شروط المهرجان

– يتم اختيار مجموعة أفلام المسابقة الرسمية من بين الأعمال المتقدمة للمهرجان والتي حصلت على أعلى أصوات في مسابقة الجمهور وبحد أقصى 5 أفلام من كل دولة، بواسطة لجنة متخصصة لتتنافس تلك الأعمال على الجوائز التي تمنحها لجنة التحكيم.

General conditions and regulations of The Arab Spring Festival

-Participation to the Festival is open to all residents in the region of “Europe and the Mediterranean”, known as the “Euro med” and includes all the countries of the European Union, and North Africa, without any limits related to age or gender.
– Participating films must be related to the events of the Arab Spring which was filmed during the occurrence of the events in different countries of the Arab Spring, or in European countries in which events of support or opposition to what happened in the Arab Spring countries took place.
– Due to the nature of the festival “Festival for amateurs and for professionals”, priority will be given to films that have not previously involved in other festivals, followed in the ranking by movies that have participated in other festivals.
– Participation to the festival is free and there is no fee to participate in the festival of any kind.
– Those who wish to participate to the festival should fill the subscription form located at the festival site.

Movies
– The Festival accepts only Movies made by a mobile (phone) device (or Tablet). And the participant must determine which model of the device used for filming in the subscription form for the festival. All movies made by equipment or cameras other than this, will be excluded automatically and without previous warning.
– The Festival accepts news or informative films that have been taken at the site and time of the event, as well as documentary and short stories whether they are a single shot (continuously without Editing) or subjected to subsequent editing process.
– The maximum duration of the film must not exceed twenty-minutes, The films are divided into the following categories:
The first category (News Film): Maximum 5 minutes
The second category (documentaries): Maximum 10 minutes
The third category (documentaries): Maximum 20 minutes
– Participants (authors, filmmakers, producers etc.) are allowed to use any editing technique whether on a mobile or a PC, or tablet computer.
– Those interested in participating in the festival should have in mind, during the processing of preparing their films, that the films will be mainly displayed on high quality mobile phones (Smart Phones) or tablet computer (Tablet).
– The Festival Management reserves the right to exclude any film exceeds the allowed duration or contains technical problems in image and or sound that hampers display on the festival site or contains offensive or racist content or any videos that have nothing to do with the festival. The Festival Management will inform the owner of the film about the reasons for the rejection.
– The contestants have the right (optional) to provide a promo (video) describing their experience in making the film through mobile phones. (The conditions are mentioned here)
Presenting the movies: Participation and withdrawal
Participation
– Submitting the movies to join the Festival will take place by uploading them on the website of the festival on You Tube. A quick review of the film by the technical management of the festival will be taken to ensure its conformity with the terms of the competition, and if the conformity with the terms will be considered valid. In case the validity of the participating film, the film will be downloaded from You Tube and stored on the server of the festival site on the Internet. This is to ensure standardization of the system and the site, but also to ensure that movies will not be delete from You Tube as a result of a complaint or objection from any party whatsoever.
– Movies that are selected to participate in the festival will be presented in succeeding pages on the base of a page for each of the participating countries in order to facilitate the search for the film and his state.
Withdrawal
– In a participant wants to withdraw his participating film (movies) after being uploaded to the Festival’s site for whatever reason, this must be done at least two weeks before the deadline for uploading the movies, by means of direct contact with the management of the festival by e-mail. The festival management will delete the film within a week from the date of receipt of the withdrawal request.
Intellectual Property and Copyrights
– By requesting the upload of the film to the festival’s site, the maker / author / owner of the film gives the festival management the right to download and use it for display to the jury, as well as using thirty seconds or more of the film for promotional activities for the festival. All other (film) rights remain reserved to the producer / director / Maker / author / owner of the film, according to the data mentioned in the application form and upload-data.
– Participants who will provide a one minute video describing and evaluating their experience in shooting a film through a Mobile Phone, grants the right to The Festival Management to use these videos for marketing and advertising experience studies and opinion research.
Festival competitions
The festival includes two main competitions:
The first competition: Public Competition
The Public Competition includes movies posted by participants in the official competition (Egypt – Libya – Tunisia), added to them:
Yemen
Syria (Guest of Honor)
The second competition: The Official Competition
The Official Competition includes movies posted by participants in the official competition (Egypt – Libya – Tunisia).
The voting and determining the winners by the professional Jury, which is an independent committee comprising professional and specialists who do not follow the management of the festival.
Third competition: Best Editing Competition
This is a new type competition to be held for the first time. The contest depends on the ability of the movie maker to choose different shots of pictures and movies filmed by others while he processed the film through re-editing in order to clarify certain point of view or show a new idea.
This contest is a free competition, not linked to a specific country and it is open for anyone who wishes to participate.
Choosing the winners and announcing the prizes
Competition of the public
– All the films submitted for the festival, which has not been ruled out for violating the festival’s regulations will take part in the competition.
– The Festival Management announces the period specified for the public vote which allows the audience to vote only once per chosen movie, the program does not allow any person to vote more than once.
– The public award-winning film will be determined through the total number of votes obtained by the film during the open voting period. The number of votes will be visible next to the movie and is revealed to all in a clear manner.
– Only one film will be chosen as “public award-winning film” from each participating country. award winner from each of the participating countries. The Public Award will be given to a The Film with the highest number of votes in each country.
– Five films with the highest votes in the contest of the public in each of the participating countries are filed to participate in the official competition.
The Official Competition
– Movies participating to The Official Competition will be chosen from the films with the highest votes in the public competition with a maximum of 5 movies from every country by a specialized committee to compete for prizes awarded by the jury.
– The Festival Management will announce the films participating in the official competition at the festival website and related sites.
– The festival jury will announce the prizes and winners.
Winners
– Winners will be announced in the official competition of the festival during the closing ceremony.
– All film makers participating in the official competition will be invited to attend the closing ceremony in person or electronically at the closing ceremony when awards will be given to the winners.
– The winning films will be projected on the festival’s website, organizers sites and their various channels for a period to be determined by the festival management and ending by the starting activities of the next festival.
– Other than media coverage, the winners will be asked after the closing ceremony, to give interviews with festival organizers to assess their experience in dealing with the mobile phone as an intermediary for imaging and assessment of the festival as a whole, this will determined the festival management later on.
– The winners authorize the festival management and regulators to use their filmed interviews for marketing and publicity reasons for the festival in the Netherlands and other participating Countries, the festival management is not committed to pay any charge to meet this work, in case of an interviewed participant desire any payments, the festival management reserves the right to withdraw the related work from been used for that reason.
Final provisions:
– By providing the work by means of uploading it on You Tube and approving the download to the festival site and not objecting to this within 4 weeks from the date of projection, the participant will be considered to be giving a unconditional final approval to the festival to use the work(s) submitted to the festival mentioned without charging the festival management with any legal or administrative liability or any other liability related to intellectual property, and give the festival organizer a full waiver of rights in this festival has and undertakes not to claim any compensation material of any kind by the festival management. The festival management also announces that it will not pay any charges to participants in order to participate in the festival.
– The participant also acknowledges that he did not use any copyrighted materials or images or footage clips or music, and in case this happens, the participant(s) will be full responsible. The festival management reserve the right to convert any claim of this kind by means of potential copyrights holders to the participant who will be responsible solely.
– The festival management have the full right, without the need for prior notice, to modify the terms of the festival or add new conditions to what is present without prior permission and without the need for permission from any party or entity.