Competition Regulations

1) The 2018 Brazil-Florida Student Screenplay Treatment Competition is sponsored by the Latin American Training Center-LATC and the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies of Florida Atlantic University, with support by The Brazil International Foundation, and REBRAFIC, the Brazilian Film Commission Network, and Forcine, the Brazilian Forum for the Teaching of Film and Audiovisual. Focused on cross-border and immigration themes, the competition aims to encourage co-productions of feature films (fiction or documentaries) between Florida and Brazil, to promote location shooting in two countries, as well as to help new writers find success in today’s highly competitive film and entertainment industries.

2) The competition is open to registered university students in Florida and Brazil. The participant must be a citizen or permanent resident of these locations.

3) The participant may only compete individually. Collective participation, or the co-authorship of the treatment for the purposes of this competition, will not be allowed. 

4) Only 1 (one) treatment, in English or Portuguese, 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) Persons directly related to the members of the Selection Committee may not participate in this competition. “Persons 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 23, 2018 and concludes on May 30, 2018. In the event that 30 qualified applications are received from each region (Florida and Brazil) before the deadline, the application period will end at that time.

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

PHASE 1 – THE APPLICATION:

A) The Competition application form may be downloaded from this link.
B) Participants will send to the Coordinator of the Competition, Mr. Tiago Elídio, LATC Project Manager, at tiago.latc@gmail.com, the following documents (The email “subject” must be identified as “Brazil-Florida Student Screenplay Treatment Competition 2018”):

  • The completed application form, scanned.
  • Scanned photo ID (driver’s license, passport page, RG).
  • Confirmation of active university enrollment.
  • A script treatment, in English or Portuguese, 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: 2,5 cm or one inch.

C) The participant whose application does not contain all of the required documentation in accordance with the previous items will not be accepted.
D) 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.
E) Only the first 30 qualified and completed applications from Florida and the first 30 from Brazil will be accepted.
F) After all documents are checked and validated, the corresponding treatments will be sent to the Selection Committee.

PHASE 2 – THE SELECTION:

A) The first 30 treatments from each region validated by LATC will be judged by a jury composed of one representative of LATC, one representative designated by Florida Atlantic University, and one representative of The Brazil International Foundation, utilizing a ranking system according to the criteria below:

  1. Is the subject or theme suitable to the medium (fiction feature film or documentary)?
  2. Is the story line creative, original and/or innovative?
  3. Does the treatment offer real potential to become a full script and film?
  4. Do the subject and story line offer potential for showing in exhibitions/festivals?
  5. Would the subject or theme be of interest for commercial theatrical and/or television distribution?
  6. Does the subject have potential for co-production?
  7. Is the subject or theme consistent with the cross-border and immigration theme of the Competition?

8) Based on the criteria above, the jury will select the top three screenplay treatments from Florida and the top three screenplay treatment from Brazil.

9) The decisions by the jury shall be final. Neither LATC nor Florida Atlantic University may be considered responsible for the decisions of the Jury.

10) The first-place winning screenplay treatment from Florida and the first-place winning screenplay treatment from Brazil will each receive a U$500 cash award from LATC, toward development of the screenplays. Second-place winners will receive a cash prize of U$300 and third-place winners will receive U$200. They will also receive a copy of the LATC publication, “Latin American Cinema Today: The Director’s Perspective”.

11) The winning treatments will also be made available by LATC to independent production companies in the US and Latin America, through its agreements with production organizations and others, 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 production companies. LATC will not participate in such negotiations, nor obtain any commercial rights derived from the treatments.

12) The results of the Competition will be announced on June 22, 2018 (tentative), in press releases of the sponsoring organizations, on the LATC and Florida Atlantic University websites and by other means to be determined by the co-sponsors, LATC and Florida Atlantic University.

13) 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.

14) Any questions or issues related to administration of the Competition will be resolved at the sole discretion of LATC and Florida Atlantic University.

15) General questions should first be directed to Tiago Elídio, Coordinator of the Competition.

16) By the simple fact of participation in this Competition, participants accept and agree that the LATC, Florida Atlantic University, their directors, employees, assignees, licensees and/or contractors, as well as the co-sponsors and jury members, 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 on any of the dates in this Competition, including but not limited to, problems with telephone lines, communication problems, software and/or hardware problems, problems Internet access, etc.

17) LATC and Florida Atlantic University reserve the right to modify the present Regulations, in order to ensure the proper administration of this Competition. LATC and Florida Atlantic University also reserve the right to temporarily or definitively suspend this Competition, in the case of Force Majeure, or any other reasons which justify it. As such, LATC and Florida Atlantic University will publicly report their decision to suspend the Competition, and the reasons to support 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, at the discretion of LATC and Florida Atlantic University, and the Competition co-sponsors.

20) The winners of the Competition automatically transfer to LATC and Florida Atlantic University, 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) Communications to participants will be made via email.

22) Each participant states and ensures that the material provided as part of the application does not violate the copyright or any other rights of any third party, and exempts the LATC, Florida Atlantic University, as well as the co-sponsors and jury members, 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 consulting firm focused on professional development of the new generation of filmmakers and other media professionals in Latin America. LATC also offers a full array of consulting services for film and television projects and film commissions, including project development and packaging, co-production orientation, identification of appropriate funding sources, as well as international representation. www.latamtrainingcenter.com

24) Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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