Anime Music Video Contest

Videos will be organized based on the following categories. All videos that are submitted to the contest are subjected to the theme award.

• Intensity: Fast paced editing, suspenseful, action packed, intense emotional feelings, adrenaline inducing.
• Drama: Feels heavy, theatrical, heart wrenching
• Sentimental: Positive feelings, nostalgic, heart warming.
• Upbeat/Fun: Positivity, fast paced enjoyment, playful, dance heavy, lighthearted.
• Comedy: Be funny.
• Freestyle: Anything not described above. Videos sent here must not fit any of the described categories above.
• Shorts: Any video between 15 seconds and 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Entries that are submitted to a certain category may be subject to recategorization. We will reach out to you if we believe this to be the case for your approval. If an entry is recategorized to a category that already received a submission from you, then we will contact you to let you know so a change is possible.

There will be 2-3 extra categories based on the submitted videos. When submitting your video, there will be an option to designate your video under certain subcategories. The 2-3 subcategories that the judges believe has the strongest competition will be created for the contest. The subcategories will be listed on the Google Form.

• Audience Best in Show (1st – 3rd)
• Best in Category
• Runner up in Category

• Judge’s Best in Show
• Coordinator’s Choice
• Best Short
• Best in the Midwest (You must be local and attend the convention)
• Best Nonfinalist
• Best Theme (Yokai Festival)
• Best Live Action
• Last Year’s Best in Show Choice (Picked by last year’s Best in Show winner. If the Best in Show winner is unavailable, it will go to the 2nd Place and so forth.)

Extra awards may be awarded by the judges for any reason.

All winners will be showcased during the award showing on Sunday. Runner Ups may or may not be shown based on time restraints. You are not required to attend to win an award, but there are extra prize tickets awarded to attendees of the contest that are only redeemable at the convention.To view previous awards handed out, please check out the official award site.

The total number of winners may be reduced or increased based on the number of entries received.

We will showcase as many non disqualified entries as possible during the con.

1. You may submit up to 1 entry per category per person. You are also allowed three extra entries in any category for the sake of subcategories. You can submit up to 10 AMV shorts. Live Action type videos are submitted separately and allowed up to 3 max.
2. There is no freshness date. Feel free to submit any video from any year. Videos made in the most recent past year are prioritized. You may not resubmit a video if it’s been submitted already. Finalists or not. Please keep that in mind when submitting videos this year and future years.
3. Entries may not contain bumpers, title screens, self-promotions, references to other events, or credits unless it is stylized to the video. ACen staff will add uniform credits to all entries.
4. Please keep videos over 1 minute and 30 seconds minimum and 6 minutes maximum. Videos longer than that are allowed to be submitted, but will be viewed with more scrutiny.
   • AMV shorts must be under 1 minute and 30 seconds. I may be flexible with the time limit based on the quality of the video.
5. We accept footage from anime, western animation, video games, etc. Live Action videos are judged separately. Live Action videos may make the main contest if the judges agree it belongs there. If there is any question about your video’s source footage, do not hesitate to ask!
6. No corporate studio trademark logos.
7. No irrelevant subtitles unless they are added in with a creative purpose.
8. If you are caught submitting an AMV that is not your own, you will be banned from participating in all future ACen AMV contests. We will also report you to other AMV coordinators as a precaution.
9. We reserve the right to disqualify your video if we deem it too inappropriate for viewing standards. If you are not sure if your entry will be disqualified, please e-mail Reyd.Nguyen@ACen.org to discuss the content in question. We also reserve the right to shift your video to different categories based on how we structure the contest.

1. If we receive too many entries from one person, we will contact you to pick videos. If we do not hear back, we will watch only your more recent videos.
2. Staff members are welcome to submit their works as long as they are not part
   of the judging team or part of the video programming team.
3. By submitting to Anime Central, you permit the Midwest Animation Promotion Society the rights to use your media as convention content for future uses.
4. Contestants do not need to attend Anime Central 2025 to enter the contest but are recommended to. Additional prize distribution is reserved for Anime Central attendees.
5. Rules are subject to change at the discretion of the Anime Central staff for any reason needed. Additionally the coordinator reserves the right to reject a video because of any reason they deem necessary.