Youth Journalism International Contest

Posted on January 6, 2014 by RedFoxx

Student reporters, cartoonists and photographers ages 19 and under can enter a contest.

Youth Journalism International hosts a contest recognizing exceptional journalism done by students worldwide.

The top five honors include Journalist of the Year, Educator of the Year, the Courage in Journalism Award, the Jacinta Maria Bunnell Award for Commentary and the Frank Keegan “Take No Prisoners” Award for News.

Other categories include multimedia, news, enterprise, profile, features, editorial, column writing, first-person essay, cartoons, reviews, sports and photography.

Entries must have been published between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2013 in online or print publications. School publications, underground papers, blogs, online papers and other venues for journalism are all acceptable.

The entry fee is US$20 for the top honors, US$10 for team entries and US$5 for individuals. The deadline is Feb. 7.

For more information, click here.

Festival of adventure films open

Posted on January 5, 2014 by RedFoxx

Professional and amateur filmmakers with works on mountaineering and all kinds of extreme adventures from all over the world can compete in this contest.

The International Festival of Mountaineering and Adventure Films “Vertical,” a member of the International Alliance for Mountain Film, will take place May 27 – 30, 2014 in Moscow.

Documentaries, animation and feature films, created in 2010 – 2014 are accepted. International competition includes these documentary categories: mountain climbing, travel and adventure, and nature and ethnography. Russian competition includes two categories – TV programs and amateur films.

Submissions in languages other than English and Russian should include a translation in English.

The entrance fee is RUB500 – RUB700 (US$15 – US$21), depending on the category.

The deadline is March 28.

For more information, click here.

ANIMAFEST Zagreb 2014: Animated Film Competition

Posted on January 5, 2014 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 1 February 2014
Open to: filmmakers applying all animation techniques
Prize: cash awards of up to 2,500 €

Description

The 24th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb is an international competition festival of short animated films that will be held in Zagreb from 3 to 8 June 2014.

The World Festival of Animated Film in Zagreb is traditionally the second oldest festival in Europe. In the course of its forty-year-old history it has systematically been following world animation production through a number of films in competition and out of competition. Built on the tradition of the Zagreb School of Animation, Animafest, the festival oriented towards auteur film, has made a reputation of being one of the most significant events in the domain of animated film.

Films can be submitted for one of the following competition categories: Grand Competition, Student Competition, Films for Children Competition, Commissioned Film Competition. NOTE: Films suitable for children that are submitted for Grand or Student Competition category can also be submitted for the Films for Children Competition category.

Eligibility

Animafest’s submissions are open to films applying all animation techniques, including combinations of live action and animation. Over 50% of the production must consist of animated sequences. Films must be completed after 1 January 2012 and with maximum running time of 30 minutes. Films previously entered at Animafest will not be taken into consideration.

Awards

Grand Competition

Grand Prix (best short film of the festival) – cash award of 2,500 €
Golden Zagreb Prize (encouragement of creativity and innovative artistic achievement) – cash award of 2,000 €
“Zlatko Grgić” Prize (best first production apart from educational institutions) – cash award of 1,500 €

Student Film Competition

“Dušan Vukotić” Prize (best student film) – cash award of 1,000 €

Films for Children Competition

Best film for children

Commissioned Films Competition

Best Commissioned Film

“Mr. M” Award – audience award
Best Animation School – award to an educational institution for the best choice of films submitted for selection (at the discretion of the Student Competition Selection Committee)

Application

There is no entry fee required. Online entry forms and instructions how to submit you entry are available HERE. Submission deadline is 1 February 2014.

NASA Space Settlement Contest for High School Students

Posted on January 5, 2014 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 1 March 2014
Open to: students up to 12th grade (18 years old) from anywhere in the world
Award: $5,000

Description

The annual NASA Space Settlement Contest has opened for entries for 2014. This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS) is for students up to 12th grade. The NASA Space Settlement Contest has been created to research space colonies and orbital settlements, through innovative space settlements designs developed by students.

A billion years ago there was no life on land. In a phenomenal development, by 400 million years ago land life was well established. We are at the very beginning of a similar, perhaps even more important, development. Today Earth teems with life, but as far as we know, in the vast reaches of space there are only a handful of astronauts, a few plants and animals, and some bacteria and fungi; mostly on the International Space Station. We can change that. In the 1970′s Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill, with the help of NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford University, discovered that we can build gigantic spaceships, big enough to live in. These free-space settlements could be wonderful places to live; about the size of a California beach town and endowed with weightless recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow-room in spades, and great wealth. In time, we may see millions of free-space settlements in our solar system alone. Building them, particularly the first one, is a monumental challenge.

Why should colonies be in orbit? Mars and the Moon have a surface gravity far below Earth normal. Children raised in low-g will not develop bones and muscles strong enough to visit Earth comfortably. In contrast, orbital colonies can be rotated to provide Earth normal pseudo-gravity in the main living areas.

Individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six or more are judged separately. Entries are also grouped by age/grade of the oldest contestant for judging. Contest categories are:

7th grade and under: individual, small group, large group
8th grade: individual, small group, large group
9th grade: individual, small group, large group
10th grade: individual, small group, large group
11th grade: individual, small group, large group
12th grade: individual, small group, large group

Additional categories based on artistic and literary merit are also included in the contest.

Teachers are encouraged to use this contest as part of their curriculum. See the space settlement teacher’s page HERE.

Eligibility

This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS) is for all students up to 12th grade (18 years old) from anywhere in the world.

Award

The grand prize is awarded to the best entry regardless of contestant age. The single highest scoring team or individual attending will receive the NSS Bruce M. Clark, Jr. Memorial Space Settlement Award for $5,000. If a team wins, the sum will be evenly divided amongst them.

The highest ranking winners attending will be invited to give oral presentations as time is available.

All 2014 contest participants are invited to attend the NSS 33rd annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Los Angeles, CA, 14-18 May 2014. Please note that contestants are responsible for all travel arrangements and costs, visas and conference expenses. Also, minors (children under 18) must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Among other potential problems, the hotel may not allow check-in without an adult in the party.

Application

Submissions must relate to orbital settlements. Settlements may not be on a planet or moon. Settlements must be permanent, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps.

Designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement related materials may be submitted.
Submissions must be made in hard copy. No electronic submissions are accepted under any circumstances. This includes Power Point presentations, discs, CD’s, DVD, videos or anything but paper. NASA does not return contestant submissions. However, you may create an electronic project, such as a video or web site, and send us a hard copy description of the project. The description should include images and text to describe the project in sufficient detail for judgement. If your electronic project is web accessible, you may include the URL. It will not be used for judging, but NASA may, at its discretion, link to your project from the contest results page.

Two copies of the entry form (available HERE) with the appropriate information must be included with the submission; one firmly attached to the submission and one loosely attached (for example, with a paper clip). If possible, three-hole punch the loose one. Be sure to fill out all fields. Please type if at all possible. Use a separate sheet if necessary.

The submission must be the student’s own work. Plagiarism is forbidden. Quoted materials should rarely be more than a few lines, and never longer than a few paragraphs. Quoting long passages is forbidden. Entries caught plagiarizing, even one part of a large entry, will be disqualified and disposed of.

Entries must arrive by 1 March 2014 in:

NASA Ames Research Center
Al Globus/Mail Stop 262-4
Bldg. 262, Rm. 277
Moffett Field, CA 94035-0001
USA

Only if necessary, direct your questions to nss-students@nss.org.

For further information please visit the official website HERE.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Posted on January 4, 2014 by RedFoxx

The Awards

http://www.artandwriting.org/

OVERVIEW

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has an impressive legacy dating back to 1923. Over the years, the Awards have grown to become the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the nation’s largest source of scholarships for creative young artists and writers. A noteworthy roster of past winners includes Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, John Updike, and many more.

Each year, the Alliance partners with more than 100 visual and literary-arts organizations across the country to bring The Awards to local communities. Teens in grades 7 through 12 can apply in 28 categories of art and writing for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published. Submissions are juried by luminaries in the visual and literary arts, some of whom are past award recipients. Panelists look for works that best exemplify originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

In the last five years alone, students submitted nearly 900,000 original works of art and writing. During that period, more than 60 top arts institutes and colleges have partnered with the Awards to make $40 million in scholarships and financial aid available to regional and national Scholastic Award winners.

EXHIBITION

The Alliance’s Regional Affiliate Programs mount more than 70 art exhibitions in museums and galleries across the country. Regional exhibitions include Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Miami Art Museum, FL; Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, IN; Stauth Memorial Museum, KS; College for Creative Studies, MI; School of Museum of Fine Arts, MA; and Mississippi Museum of Art, MS; among many others.

The 2013 National ART.WRITE.NOW NYC Exhibition took place in New York City from June 1 – June 15, coinciding with the national celebration at Carnegie Hall on May 31. National Gold Medalist work was on display at Parsons The New School for Design. A selection of work was also featured at Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Approximately 300 works of art and 300 works of writing from the National-Award-winning work were included in the exhibition. The Alliance also holds ongoing exhibitions at the U.S. Department of Education and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

In addition National Award-winning art and writing is displayed in cities across the US, as part of the ART.WRITE.NOW national touring exhibition. The tour will feature stops at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA from September 5, 2013 — October 2, 2013; the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM from November 15, 2013 — December 16, 2013, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA from February 5, 2014 — March 2, 2014, and the Laramie Public Library in Laramie, WY from April 12 2014 – May 15, 2014.

PUBLICATION

Selections from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are published in the National Catalog and The Best Teen Writing, which are distributed free of charge to schools and libraries nationwide. Works have also appeared in Scholastic publications including The Best Young Writers & Artists in America (Push), Scope magazine, Junior Scholastic magazine, Scholastic Art magazine, and New York Times Upfront magazine.

SCHOLARSHIPS

More than $250,000 is given annually through the Scholastic Awards program in awards and scholarships to top winners and their educators. In addition, more than $8 million in scholarships is set aside each year by our partners for recipients of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Seniors earning National Medals are eligible to receive scholarships through partnerships with esteemed colleges and universities. Click here to learn more!

Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2014

Posted on December 18, 2013 by RedFoxx

Professional photographers can apply for an award.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award seeks entries depicting the relationship between man and the environment in a sequence of 10-12 images.

The contest also features two more categories: the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award to any (prospective) professional photographer age 25 or under and the Leica Oskar Barnack Public Award.

The winner will receive a Leica M camera and a lens worth EUR10,000 (US$13,756) in addition to a cash prize of EUR10,000. The winner in the newcomer category will receive a Leica rangefinder camera, a lens worth EUR10,000 and a cash prize of EUR5,000 (US$6,875). The winner of the public category will be awarded with a cash prize of EUR2,500 (US$3,440).

Participants must send a series of photographs taken in 2013 or long-term projects containing at least one photo from 2013.

The deadline is Jan. 31.

For more information, click here.

Belarus in Focus Journalism Competition

Posted on December 17, 2013 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 20 January 2014
Open to: professional or beginner journalists and editors from any country
Prizes: professional journalists: 3 prizes of 500 EUR; beginner journalists: 3 prizes of 300 EUR

Description

Belarus in Focus is the third edition of a competition for journalists and others writing about Belarus for international media. By holding this competition each year, the organizers wish to encourage journalists and editors to pay attention to ongoing events and trends in Belarus – political, economic, social, and cultural.

By creating a place for exchange and debate, the aim is to contribute to journalistic understanding about Belarus and, consequently, the level of interest among the international public about events taking place in Belarus – a country on the E.U’s eastern border.

‘Belarus in Focus’ is held by Solidarity with Belarus Information Office (Warsaw) in cooperation with Press Club Belarus and Press Club Polska (Warsaw). Information partners include: Belarusian PEN Centre (Minsk), Civic Belarus (Prague), European Federation of Journalists (Brussels), TeleKritika (Kiev), the Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe (Berlin), Office for a Democratic Belarus (Brussels), and Ostgruppen (Sweden). ’Belarus in Focus’ is kindly supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers and NIRAS.

Eligibility

The competition is open to anyone who has published an article about Belarus for non-Belorussian media in 2013. There are no restrictions on nationality, citizenship, or place of residence. There is no age bracket either. Belorussian nationals are particularly encouraged to enter. The competition is not open to employees of Solidarity for Belarus Information Office or their family members, or anyone else directly connected to the Competition.

In ’Belarus in Focus’, there are two categories:

Professional journalists: A professional journalist is understood as a journalist who has worked for more than 3 years as a journalist, or other professionals who have published for over 3 years in media.
Beginner journalists: A beginner journalist is understood as a journalist who has worked for less than 3 years as a journalist, or other professionals/students who have published for less than 3 years in media.

Prizes

The following prizes are available:

Professional journalists: x 3 prizes of 500 EUR;
Beginner journalists: x 3 prizes of 300 EUR.

In addition, six participants will be invited to attend a two-day workshop together with journalists from independent Belorussian media. Sessions will be led by media experts, including jury members. It will be held in Warsaw in spring 2014. Travel expenses, food, and accommodation will be covered for those invited to attend the workshop.

Application

The competition is open for entries until midnight on Monday 20 January 2014 (n.b. your article should have been published in 2013).

Articles that fulfill these criteria will be accepted into the competition:

It is an article about Belarus published online or in print (radio and TV reports will be accepted if they have been published as an accompanying article on a website).
It has been published between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013.
It has been published in media outside of Belarus whose main target audience is non-Belorussian.

To enter, fill in the online application form HERE.

Entries will be evaluated by a jury made up of different nationalities and from different backgrounds. You do not need to provide a translation into English if your article is in a language read by at least one jury member. This year, the languages are: Danish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, and Ukrainian.

If your article is accepted into the second round, it will be translated into English for the other jury members. At the same time, it is strongly recommend that you submit your article in English so that the competition audience may appreciate what you are writing about and so that it may be considered by more than one jury member in the first round.

Winners and finalists will be announced on the competition website and contacted by Monday 17 February 2014. The finalists will be invited to a two-day workshop in spring 2014, in Warsaw. Winners will be awarded at a ceremony to be held during the journalist workshop.

If you have any questions, contact focus@solidarityby.eu.

For further information, please visit the official website HERE.

New York Times ‘Year in Rap’ Student Contest

Posted on December 12, 2013 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 7 January 2014
Open to: students from anywhere in the world from 13 to 19 years old
Prize: publication of your rap on the New York Times Learning Network blog page

Description

Quick: What rhymes with “Affordable Care Act”? “Edward Snowden”? “His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge”? If you can’t come up with at least one answer, you might want to start brainstorming, because the Year in Rap Student Contest is back.

Along with their annual partner, Flocabulary, (creators of the Week in Rap, the Year in Rap and other educational songs, videos and resources for K-12), The New York Times invites you to post your entry by Jan. 7, 2014.

If you’ve participated before, the rules are pretty much the same: just write an informed, engaging 12- to-16-line rap about some aspect of this year’s news.

To help, they’ll be publishing their usual end-of-year quiz and list of 2013 retrospectives that can help you remember the highs and the lows. Both will be available by Dec. 23, so stay tuned — or get ahead now by going back through their weekly news quizzes to see how well you do.

Teachers, they have also posted Flocabulary’s lesson plan and rubric to help in guiding your students through the rap-writing process.

The Contest Rules: Write Your Own ‘Year in Rap’

The rap should be 12 to 16 lines long. Students should choose at least four important New York Times stories from one of the news categories listed below.

It’s fine to focus on a smaller topic found within a section in The Times. For example, you can write a rap based on just the government shutdown rather than the whole range of national or political news this year. Or, you might focus on 2013 movies rather than covering other news from the Arts section. But you should also feel free to include as many, and as wide a range, of news stories from a particular section as you like. (More about narrowing your choices can be found in this section of the lesson plan.)

Here are the sections from which you can choose:

The rap should be original and must follow Learning Network commenting standards, which means no profanity or vulgar language.

Want inspiration? Here are the winners from 2012 and from 2011. Can you top them?

Eligibility

Submissions must be from students from 13 to 19 years old. (Update:Students can come from anywhere in the world.) No last names please, but an initial is fine, as is a school or class code of some type. (For example, “Ethan G. CHS112.”)

Submissions are allowed from partners and teams as well as from individuals — just remember to submit all of your names when you post your rhyme. (This year we’ll judge all entries the same.)

One submission per student, please. If you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

Prize

Publication of your rap on the New York Times Learning Network blog page.

Application

Raps must be submitted as comments on this post HERE by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 7. If you have questions about the contest, please feel free to post them in the comments section as well, and they’ll answer you there.

The top five raps, as judged by The Times and Flocabulary staff using this rubric, will be featured on both The Learning Network and Flocabulary.com. Because of privacy rules that apply to students under 18, they are asking for only your lyrics. While they love YouTube videos of young rappers as much as anyone, please don’t post links to them here.

For more details, please see the official call for submissions HERE.

International Art Competition in Taipei, Taiwan

Posted on December 10, 2013 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 31 December 2013
Open to: all artists over 18 years old
Award: free exhibition unit (9m²) on the A.R.T. 2014 fair from 16-20 April 2014

Description

The Taiwan International Contemporary Artist Association has organized one of Asia’s top art contests, the International Art Competition (IAC), since 2011. The organizer is now combining IAC together with Art Revolution Taipei (ART), the most important platform of art exchange in Taiwan, to promote individual artists to the international market. The combined power of both of these unrivaled art outlets will result in more opportunities of sponsorship, exhibition and sale.

Making a hit with 9o percent of the exhibiting artists having sales during the show, with great support from world-class high-powered collectors, Art Revolution Taipei will launch its 3rd edition at Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3. Carrying further its dual curatorial axes – “presenting artists at the center of the exhibition stage” and “designing the entire art fair as a colossal artwork” – the 3rd ART features “My Revolution” as its annual theme.

The entire exhibition will be designed into nine sections: Curatorial Classics, Taiwan Contemporary Art, China Contemporary Art, International Contemporary Art, New York Contemporary Art Fund, International Artist Juries Competition, Art with Entrepreneurs, Art and Design, and Art Your Compassion. It brings more distinguished artists to participate than before, with 254 artists from 40 countries.

Eligibility

The contest is open to all artists over 18 years old and each artist may submit up to two artworks for consideration — 2D artworks, created with Oil or Acrylic and completed no earlier than 2010. No specific theme is required.

Award

All accepted entries will be exhibited for sale in the ART 2014 fair between 16 and 20 April, 2014 and one artist will be sponsored a free exhibition unit (9m²) on the A.R.T. 2015 fair.

Application

The deadline for applications is 31 December 2013. Download the entry form available HERE, fill in it and send it with JPG images of your artwork to competition@arts.org.tw.

Finalists will be announced on the website on 10 January 2014. The organizer will announce the winner of “Gallery Award” at the preview VIP night on 16 April 2014.

You may direct your questions to the organizers at artrevolution@arts.org.tw.

For further information, please visit the official website HERE.

Social Impact Media Awards for Documentary Film

Posted on December 5, 2013 by RedFoxx

Deadline: 7 January 2014
Open to: NGOs, foundations, local grassroots organizations, and community activists from all over the world
Prize: prizes worth $500 per category

Description

Social Impact Media Awards – SIMA is an annual international documentary and educational impact media competition and showcase honoring members in the independent film and global humanitarian industries. They champion, promote and exhibit the works of independent filmmakers, activists and change-makers that too often remain overlooked, and provide a springboard for creative media that exemplifies excellence in its potential to inspire change.

You can submit your entry in three categories:

FEATURE – Individual, stand-alone documentary, 40 or more minutes in length.
SHORT – Individual, stand-alone documentary, less than 40 minutes in length.
EDUCATIONAL IMPACT VIDEOS – Individual, stand-alone video, between 3 and 20 minutes in length.

In the documentary films they are looking for original, wise, brave, eye-opening and creative productions that will increase the awareness of viewers to global injustices, to the resilience of humans facing deprivation, to the politics of international development, and to efforts and agents of change worldwide.

In the educational impact videos they are looking for videos that share unique insight into “how aid works”, that highlight distinctive approaches, creative models, successful tactics and innovations, emphasizing processes used and impact measurements.

More details about the rules and themes can be found HERE.

Eligibility

NGOs, foundations, local grassroots organizations, and community activists from all over the world are invited to submit their videos. Films must be completed between Jan 2011 and October 2013 to be eligible for entry.

Prize

The SIMA Judges consist of esteemed media and humanitarian industry professionals who select the best documentaries and impact videos for each award category. Jury Prize winners receive prizes worth $500 per category.

Application

The deadline for submission is 7 January 2014.

If your documentary submission is nominated, they will require an electronic press kit (EPK) to be sent via email to sima@simaawards.org and exhibition screeners: 2 DVDs and Blu-ray (if available) to be sent to:

SIMA AWARDS
613 West Knoll Dr #B
West Hollywood
CA 90069

Please submit your questions to the organizers at sima@simaawards.org. For more details, please see the official website HERE.