AMV Contest

Thank you for joining us for Toshocon ! See you Tuesday, July 01, 2025 .

ToshoCON Anime Music Video (AMV) Contest Rules

Age Requirement

  • Editors must be between the ages of 12 and 19, with only limited help from persons above that age.

Residency Requirement

  • Winners must live within the state of Utah and must pick up any awards in-person, either at the event or shortly thereafter.

Categories

  • There will be two categories for judging and prizes.
    • Short Form: Entries less than a minute in length.
    • Long Form: Entries between a minute and five minutes in length.

Entries

  • Editors may submit a maximum of three entries per category. Group submissions are allowed, but the limit of three entries per editor/group still applies. If entering as a group, please submit your video only once.
  • While entering in both categories is permitted, entrants cannot win in both categories.

Length

  • Entries must be at least 30 seconds long and no longer than five minutes. Three minutes is the recommended maximum length for long form entries, and around 30 seconds for short form.

Content

  • Entries must be uniquely created for ToshoCON 2025 and not previously submitted to other contests.
  • Entries must be at least 70% from anime, and must have music for at least 70% of the total runtime.
  • Excessive violence and sexual content is not allowed. Nudity is not allowed. Entries must adhere to PG-13/TV-14 standards, with the committee having the final say as to the eligibility of the entry.
    • This includes the music choices as well. No profane, sexually explicit, obscene, or otherwise indecent content allowed. You may bleep out inappropriate lyrics yourself or use a radio edit of the song. Again, the committee has final say as to what is appropriate.

Plagiarism

  • Entries must be the creation of the submitting editor(s). All entries should be submitted via a shareable link through Google Drive or Dropbox. If the video is uploaded to YouTube or another video-sharing platform, please include that link with your entry. Additionally, post a comment on the video (from the same account that uploaded it) stating that the video has been submitted to ToshoCON 2025.

Watermarks and Subtitles

  • Watermarks on any video clips are strongly discouraged. Some leeway may be extended for program marks, such as the “www.fraps.com” mark appearing on clips created using the free version of the software.
  • Subtitles are strongly discouraged unless they are added by the editor to add to the AMV.

Submission Deadline

  • Files must be submitted to the committee no later than Saturday, August 16, 2025 11:59 pm MDT.

Technical Requirements

  • We will try to be flexible with the editors about file extensions and codecs of the video/audio. If we cannot get the video to work with our systems, the entry will be disqualified.
  • Video resolutions must be at least 640x480.
    • Be especially careful of where you source your clips. Fan-subs/dubs that have already been compressed/edited will result in poor quality AMV’s. Footage sourced directly from DVDs of the anime are suggested.
  • Due to the large file size of video submissions, please upload your files to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox or Google Drive and provide a shareable link.
  • Links MUST be accessible throughout the submission and judging process. If at any time a judge tries to access your video and finds that it is set to “private” or requires a login account (free or paid) to download, that may be grounds for disqualification. Reasonable attempts will be made to access and view the file. At best, your entry will not be scored at all.

Award Presentation

  • Awards will be presented Saturday evening at the Finale and Awards presentation.
  • Winners will be announced at the end of the event, and it is strongly encouraged participants be present to accept any awards. No prizes will be mailed to any winners.
  • Participants must live in Utah. Any unclaimed prizes at the end of ToshoCON must be picked up in-person from a Salt Lake County Library branch. The prize pick-up deadline is October 18, 2025.
  • All prizes that have not been picked up at a Salt Lake County Library Branch by October 18, 2025 become the property of Salt Lake County Library.

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