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Amazon Video offers promo film-makers £30,000 prize fund

PromaxBDA UK Short Film Festival 2016 Announces Amazon Video UK Sponsorship

Amazon Video offers promo film-makers £30,000 prize fund and fast-track onto platform in front of millions of UK & US Amazon Video customers

PromaxBDA UK Short Film Festival 2016 at ‘The New Normal’ Conference at Here East, London, UK

This year’s PromaxBDA UK Short Film Festival includes Amazon Video as its latest sponsor and is now open for entries.

Produced in association with SuperGrizzly by Matthew White - founder and director of the Festival, the showcase is a chance for television promotion and marketing professionals to present original, creative longer-form work to their peers and the international audience reached by Amazon Video, and be recognised for the contribution they make to the television and film industries.

Often seen as the “unsung heroes” of television, this year’s showcase will offer these film-makers the opportunity to share in a prize fund of £30,000 which can be used for anything from upgrading filming equipment to funding their next big film, as well as an exclusive opportunity to be supported by Amazon Video Direct and have their content uploaded onto Amazon Video. This means that short films submitted by original and independent content makers can be found on Amazon Video, alongside Amazon Original and Exclusive TV and film content from the likes of Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott.  This represents a unique opportunity for film-makers to be “discovered” and reach an audience in the millions across the UK and US.

Every film submitted will be personally viewed by Amazon Video Direct, a self-releasing platform for professional video makers; a selection of independent film-makers and the Board of PromaxBDA UK, a leading non-for-profit organisation representing the UK television and digital marketing & design industry.

From the submissions, five finalists will be chosen for all-day screenings in the Short Film Festival Lounge at PromaxBDA UK’s ‘The New Normal’ Conference on 3 November 2016 at Here East, London. The event will house over 500 television, media, marketing and design professionals along with leading industry figures who will be speaking at the event, including those from BBC, ITN, NBC Universal International, Sky, Channel 4, Viceland, Facebook and Amazon. 

The winner will be announced the following day, 4 November 2016, with a teaser screening and presented with their award by Russell Morris (Amazon Video Marketing & Merchandising Director) at the PromaxBDA UK Awards 2016 at Hilton Park Lane, London, hosted by comedian Kathryn Ryan, and sponsored by ENVY Post Production.

The Call for Entries closes 27 October 2016.

PromaxBDA UK Chair, Frank Radice comments:
“The PromaxBDA UK Short Film Festival sponsorship with Amazon Video is all about championing promo-makers - the unsung heroes of television. Promo-makers are film-makers and deserve visibility for their longer-form creativity. We’re excited to be offering this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those people to have their work recognised in the same way that established film-makers like your Woody Allens and Quentin Tarantinos do.

Amazon Video is the perfect sponsor - they are at the leading edge of ‘The New Normal’. They are at the pinnacle of digital video distribution, and to have them support the PromaxBDA UK Short Film Festival is to bring this fantastic array of content creators into a new level of prominence in the industry. We are proud to work with Amazon Video and SuperGrizzly to showcase this wonderful creative at our Conference and Awards.”

PromaxBDA UK Vice-Chair, Marc Ortmans comments:
“Since 2010, the Festival has become an essential part of our Conference as it is our major showcase for what raw creativity and talent can really do when given a blank sheet of paper. There will be a special screening lounge running all day at the Conference so fellow industry peers can recognise the talent on offer. 

The winner will receive the influential Muse Award at the PromaxBDA UK Awards 2016, which gives film-makers invaluable industry exposure whether to attract future funding to for further accolades; in fact, one of our previous winners has gone on to be listed by both BAFTA and the Academy Awards for their short film.”