2012 Season Open Call for Entries

** Deadline Extended to March 1st, 2012 **

13 EXCITING CATEGORIES OF COMPETITION TO CHOOSE FROM

11 Film Competitions ** 2 Screenplay Competitions

**Please Note: All films MUST be a premiere.

We do not recycle films screened at other fests in Toronto.

In the least, we MUST have a ** Toronto Premiere**

Feature Film – Narrative Competition

(Any Genre: Drama, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Film Noir, etc)

Open to all Narrative Films 70 minutes and over in length. This category is open to directors of all levels. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• 1st Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 2nd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 3rd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Feature Documentary Competition

Open to all documentary films 70 minutes and over in length. This category is open to directors of all levels. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• 1st Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 2nd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 3rd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Short or Long Form Film – Narrative Competition

(Any Genre: Drama, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Film Noir, etc)

Open to all Short or Long Form Films 69 minutes and under in length. This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• 1st Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 2nd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 3rd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Short or Long Form Documentary Competition

Open to all Short or Long Form Documentary Films 69 minutes and under in length. This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• 1st Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 2nd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 3rd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Dance, or Music Related Film Competition

(Dance = Any Dance Form i.e. Ballet, Contemporary, Swing, Hip-Hop, Ballroom)

(Music Related Film = Bio Pics, Profiles, Docs on Music Scene/Artists, Bands, Concerts, etc)

Open to all Dance or Music Related Films that are of ANY length. This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• 1st Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 2nd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy
• 3rd Prize Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Animation or New Media Film Competition

Open to all animated, new media and highly visual films of ANY length.

This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• Best Animated Film
  Winner will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Experimental Film Competition

Open to all Experimental Films that are of ANY length. This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• Best Experimental Film
  Winners will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

Music Video Competition

This category is open to directors of all levels, including students. Open to all Music Videos of any length. Music Videos in a language other than English must be subtitled.

• Best Music Video
  Winner will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

ReelHeART Short Screenplay Competition

Do NOT miss out on submitting your script for 2012 – Here’s what great about this competition for 2012. The Top 3 winning scripts will receive a rehearsed cast-to-type live  just like we do for our top 3 feature Screenplay Competition Winners. The only difference, all 3 scripts will be read on the same night in front of a festival audience at our exciting Venue program. Agents will be in attendance.

1. Best Short Screenplay Prize
   Winner will receive a personalized Trophy and a Filmmaking related gift
2. ALL scripts will receive written coverage via email

This competition is open to screenplay writers of all levels. This competition is open to scripts of ALL genres. Your script must be a “Short Film” script.

• Please keep your script length to 15 pages or less
• Scripts longer than 15 pages will be automatically disqualified

The script must

• If sending your script by mail, Scripts must be attached with brass brads/fasteners
• If sending your script by mail you MUST send 2 hard copies of your script
• Save the Environment and help ReelHeART be a ‘green fest’ by sending your scripts via email

Please use ‘WARNER BROTHERS’ style set up in your Final Draft or script writing software. If not using software, please format your script using the guideline for script formatting at Film School Online

ReelHeART Feature Screenplay Competition

You heard the buzz from the last seasons. The excitement still hasn’t stopped. Do NOT miss out on submitting your script for 2010 – Our 2009 2nd place screenwriter got top literary agent representation at the end of an exciting week at ReelHeART 2009. and in 2011 TWO of the Top 3 Winners were by the same writing team and one of their scripts is on its way to a director right now!

This competition is open to screenplay writers of all levels. This competition is open to scripts of ALL genres. Your script must be a “Feature Film” script.

Please try to keep your script length to 120 pages or less. We’ll work with you to pare it down. We do have a margin that it can be over. But the shorter the better for all. A shorter script is more commercially viable.

• If sending your script by mail, scripts must be attached with brass brads/fasteners
• If sending your script by mail you MUST send 2 hard copies of your script
• Save the Environment and help ReelHeART be a ‘green fest’ by sending your scripts via email

Please use ‘WARNER BROTHERS’ style set up in your Final Draft or script writing software. If not using software, please format your script using the guideline for script formatting at Film School Online

• The Top 3 Winners will get a full rehearsed and cast to type script read with critique and Q & A in front of a live film festival audience.
• 1st Place script will win a one-on-one lunch with a top agent in Toronto to discuss possible representation
• 1st Place script will also receive an award, full script coverage, (possibly goods) and possible representation by a respected Canadian agent
• 2nd Place script will receive an award (and possibly goods) and full coverage of their script and possible representation by a respected Canadian agent
• 3rd Place script will receive an award (and possibly goods) and full coverage of their script and possible representation by a respected Canadian agent

ReelHeART “Off The Shelf” Competition

The ReelHeART “Off The Shelf” Category was introduced in 2008 for films of all genres that never saw the light of day, or never reached an audience shortly after the film was completed. Your film has to be more than 5 years old to be eligible-

Over the past 6 seasons, ReelHeART has been impressed with the number of films we come across during our research that are quality films but we’ve never heard of before. Art House films, documentaries, experimental films and animation- We’ve seen a quite a few and liked them.

Whether your film was created on a student/no/lo/moderate/or big budget we’d like to see it. If your film passes our criterion for all of our other categories, we’ll put it thought the same screening and scoring process as our other submissions.

We know there are quite a few experimental films out there that their loving filmmakers ‘tweaked for years’ only to be beat out by time, technology or money to market and screen their film.

We also know there are genre specific “blaxplotation”, “avant-garde”, “queer” “b-movie” and “underground” films that never got through the doors of very many theaters if at all. We know there’s tons of documentaries, quirky profiles, garage music videos, x-rated animation and experimental mixed media out there. If your film is one of these, we want to see it.

If your film is over 5 years old and you’d like to see how it matches up to its contemporaries, we urge you to submit your film today. We’re excited about this addition to ReelHeART. We hope you will be too!

• Best “Off The Shelf” Prize
  Winner will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

This prize is NOT shared with other categories

ReelHeART ReelTube Film and Video Competition

ReelHeART has decided to introduce web videos to its film festival audience to see if filmgoers are willing to see something on the big screen they can see anytime they want on the Internet.

The criterion for getting in this category is fairly simple. We ask that you DO NOT SUBMIT ANY unauthorized clips from television shows, films and music videos.

We also ask that you DO NOT SUBMIT videos containing pornography, nudity, defamation, harassment, commercial advertisements and material encouraging criminal conduct. Your video has to be all original with only “fair use” of material (i.e. music, an image, a quote).

Your video has to have production values, i.e. Clear Video, Clean Audio and a STORY. This category also includes cinéma vérité. Other than that, absolutely anything goes!

The Top Winner will be awarded a “Best of Prize” honor and that my friend, you can submit to other film festivals and eventually shop around to Hollywood…

• Best “ReelTube” Prize
  Winner will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

ReelHeART Thesis Film Competition

Calling all Thesis Filmmakers! Ok, so what have you done lately with that thesis film of yours?We don’t care what year you graduated. We just care that your film has excellent production values and a great story– for whatever year.

Spike Lee’s thesis film was called “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads“. Since then he’s made over 35 films. So, have you got a thesis film we should see before you make it big?

Where has it screened? If it hasn’t screened in Toronto, Canada, we may be interested in seeing it.

Your thesis film has to have production values, i.e. Clear Video, Clean Audio and a STORY. This category also includes cinéma vérité.

The criterion for getting in the category is fairly simple. We ask that you DO NOT SUBMIT ANY unauthorized clips from television shows, films, books, magazines and music videos.

We also ask that you DO NOT SUBMIT videos containing defamation, harassment, commercial advertisements and material encouraging criminal conduct.

Your thesis film has to be all original with only “fair use” of material (i.e. music, an image, a quote).

Narrative, Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Underground – This category is wide open. Whatever you made as your thesis film, it’s eligible in this category. Prizes in this category are 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place as well as in competition for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Venue.

You’ll need to write a brief cover letter that gives us details about you, your school program, the year you graduated (we don’t care even if it was in the 40s), the mark you got (high or low doesn’t matter it’s the content we’re interested in), and what you’ve done since making your thesis film.

If you haven’t made it to a film festival yet, why not make it one with ReelHeART…

• Best “Thesis Film” Prize
  Winner will receive a personalized Medallion or Trophy

This prize is NOT shared with other categories