Competition Regulations

1) The 2014 Mexico-US Screenplay Treatment Competition is organized by the LATC-Latin American Training Center, with support by the Tucson Film Office, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers-NALIP, the University of Arizona Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Sonora Turismo and Film Commission, the Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara and Final Draft Screenwriting Software. Focused on cross-border themes, the competition aims to encourage co-productions of feature films (fiction or documentaries) between Mexico and the US, to promote location shooting in borders states, as well as to help new writers find success in today’s highly competitive film and entertainment industries.

2) The competition is open to filmmakers and screenwriters, over 18 years of age, with a university degree in any field, on both sides of the border, who do not have any feature film produced to date. The participant must be a citizen or permanent resident of either the US or Mexico.

3) Treatments co-authored by more than one writer may be submitted.  However, such submissions may be made only in the name of one of the authors.  The first-place prize is granted only to one author in representation of the treatment submitted.

4) Only 1 (one) treatment, in English or Spanish, will be accepted per participant. The treatment must not have been submitted to any production company for negotiation and/or production, nor previously awarded a prize in similar competitions. Treatments accepted to participate in the Competition may only be negotiated with production companies at the conclusion of the competition.

5) Participants directly related to the members of the Selection Committee may not participate in this competition. “Participants directly related” refers to individuals who have relatives up to the third degree, as well as current working and/or contractual ties.

6) The application period begins on April 1, 2014 and concludes on May 10, 2014. In the event that 25 qualified applications are received from each country before the deadline, the application period ends at that time.

7) The Competition will consist of two phases, as follows:

PHASE 1 – THE APPLICATION:

1) The Competition application form may be downloaded from the LATC website latamtrainingcenter.com;
2) Participants will send to Mr. Tiago Elídio, at: tiago.latc@gmail.com, the following documents (The email “subject” must be identified as “2014 Mexico-US Screenplay Treatment Competition”):
a) The completed application form;
b) Scanned photo ID (driver’s license, passport page or Cédula de Identidad);
c) A script treatment, in Spanish or English, in the following format:
– File format: Word.doc;
– Up to 3 pages, numbered;
– Formatting: Times New Roman; Size 12; 1,5 Line spacing;
– Upper, lower, left and right margins: 2,5cm.
3) The participant whose email does not contain all of the required documentation in accordance with the previous items will be eliminated from the Competition.
4) Each applicant will receive an email confirming receipt of the application and indicating if it is complete. Participants will have 48 hours to provide missing information.
5) Only the first 25 qualified and completed applications from each country will be accepted.
6) After all documents are checked and validated, the corresponding treatments are sent to the Selection Committee.

PHASE 2 – THE SELECTION

8 ) The evaluation of the treatments will be held by a Selection Committee composed of:
• One representative of NALIP,
• One representative of the Tucson Film Office,
• One representative of the Sonora Turismo Film Commission,
• One representative of the University of Arizona Department of Spanish and Portuguese,
• One representative of LATC.

9) The first treatments of each country validated by the LATC will be judged by the Selection Committee utilizing a ranking system according to the criteria below:

a) Is the subject or theme suitable to the medium (fiction feature film or documentary)?
b) Is the story line creative, original and/or innovative?
c) Does the treatment offer real potential to become a full script and film?
d) Do the subject and story line offer potential for showing in exhibitions/festivals?
e) Would the subject or theme be of interest for commercial theatrical and/or television distribution?
f) Does the subject have potential for co-production between Mexico and the US?
g) Does the subject or theme offer potential to be filmed in US and Mexico Border States?

10) The decisions of the Selection Committee shall be final. LATC is not responsible for the decisions of the Committee.

11) The first-place winning screenplay treatment from Mexico and the first-place winning screenplay treatment from the US will each receive a U$500 cash award from LATC, toward development of the screenplays, and a Gift Certificate for digital download of Final Draft 9 screenwriting software. In addition, the five finalists from each country will receive a copy of the book “Latin American Cinema Today: The Director’s Perspective”, a LATC publication.

12) The ten selected treatments (five finalists from each country) will be made available to production companies on both sides of the border for possible acquisition, development and/or production. The timing and form of making the treatment available to production companies will be determined by LATC. Any and all negotiations between screenwriters and production companies are private, between the authors and the companies. LATC will not participate in such negotiations nor obtain any commercial rights derived from the treatments.

13) The results of the Competition will be announced in the first week of June (tentative), in press releases of the sponsoring organizations, on the LATC website and by other means to be determined by the sponsors and LATC.

14) Participation in the Competition implies full acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Competition and the present Regulations, selection process and the selection criteria.

15) Any questions or issues related to administration of the Competition will be resolved at the sole discretion of LATC.

16) By the simple fact of participation in this Competition, participants accept and agree that the LATC, its directors, employees, assignees, licensees and/or contractors, shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from participation in the Competition or the acceptance and/or use of the awards received through participation in this Competition, as well as derivative of any external problems or force majeure that may preclude participation in any of the dates provided for in this Competition, including but not limited to, problems with telephone lines, communication problems, software and/or hardware problems, problems of speed access to Internet and/or problems of the Internet providers etc.

17) LATC reserves the right to modify or change the present Regulations, in order to ensure the proper administration of this Competition. It reserves, moreover, the right to temporarily or definitely suspend this Competition, on the hypothesis that there are reasons of force majeure or any other reasons which justify it. It must, in this case, publicly report its decision to suspend the Competition, and the reasons on which it is supported, to make that decision. Decisions by LATC on any issues relating to these Regulations shall be final.

18) The awards of this Competition will be non-transferable.

19) Participants who fail to sign the application form are automatically excluded from this Competition. Participants who may defraud or evade the Regulations will also be excluded from this Competition.

20) The winners of the Competition automatically transfer to the LATC, without cost and for indeterminate period, the right to use their names, image and voice, for the purposes of publicity of any aspects of this Competition.

21) Notifications to participants will be carried out via email.

22) Each participant states and ensures that the material contained in the application does not violate the copyright or any other rights of any third party and exempts the LATC of any related claims that may arise on the subject.

23) Located in Rio de Janeiro, the Latin American Training Center – Centro Latino-Americano de Treinamento e Assessoria Audiovisual – is a regional media training and audiovisual consulting firm focused on professional development of the new generation of filmmakers and other audiovisual professionals in Latin America. LATC specializes in creative training programs for audiovisual content producers based on new-technology business models. LATC also offers consulting services for audiovisual projects and film commissions, including project development and packaging, co-production orientation, identification of appropriate funding sources, as well as international representation. LATC is affiliated to: CILECT – Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision (Brussels), IFTA – Independent Film & Television Alliance (Los Angeles), IFP – Independent Filmmaker Project (New York), NALIP – National Association of Latino Independent Producers (Los Angeles), The Incentives Office (Los Angeles), EGEDA – Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de los Productores Audiovisuales (Madrid), Rio Film School (Rio de Janeiro), Cesnik, Quintino e Salinas Advogados (São Paulo) and the Américas Film Conservancy – AFC. latamtrainingcenter.com

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