Here’s the deal:

1. Filmmakers form teams, who will then work together to create a short film in just 26.2 hours. There is no limit to the members that can be in your crew. Filming equipment will not be provided—crews must use their own. Get creative!

2. On Saturday morning, April 12th from 9 – 10am, filmmakers will gather in downtown Ypsilanti at the Riverside Arts Center (third floor) to check in and get the required prompts for the films they will produce.

3. After check in at RAC, crews have 26.2 hours to write, film, edit and deliver a short (under 4 minutes) film.

4. Films must be turned in or uploaded (instructions will be provided) by Sunday, April 13th by 12:12pm.

Each film completed on time and following the required prompts will be screened on Saturday, April 19th at 9:00pm as part of the Independent Film Festival of Ypsilanti (iFFY) at the Riverside Arts Center.

Films will be eligible for cash awards and other prizes. Our panel of judges will determine award winners between the Sunday deadline and the screening the following weekend on April 19th.

Yes, there is a $50 entry fee for each team, which will help fund the competition awards. Sign your team up!

Each short film must be limited to 4 minutes in length, including any credits. Filmmakers will be expected to incorporate a number of elements provided by the organizers, which may include a line of dialogue, a prop, a character, a location, a specific action, or a specific type of shot.

Sunday April 13th by 12:12 pm. All Teams will begin the competition at the same time (10am on April 12th). For inclusion in the competition, films must be turned in by the deadline.

Instructions on where to upload your final film files will be provided via the email you signed up with. Please refer to that email.

FILE TYPE: Our preferred wrappers are .mov or .mp4/m4v.

VIDEO ENCODING
H.264

RESOLUTION
1080p (please avoid submitting 4K files, as they will generally take longer to export and upload)

Note: The Riverside Art Center’s projector’s native resolution is 1920 vertical and 1080 horizontal. Additionally, our audio system can currently only output stereo or mono signals, as such we request all audio be mixed down to Stereo or Mono to ensure as much of your sound mix is preserved as possible.

Each completed film will be screened on Saturday, April 19th at 9:00pm as part of the Independent Film Festival of Ypsilanti (iFFY) at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti.

Independent Film Festival Ypsilanti (iFFY) reserves the right to make competition entries available to be watched by the public on the iFFY website or other streaming platform (such as Vimeo or Youtube) after the competition ends and to use clips or elements from competition entries for promotional purposes. 

Each film that is completed on time and following the required prompts will be eligible to win the 26.2 Filmmaking Marathon top award: a $250 cash prize and inclusion in the official Opening Night program of iFFY (April 17th). An additional $100 honorable mention award will also be given.