The Certified Outsiders
Award and Film Festival
I am a local Filmmaker in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada who has seen a growing problem with independent productions in that many filmmakers have a tremendous problem getting recognized for production below a certain standard. I’ve created the CERTIFIED OUTSIDERS AWARD and have built a film festival around it.
This Award and Festival are both new projects (never having been initiated nor awarded before). It’s a festival for completed productions that are having difficulty finding any place to be recognized for the effort they have put in to date; due to some issue or another such as sound problems, quality of equipment used, unavoidable acting concerns, lack of funding for promotion, or, perhaps more interestingly; lack of a single genre (or similar “outside” concerns). It is my dream to establish this film festival as recognition for all the work that has gone in to bringing any story to completion regardless. It’s hard enough to bring a film to completion (through editing) without having a place to display it in the end.
All entries would be submitted via a nomination process allowing for friends/family to further show support by being involved in their artists’ promotion. From all entries submitted My team will narrow selections by two criteria only: completed story and suitability for an audience.
Those selected from the larger pool to be taken into the festival as a competition film will be submitted to the jury for category dissemination. Categories will be “Genre”, “Drama”, “Comedy”, “Mixed” and “Genuine Outsider”. Films submitted can be added to multiple categories if necessary.
It is the intention to have the polls open via Internet viewing on a website that I, myself, will provide free of charge for this first year. All votes will be 1 per production per person, and crew members will exempted from voting for the film on which they directly worked. Myself and my team will vet each vote for legitimacy (completeness, non-multiples from a single IP address, real human individuals, and etc.). Voting will be based on a rating system of 0 to 10 stars.
As this is considered a FILM festival I will make the requirement 30 minutes – 3 hours in length and that the project not having been accepted by any film festival to the date of festival voting close.
The official awards ceremony, at its smallest, would be held in the most fitting venue available with the resources at the time. It is planned to be during the “Awards season” each year, before and after a viewing party hosted at a local restaurant for invitees and ticket holders only.
Awards provided will be by local industry related sponsors and will include such things as $2400 credit for rental equipment (by availability), 4-days of studio use (by availability), A free filmmaker course (1-year part time), and others.
This is a not-for-profit endeavor.
- All participants involved (Producers and Directors) will receive a “Certified Outsiders – (year) Selection” plaque.
- The top 3 winning a sponsored industry certificate as noted above
- An Honorable Mention for creativity receiving a branded smoked ham and an award plaque as a prize
- The Grand Prize winner receiving the title of “Certified Outsider (year)” and a packaged production certificate for our sponsors with the intention of offering what amounts to as all of the elements involved in a single 4-day shoot, to bring their next production to light
- A “Peoples Choice Award” called “the Certified Outsiders — Maverick Award” will be awarded to any competition film who wins the People’s Choice (largest number of #1 votes but shut out from the top 5 and winning any award otherwise). This award will be an engraved two-topped trophy that shows a grouping of people on one side and a solitary figure on the other.
All involved will receive exposure through our website and cross pollination via a strong social media strategy, as well as any press and special interest news television, and all will also gain the benefit of having their work displayed somewhere, which is what our selections will have been suffering from. It is my hope to arrange a partnership with a local television station to provide airtime for the top 6 (Grand Prize “Certified Outsider”, 3 runners up, Honorable Mention and “Maverick”) which we will use for publicity moving forward into the future.
The Grant offered by your system will go towards administration, materials, space and incidentals as is necessary to bring this project from today through completion.
I will not receive payment for my involvement nor would any of the people who are currently involved on my team (although we reserve the right to grant, or not to grant, honorariums upon completion of the festival to award spectacular performance, and only if funds remain).
I can assure you that we can meet all of these targets with the assistance of this Grant.
