17 March 2014

Uni Shorts International Student Film Festival 2014 organisers have announced an extension to the submission entry deadline and 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.”

Student filmmakers are invited to enter their short films for the third annual Uni Shorts International Student Film Festival 2014. The call for entries is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students attending New Zealand and international film schools, animation/design schools, universities, polytechnics, tertiary institutions. High school student filmmakers in New Zealand are also invited to submit their films.

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.

Our Early Bird deadline is approaching on 28 February. So don’t miss out on the discounted entry fee. Entry forms received on or before the early bird deadline date, and postmarked as such, will be counted. The general deadline is 28 March and no entries will be accepted after that date.

The 2013 Uni Shorts festival in Auckland saw a record number of entries from across New Zealand and around the world. This year’s festival promises to be even bigger and better with more prizes and forums for student filmmakers. Festival and venue dates will be confirmed shortly.

 It’s so easy to enter! Follow the 3 easy steps:

1.  Fill in the entry form online
2. Send us your DVD Screener
3. After you’ve entered your film, email a synopsis/tagline & production credits for your film, a brief director’s bio (80 words max) and the director’s head shot photo to unishorts@unitec.ac.nz.