Florence 10th - 17th November 2012

International documentary film festival

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Rules and Regulations

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  1. The 53rd edizione del Festival dei Popoli – International Documentary Film Festival – will take place in Florence from the 10th to the 17th of November 2012.

  2. The aim of the Festival dei Popoli is to promote and circulate documentary cinema and cutting-edge films, foster discussion between various branches of learning, and provide a space for the cinematic arts and other disciplines to engage with each other and grow.

  3. The festival is organized by the Festival dei Popoli – ONLUS, the Italian Institute for Social Documentary Film - with the support of the Italian Ministry for Arts and Culture (Bureau of Cinema), the Tuscan Region, the City of Florence (Department of Culture) as well as the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. Additional support is provided by other public institutions and by some private sponsors.

  4. The Promotional Division of the Committee for Cinematography, a branch of the Italian Ministry for Arts and Culture, has recognized the national relevance of the Festival dei Popoli.

  5. The Festival includes the following sections: International Competition, Panorama, tributes and retrospectives, focus, Special Events.

  6. The decisions of the Directors and the Selection Committee are based on those they consider to be the artistic and linguistic merits of the work.

  7. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

    Documentaries from all nations will be considered only if completed after October 1st 2011. The date of the first public screening of the film is crucial. Films must be World, International, European or Italian Premieres. Works already screened in Italy, in any place and context, will not be admitted.
    If a film is selected, screening formats allowed are: 35mm, HDCAM; DCP, Digibeta, Betacam SP PAL,. Other formats must be approved by the Festival Office.
    No rental fees will be paid for this section.

    International Documentary Film Competition

    Film length must be 40 minutes or longer.
    An International Jury composed of leading figures in Cinema or Culture will bestow the following awards:

    • Best Documentary: € 8,000.00 (divided equally between the director and the production).
    • Best Director: € 3,500.00.
    • Best Anthropological Film: “Gian Paolo Paoli” Award.

    Special Mentions may also be granted.
    The awards will be paid within twelve months of the Award Ceremony.
    The films included in this section will participate in the Audience Award (see paragraph 11).
    Italian films will participate, in addition, in the Cinemaitaliano.info - CG Home Video Award (see paragraph 10).

    International Short Documentary Competition

    Film length must be shorter than 40 minutes.
    The International Jury (see paragraph 7.a) will bestow the following award:

    • Best Documentary Short: € 2,500.00 (divided equally between the director and production team). Special Mentions may also be granted.

    A International Jury, composed of students of the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute and University of Florence, will bestow the following award:

    • Premio Lorenzo De’ Medici - Università di Firenze: € 1,000.00 (awarded to the director).

    The awards will be paid within twelve months of the Award Ceremony.

  8. PANORAMA

    Section dedicated to Italian documentaries.

    1. Panorama

      Italian documentaries of any duration completed after October 1st, 2011. Films already released in Italy may be included in this section. The films will participate in the Cinemaitaliano.info - CG Home Video Award (see paragraph 10).

    2. Panorama in Cantiere

      This section, organized in collaboration with Documentaristi Anonimi - Tuscan Documentary Association and Cinemaitaliano.info, is reserved to a selection of unfinished Italian documentary films, work in progress, presented in draft form for an open debate with the audience and the professionals attending the festival.

  9. OTHER SECTIONS

    For the other sections (Retrospective, Hommage, Tributes, Special Events), the festival management will invite films they deem appropriate for the Festival programme. These sections are non-competitive and there are no restrictions based on production date. Films already released in Italy may be shown.

  10. "CINEMAITALIANO.INFO - CG HOME VIDEO" AWARD

    Italian films selected in the International Documentary Film Competition (paragraph 7.a) and Panorama (paragraph 8.a) are given the opportunity to compete for the "Cinemaitaliano.info - CG Home Video" Award, subject to acceptance at the time of the invitation by the festival.
    Through this award, CG Home Video (www.cghv.it) offers the opportunity to publish on DVD, distribute and market throughout the Italian territory of the film declared as winner by a jury composed of the editors of Cinemaitaliano.info webmagazine (www.cinemaitaliano.info).

  11. AUDIENCE AWARD

    All films included in the International Documentary Film Competition (paragraph 7.a) will compete for the Audience Award.

  12. The selection, the general programme and the schedule of the screenings are decided upon by the Festival Management alone. Filmmakers and/or Producers will be notified of the results of the selection by October 12th 2012. .

  13. If a film is released after being shown at the festival, all advertising and promotional materials must carry the festival's logo and must make explicit mention of the film’s participation in the 53rd Festival dei Popoli and of the awards assigned, if any.

  14. FILM REGISTRATION

    1. Submission of films for pre-selection is free.

    2. Films must be submitted through the online registration procedure on our website http://www.festivaldeipopoli.org/

    3. The registration and shipping of materials listed in paragraph 14.e must be made no later than June 15th 2012 for films produced before April 30th 2012 (as attested by the postmark); no later than July 30th 2012 (as attested by the postmark) for films either produced after April 30th 2012 or still in production.

    4. For the Panorama in Cantiere section (paragraph 8.b), the registration must be made no later than July 30th, 2012. The material required in paragraph 14.f must be mailed no later than September 10th, 2012 (as attested by the postmark).

    5. Materials required for submission should be sent by post:

      • DVD

      • European zone “2” or zone “0”. Each copy must contain only one film and must be a high quality reproduction.

      • CD

      • Film synopsis in English.

      • Director’s biography in English (min 400/max 500 characters, spaces included).

      • Director’s filmography (list of titles and years of production).

      • Director’s statement.

      • Photographic documentation with publishing authorization:
        a) 2 images of the film 300 dpi in JPEG format, 7 cm wide (for promotion on the web);
        b) 3 to 5 images of the film in jpg/tif/eps/pdf at 300 dpi, 20 cm wide (for press and catalogue).
        Each photo should be labelled with the film title and a number (e.g. film_title1.jpg; film_title2.jpg). The photos will be published in colour on the Festival website and in black and white on the Festival catalogue. It's possible to send both colour and black and white versions of the photos.

      • Complete and final list of dialogues, including any voice off (post-production script) and list of subtitles (if any), in one of the following languages: English, French, Italian.

      • Any other information that may be useful for selection purposes.

      • Paper Printed

      • E-mail confirmation of successful registration, printed and signed.

    6. Materials required for submission to "Panorama in cantiere" should be sent by post:

      • DVD

      • European zone “2” or zone “0”. The DVD may contain a rough copy of the film.

      • CD

      • Film synopsis in Italian;

      • Director’s biography in Italian (min 400/max 500 characters, spaces included);

      • Director’s filmography (list of titles and years of production);

      • Director’s statement.

      • Paper Printed

      • E-mail confirmation of successful registration, printed and signed.

    7. Authors of all selected films will be asked to provide 3 additional exact copies on DVD of the version to be screened. The DVDs will be used:

      1. to prepare Italian subtitles
      2. for press purposes
      3. for the Festival Video-library

    8. Shipping costs, as well as any customs fees, are at the expense of the participants. For customs purposes, we recommend you label your package: “Without commercial value, for cultural purposes only”. The Festival will not return materials or DVDs. All materials should be sent to:

      Festival dei Popoli
      Borgo Pinti 82r
      50121 Florence - Italy

    9. Filmmakers and/or producers are solely responsible for the contents of their film and must declare, upon registration in the Festival, to have fully complied with copyright laws.

    10. Videolibrary
      Submission offers the possibility, when registering the film, to be included in the videolibrary (access is allowed with professional pass) with the aim of promoting a number of titles not selected for the programme, but that the Direction and the Selection Committee consider outstanding and to which they intend to give visibility.

    11. Registration is subject to acceptance of the condition that all materials received – including DVDs – shall remain in the Festival Archives and that permission is granted to the Festival to use them for educational, research, or promotional ends, including places and contexts other than the Festival, excluding commercial use. Finally, the Festival will act as a mediator between authors/producers and distributors.

  15. SELECTED FILMS AND SHIPPING TO THE FESTIVAL

    1. Film copies for screening must arrive in Florence no later than October 26th 2012 and must be mailed to the address provided upon selection.

    2. Shipments made from outside the European Union must include a customs invoice, a list of items, travel documents (indicating the number of reels, length of film in meters, titles and quantity of video supports for each film). At the same time, the sender must notify the Festival Office of the shipping by sending an e-mail or fax with the following information: title of the film, number of reels, date and references of the shipment (AWB number).

    3. Shipping expenses and customs clearance for screening copies of the selected films must be covered by the sender. Shipping expenses and customs clearance for the return of the items will be covered by the Festival. Should a copy of the film be requested for another festival after the screening of the film or anytime during the Festival dei Popoli, shipping expenses and customs clearance must be covered by the interested party. In any case, the Festival dei Popoli will cover the costs of only one shipment.

    4. The Festival dei Popoli provides a “nail to nail” insurance clause for copies of the film included in the programme. In case of loss or damage of a copy, the Festival's liability will be limited to the costs of reprinting copies, based on Italian prices.

    5. Should a filmmaker or producer decide to withdraw his film from the Festival after the acceptance of the Official Invitation, he/she must pay a compensation fee of € 1,000.00.

  16. DONATIONS TO THE FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI ARCHIVES

    Donations of the screening copy (film or tape) to the Festival dei Popoli Archives are greatly appreciated. The donated copy will be used for educational and research purposes only, and for preservation and promotion of documentary film, not for commercial use.

  17. Participation in the selection implies the complete acceptance of the above Rules and Regulations. In case of conflicting interpretations, only the Italian version of the Rules and Regulations is considered valid.

  18. Any litigation will be judged by the Court of Florence, Italy.

Done in Firenze on March 21st, 2012

Download the regulations