re welcome to do something with those screens as well, but keep[ in mind that syncing between them is a best effort job. 

Containers:
MP4, M2TS, MPEG, MKV and others, but please do not use closed or old-timey containers or codices, and pay attention to the mix. Listen to your editing software if you’re in doubt.

Tips and tricks:
Make sure your audio is leveled on -3dB, and make sure you encode it in a decent bit rate. Peaks can go higher than -3, but make sure no audio is clipped.

Please include your name and the title of your video in the file name. And please, do not name your file sequence01.mpg. It makes our lives much easier if we don’t have to rename every file that enters the pool.
If you use more than a few sources, please add a txt-file with the list, name it appropriately, and put both the video and the list in a ZIP or RAR-file.

You can share the video with us through any regular file sharing service, but we do recommend WeTransfer, Google Drive, or Dropbox. Do not upload your video to video sharing sites like Youtube or Vimeo: it’s hard to get the video in a playable format, and the compression wreaks havoc on your efforts.
Please retain your project file and other related data until after the competition.
 

Other important information:
You need to be present at the contest itself to be eligible for a prize, for Editors and Audience awards, as well as any other award that might pop up at some point. You will also have to vote for the Editor’s Prize. If you’re not at the event, we can still show the video, but it will be marked as a non-compete.

We intend to hold a pre-show showing for the editors again. If you like to participate, please let us know through the registration form. We will probably ask you again when all deadlines have wooshed by.