REGULATIONS
About Festival
The Big Cartoon Festival is the largest annual animation festival in Russia. Since 2007, it has
been introducing Russian audience to the best examples of Russian and foreign animation. The
Festival program includes screenings of full-length films, thematic programs of short animation
for adults and children, meetings with leading artists and directors, and master classes on various
animation techniques. During recent years, the Festival has been held in Moscow, Voronezh,
Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Khabarovsk, Norilsk, Togliatti and Lipetsk, and in July
2020 it is held online for the first time.
15th Big Cartoon Festival (BCF) will take place in Moscow (Russia) between the dates of
October 28 – November 8, 2021 The festival assumes offline screenings of all films of the
competition programs, but reserves the right to transfer the event completely to the online format
if it is impossible or unsafe for the participants to hold screenings in cinemas.
Competition Programs
The Festival competitive program includes:
- a) International Competition of Animated Short Films
- b) Russian National Competition of Animated Short Films
- c) International Competition of Animated films for Children
- d) International competition of Animated Series
Awards & Prizes
Jury of the International Competition presents the following prizes:
GRAND PRIХ for Best Short Animated Film
AWARD for Best Student Animated Film
AWARD for Best Non-narrative Animated Film
Special Jury Prize
Jury of the Russian Competition presents the following prizes:
AWARD for Best Russian Short Animated Film
AWARD for Best Russian Student Animated Film
AWARD for Best Russian Animated Film for Children
Special Jury Prize
Jury of the International Children Competition presents the following prizes:
AWARD for Best Episode of TV Show (under 12 y.o.)
AWARD for Best Episode of TV Show (over 12 y.o.)
AWARD for Best Foreign Animated Film for Children
Other Prizes
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
CRITICS CHOICE AWARD
PRIZE of the BCF Management
The Festival has three juries:
- International jury of the International Competition
- Russian Jury of the Russian National Competition
- International jury of the international competition of animated films for children and the
international competition of TV shows
Each jury consists of three persons closely associated with the art of animation.
The list of members of the jury is formed in the period from July 1 to September 15, 2021 The
names of the jury members are announced no later than 4 weeks before the start of the Festival.
Films created by members of the jury are not eligible to participate in any of the competition
programs that they judge. The decisions of the jury are final. The jury announces the results at
the closing ceremony of the Festival on November 8, 2021 The jury has the right to refuse to
award a prize in any category, if none of the works, in the opinion of the jury members, meets its
standards. The jury has the right to withhold an award in any category where no entries, in the
jury’s view, meet its standards for recognition.
The winners of the Festival will be notified of the receipt of the prize at the closing ceremony (if
they are present at it) or after its completion. The Festival sends prizes to film authors via courier
delivery at the Festival's expense. If a representative of the winning film is present at the closing
ceremony, the prize is handed over to him or her for self-delivery to their destination.
Rules & Terms
Submission of applications for the competition is carried out through the form posted on the
Festival’s page on the FilmFreeway website.
Films selected for competitive sections will be screened without screening fees.
The festival accepts films from 1 to 30 minutes.
All films must not have participated in the previous editions of the Festival.
All films must have been completed after January 1, 2020
Films are eligible for the Russian Competition if they are made in Russia or with a substantial
contribution of a Russian main crew member.
Films are eligible for the Foreign Competition if submitted in English or with English subtitles.
Each film selected for the Festival can be included in the program of only one competition. The
final decision on the inclusion of a film in a particular competition is reserved by the selection
committee.
The Festival will not consider works-in-progress.
The Festival will not consider advertisements.
Filmmakers are responsible for sorting out the copyright on their own materials.
The Festival places no restrictions on your work in terms of premiere status or whether your
work has been made available online.
The festival assumes offline screenings of all films of the competition programs, but reserves the
right to transfer the event completely to the online format if it is impossible or unsafe for the
participants to hold screenings in cinemas.
Films selected for the competition can be shown within the framework of the competition
programs no more than 4 times in any Moscow cinema or online on the festival platform for 3
days during the festival.
Public online screenings will be geographically limited to the territory of the Russian Federation.
In case of expansion of the screening area, the Festival will notify the representative of the film
in a letter about the inclusion of the film in the Festival program.
All participants of the competition programs, regardless of their location, are provided with free
access to the online platform of the Festival to view the competition programs.
The festival covers the cost of accommodation of nonresident participants of the competition
programs of the festival in a Moscow hotel, no more than 2 nights during the festival. The
Festival does not cover the cost of purchasing air tickets, train tickets to / from Moscow, taxi
tickets to / from the airport to the city, or the cost of food over the duration of the Festival
participant's stay in Moscow.
The Festival can use a maximum 1-minute sequence from the selected films to promote the BCF
2021 in any media. During the Festival, teasers of selected films may be screened at Festival
venues, in TV spots promoting the BCF, on the website of the Festival, and in multimedia
presentations during the Festival.
The Festival reserves the right to use film stills in promotional materials (Festival catalogue,
Festival journal, leaflets, posters, billboards, website, and multimedia presentations), and provide
them to the media for the purpose of disseminating information about the BCF.
Submission
Owners of the festival screening rights (hereinafter the “submitters”) may submit their films to
the 15th BCF before June 30th, 2021 for all the competition programs.
No registration fee is required.
The sending of a completed entry form and film constitutes a submitter’s full acceptance of the
Festival’s rules and regulations.
Screening Formats & Supplementary Materials
Submitters must provide a screening copy as a full HD video file (1920x1080) without black
bars and/or cropping, encoded with H264 video codec, packed as *.mp4 / *.mov / *.m2ts /
*.mkv. As for the audio, general stereo mix (2.0) is OK, encoded with AAC.
If there is no h264 version of the film availible, either of the following will be acceptable:
ProRes / DCP / BluRay (digital image).
If the Festival does not receive the required presentation copy in the proper format on or before
August 24th, 2021 for the international competition programs and before September 7th, 2021
for the Russian national competition program, the selected work will be withdrawn from the
Festival program.
The Festival also requires three (3) CMYK 300 dpi film stills, film description, dialogue lists
(with time codes or an .srt file of English subtitles) and a link to the film trailer where applicable.
Film description includes a synopsis, duration, country of production, studio of production, year
of production, credit list, animation technique used and information about the film's prizes and
its participation in competitions of other festivals.
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