AMV Submissions are currently closed, please check back for more information.

General Rules

Content: All videos may not be shorter then sixty (60) seconds or longer then six (6) minutes. Explicit lyrics, extreme violence, nudity, or sexual content may be grounds for disqualification. Videos must consist of both animation and music (or movie trailer audio). The video must consist primarily of animated footage (this includes video game, anime, or American cartoons), although you are allowed titles, lead-in sequences and still shots as long as they are less than 10% of your AMV.

Clean animation is recommended. Logos or "bugs" (most commonly DivX and Cartoon Network titles in the corners) should not be present for higher points. Subtitles from fansubs or from an official releases, also may lose you points (unless they have some relevance to the topic of your AMV). You may add subtitles yourself for effect. Audio from a commercial dub is permitted in small quantities but may lose you points if in poor taste, however, sound effects or dubbing you do yourself is fine.

Bumpers: You may have a short (10 seconds max) opening at the beginning of your AMV and short end-credits (20 seconds max). The opening titles should only give a title, studio, or name of the creator. End titles need to have anime(s)/game(s) used, as well as song title(s) and artist(s).

Eligibility: All attendees to Tsubasacon may submit AMVs. If a video has been submitted to other contests, prize-winning or not, we may require you to tell us where/when that video was shown. Videos from Tsubasacon staff and families are ineligible for the prize, but may be submitted to be shown.

Acceptable Media Formats: Currently we will accept submissions on the following media: DVD±R/RW, and CD-R/RW. Submission on video tape will not be accepted (we don't have VCRs anymore!). If submitting on DVD, please burn the file to the disc as a data file. Please make sure files are small enough to fit on a single DVD.

Acceptable File Formats: AVI, WMV, MOV are excepted as long as they can be played by VLC movie player (please no MKV or MP4 formats, not all computers run them well).

Acceptable Audio Formats: If using MPEG-2, please use MPEG-1 layer 2 audio using the "stereo" setting and whatever bitrate you feel necessary, and not AC3 audio. For other formats, use uncompressed, DivX Audio, AAC, Vorbis, or MP3 audio.

Video Quality: Make sure your video size is 720x480 at a frame rate of either 29.97 or 23.97 and encoded with a 4:3 playback flag. Anything else will be scaled to this size. Interlaced or progressive scan videos are fine. However, if submitting interlaced, please check your video on a television first to ensure the field order is correct and there are no interlacing artifacts.

Submissions

You may submit up to two (2) videos to the contest. Please, only send us the two videos you intend on submitting. If more then two videos are submitted, then it will be up to the judge's decision which to run for the contest (they may not be your favorites, so be warned!)

Submissions must be mailed to:

Tsubasacon
ATTN: AMV Contest
P.O. Box 340902
Columbus, OH 43234-0902

If you wish to upload your AMV via FTP please email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for access.

Please label the disc surface using a Sharpie® or photo writer pen with the following information. Do NOT affix a label to your disc.

Your real name or studio name (if applicable) The title of the video(s) on the disc Your phone number or email address (if applicable) If you are sending multiple videos, please number them #1, #2 in the order you most prefer them to be judged (see below for more details). Tsubasacon is not responsible for lost or damaged discs, so please send your disc with a respectable mail carrier using whatever method you deem appropriate. If you wish to be notified when we receive your disc, let us know on the submission form. Submitted discs cannot be returned.

Contest

The Tsubasacon AMV contest screening is open to the public. The contest will not exceed the length of 2 hours. Should we receive more than 2 hours worth of submissions, all entries will be evaluated and 2 hours of finalists will be chosen to enter the contest. Multiple enteries may not be used, so entrants should label their AMVs in number of importance so we don't play the wrong one for the contest.

The contest will be divided into six categories: Dramatic/Serious, Romance/Sentimental, Action, Humorous/Satirical, Upbeat/Rhythm, and Movie Trailer/Miscellaneous. Entries can only compete in one category. Categories may be removed at the director's discretion.

Judges will rank the videos on various aspects and a numeric average will then be compiled. The highest score in each category will be declared the winner for that category.

The audience will also have a ballot listing all the competing videos and will be asked to indicate their favorite. The video with the most votes will win the Audience Choice Award. In addition, the video with the highest overall judges' score will be awarded Best of Show. Additional awards may be issued at the discretion of the Tsubasacon staff.

After the contest and time permitting, there will be a special screening for any ineligible or non-entry anime music videos.