Welcome to Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica (WIFFA)!!!
This year the Festival will take place on the second weekend of August. The 48 hours will start on Friday, 11 August at 18:00 LT and go through to the Sunday, 13 August at 18:00 LT. All times are local to your station.
As usual, this year there will be two categories: The 48 Hour challenge and the Open section.
48 Hour Challenge
The challenge is to make your short film in 48 hours from concept to sound mix! All films need to include 5 specific elements and not be more than 5 minutes long (including credits).
The 5 elements will be:
- A sound. For example: a drink can opening, a creaking door.
- An object. For example: a cardboard box, a roll of toilet paper, a silly hat.
- A famous quote. For example: “To be or not to be, that is the question”
- A famous character. For example: Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Gandhi.
- An action. This should be something that only takes a few seconds on screen. For example: falling out of bed, eating frozen food, blowing bubbles.
These 5 items will be chosen by 5 different stations, randomly selected from participating stations. If you are choosing one of these items, please choose something that is easily available at all Antarctic Stations, and/or not technically difficult to do. The idea is to build up a story around simple things, not to force people to go through a lot of effort to create props and stunt work.
The list of the 5 items chosen will be sent to all stations on Friday 11th August.
This year the 5 elements are:
- Sound: A duck quack. Chosen by AMUNDSEN-SCOTT SOUTH POLE STATION.
- Object: A dumbbell. Chosen by SANAE IV.
- Famous quote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” from the novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens. Chosen by BHARATI STATION.
- Famous character: Mickey Mouse. Chosen by DAVIS STATION.
- Action: A piggyback race. Chosen by NEUMAYER III STATION.
Past experience has shown is it best to use Friday night for planning and preparation, Saturday for filming, and Sunday for editing and post production. If you want to use one or two stock footage shots you have filmed earlier, this is fine, but the majority of the actual filming should all take place on the weekend, and should all be your own footage. If your film is longer than 5 minutes it will be moved into the “Open” category and will not be included in the “48 Hours” category.
Open category
This can be any footage filmed throughout the year but not shown anywhere to date.
WIFFA 2023 AWARDS
There will be a suite of creative awards recognizing individual areas of film-making, both artistic and technical. We have decided to open up the same awards this year to both categories in addition to the 48 Hour challenge's specific award.
- Open and 48 Hour Challenge
- Best Film
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Costumes
- Best Sound
- Best Cinematography
- Best Editing
- 48 Hour Challenge
- Best Use Of The 5 Elements
WEBSITE
The website is made up of two areas:
- a freely accessible public area where all the information and videos of the various editions of the Festival will be uploaded over time;
- a private area, where each station has a reserved space where it is possible to receive all communications from the organizers and where the station can upload and manage all its information: videos, photos, votes, documents, etc. Participating stations will be sent personal credentials to access this reserved area.
At the END of the 48hrs
At the end of 48 hours, each station will be able to start uploading its films in its private area on the website www.wiffa.aq . The videos will remain private, and downloadable only by the other participating stations, but each station may decide to make their videos public on the website www.wiffa.aq .
Voting and Screening the films
Any participating station in Antarctica or the Southern Ocean can vote for their favourite films. This year, three votes (awarding 5, 3 and 1 points respectively) per station in each category to be submitted. For the vote, each station will find a form in its private area from the 23rd of August. The form must be downloaded, filled in and then uploaded in the reserved area on the website. Please have your votes submitted by the 5 September so they can be collated. Winners will be announced when this is complete. As per tradition, there is no actual prize beyond the glory.
In the meantime, we invite you to discover the trailer Concordia has prepared for this edition!
Happy WIFFA to all!
Organizer
Stéphane Fraize
Concordia Station (France/Italy)
Email: antarcticfilmfest@gmail.com
Reminder of the main competition dates:
- Monday 31 July: deadline for registering your Station to the contest
- Friday 11 August: start of the 48H challenge, communication of the 5 elements
- Sunday 13 August: closing date for film entries (both for the 48H and the Open categories)
- Wednesday 23 August: voting forms sent
- Tuesday 5 September: end of voting
- Friday 8 September: results announced