We live in paradoxical times: the equipment necessary to produce films is in all of our pockets, yet professional and indie films alike…
We live in paradoxical times: the equipment necessary to produce films is in all of our pockets, yet professional and indie films alike have ballooning budgets and increasingly conservative aims. When I first ran the No-Budget Film Contest in 2010, this was already the case; [when I revived it eight years later](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/the-return-of-the-no-budget-film- contest-99508a7297bd), the landscape had not improved.
Luckily, the easiest way to convince people that filmmaking is accessible to the masses is also the most effective: demonstration.
Here’s the incentive: the person who best demonstrates that an entertaining, engaging film can be made with no budget gets a tiny cash prize, a picture of a no-longer-circulating coin, and a very dubious title: Best No- Budget Film of 2020.
The submission deadline is July 4th, and I will announce the winners by September 1st.
Rules:
I will announce the winners by September 1st. First prize will be $5, transferred via paypal. The top three submissions (judged any way I like) will be posted on this blog, and will get the titles of Best No-Budget Film of 2020, Second Best No-Budget Film of 2020, and Third Best No-Budget Film of 2020. They will also get a picture of a golden coin trophy.
How to submit:
Upload your finished films to youtube or vimeo (or some other streaming video
site), and post the link in the comment thread of this post. The films may be
of any length, and you can enter as many times as you like.
If you cannot post comments on Medium for some reason but still want to enter, you can submit by email. Send exactly one email containing all entries to john.ohno+nobudget AT gmail.com with “NO BUDGET SUBMISSION” in the subject line.
About payment:
If you win, I will contact you by replying to your comment on this thread,
unless you’ve specified some other way. I’ll need to get the email address
associated with your paypal account, so that I can send you $5. Alternately,
you can provide me with a paypal.me link. If you do not expect to see
notifications from medium replies, please provide your paypal email or
paypal.me link with your submission!
Some guidelines:
I would like to be surprised by these films. They won’t be judged on the same
merits as professional productions — special effects are still pretty
expensive — but using interesting-yet-cheap experimental techniques or having
an impressive script or conceit will get my attention. I will prefer original
works over spoofs and swedes. I will rank films much higher if they strike me
as genuinely good, rather than merely impressive due to budget constraints.
By John Ohno on December 10, 2019.
[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/announcing-the-2020-no-budget- film-contest-b840149f2cf0)
Exported from Medium on September 18, 2020.
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