Rules for Submissions

Please read all the rules, especially those for the event you wish to enter. Most disqualifications can be avoided by simply reviewing and considering the rules before submitting.

The following rules apply to all music video events at Anime Weekend Atlanta. All events operate at the discretion of The Video Art Track and Anime Weekend Atlanta crew. Rules are subject to change without notice. Category and Award descriptions available on this website are guidelines only. Crew may add, change, or eliminate categories as they see fit. Awards have no significant cash value. Often, they have no tangible value whatsoever.

By submitting to The Video Art Track, the video editor grants us non-revocable permission to exhibit and distribute that work. The video editor otherwise retains all rights and responsibilities relating to their creation. The Video Art Track and Anime Weekend Atlanta support Remix Culture. All participants retain all rights to the value added by their creative endeavors and respect the rights retained by the original creators of the material they transform.

The Video Art Track does not dictate decisions of artistic judgment. The expression of your entry may draw from any type of source material. Specifically, we follow the Japanese use of the word anime to mean animation including computer-generated, hand-drawn, and stop-motion animation. Live action and video game sources are also permitted. We take no consideration of such things as country of origin or target market.

We encourage artists to seek out new and original projects. You may submit to as many events as you wish, but a single work may not be submitted to more than one of our events, present or past. The Music Video Exposition accepts works that have participated in other events, even those that have previously won awards. Other events require new works that have not been publicly exhibited in any fashion, either at an event or online.

The purpose of The Video Art Track is to showcase the creative works of the music video community. We make an effort to show at least one video from everyone who submits. So long as a panel or event is not in progress, and during any screening block, we will take requests to show any video. There is nothing we enjoy more than editors bringing their friends to The VAT to show off their works on the big screen with the big sound.

A more complete list of rules and requirements for each contest can be found HERE.

All submissions must be made in AVC format.

Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distribution of video content support[ing] resolutions up to and including 8K UHD.

The Music Video Exposition (AKA Expo)

Submission Deadline October 26, 11:59PM EST

Our open contest expo participants may submit as many entries as they like. This can include videos that have premiered elsewhere/been in other contests.

This is your traditional video contest judged by a panel of crew from The Video Art Track and Anime Weekend Atlanta. Our goal has always been to exhibit as many videos as possible from a wide array of genres and styles.

In addition to the conventional categories of Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance, and Horror, our judges will find a way to recognize as many deserving videos as time in our Gala Awards Ceremony permits. This often involves creative and unique categories that may surprise and delight our audience including our traditional “Grand Prize” which goes to the surprising, outlandish, or even weirdest of entries.

Like all our events, we don’t see this as a contest. We are here to share the creativity of the music video community, not to have editors compete against each other. Submitting to the Exposition is how you get your video shown in The Video Art Track and have a chance at appearing in the Gala Awards Show.

Expo Information

• Participation:  Anyone may enter regardless of age or experience level.
  Attendance is not required.
• Deadline: All entries in The Music Video Exposition must be received by the published deadline (TBD). This is an “in our hands” deadline. Your video should be completely uploaded by the deadline.
• Quantity:  Each editor may submit as many of their videos as they like.
• Prior Exhibition: We allow all videos in the Exposition, including those that have screened or even won awards at other conventions. We ask that you only submit any given video to us once. (If you submitted a video in a prior year, please do not submit the same video to us again.)
• Collaboration: Collaborative works and multi-editor projects (“MEP”s) are encouraged.
• Content: Editors are strongly encouraged to limit violence, profanity, and adult situations to the standards of an “R” motion picture rating or “Red-Band” trailer. There are limits to what can be exhibited during the day, and this is taken into consideration during judging. Mature or excessively violent or profane content will be restricted to late-night viewing in specific scheduled blocks. Requests for such videos at other times will not be able to be honored.
• Credits: A short editor identification or studio bumper of a few seconds prior to the video is acceptable. Lengthy credit rolls are strongly discouraged and may be skipped by our VJs if present.

Disqualification: Entries expressing bigotry, hatred, or involving harassment of any kind are a violation of general convention policy and are not permitted. Entries in excessively poor taste, while not explicitly disqualified, are unlikely to be screened and we may not be able to honor requests for such videos.  No watermarks or logos are permitted on the visual sources.  This contest does not permit the use of AI-generated visual and/or audio sources that rely on other artists’ sources for generation.

The Masters

Submission Deadline October 26, 11:59PM EST

The Masters is our biannual contest with the Greatest Prize of all on the line, The Masters Hoodie!

Masters is judged using a 5-person panel consisting of The Vat Director, our two Contest Coordinators, and two past Masters Winners. 

Masters Information 

• Participation: Anyone may enter regardless of age or experience level. Due to the prize being a physical hoodie, editors are encouraged to attend Anime Weekend Atlanta in person.
• Deadline: All entries in The VAT Accolades must be received by the published deadline Oct 26th 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. This is an “in our hands” deadline. Your video should be completely uploaded by the deadline.
• Quantity:  Each editor may only submit ONE entry to Masters.
• Right of First Exhibition:  By submitting a video to this event, you are granting the Video Art Track the right of first exhibition of your submission. Submissions may not have been presented in any public venue nor published online in any fashion prior to the Gala Awards Show at Anime Weekend Atlanta (Saturday,December 20th 2025).
• Content: With the exception of entries that self-designate the “Adult or Hentai” category, editors are strongly encouraged to limit violence, profanity, and adult situations to the standards of an “R” motion picture rating or “Red-Band” trailer. There are limits to what can be exhibited during the Gala Awards Show. We don’t like not being able to show the audience the winning video at the ceremony.
• Credits: In order to maintain a blind judging, individual or studio identification is not permitted. In order to conserve time during the awards ceremony, credits are not permitted.
• Disqualification: Entries expressing bigotry, hatred, or involving harassment of any kind are a violation of general convention policy and are not permitted. Entries in excessively poor taste, while not explicitly disqualified, are unlikely to be screened and we may not be able to honor requests for such videos.  No watermarks or logos are permitted on the visual sources.  This contest does not permit the use of AI-generated visual and/or audio sources that rely on other artists’ sources for generation. 
• If an entry must be disqualified, the editor will be given the option to include the submission in judging for The Music Video Exposition.