How to submit

COVID-19 UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the Evolution 2020 Conference in Cleveland and the challenges associated with trying to run our Film Festival/Video Contest online, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s event. For those of you that have already submitted a video, THANK YOU and we’re sorry that it won’t be part of an event this year, but please do consider submitting it next year! For those of you who have already started working on a video, please finish it and submit it next year! We look forward to holding this event in 2021. Until then, please stay safe and well.

Application deadline: Monday, June 1st, 2020 (11:59 PM EST)

The Duke Initiative for Science & Society, Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action invite scientists and science educators of all stripes — students, postdocs, faculty, and full- or part-time science communicators — to enter the Ninth Annual Evolution Video Competition. To enter, please submit a video that explains a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or exciting area of evolution research in three minutes or less. Entries may be related or unrelated to your own research, and should be suitable for use in a classroom (K-12, undergraduate, graduate…your choice). Videos should be both informative and entertaining. (In other words, no taped lectures or narrated Powerpoint presentations!) Animations, music videos, and mini documentaries are all fair game. The finalists will be screened at the Evolution 2020 conference in Cleveland, OH.  To enter your video, please complete our online submission form.

Guidelines

• Contestants may work alone or as a team. All entries must be original. Videos created in the past are eligible for submission, provided the person submitting the video also played a role in its production, and has permission from the videographer and any people depicted in the video to submit it to the contest.
• Entries MUST be three minutes or less!  NO EXCEPTIONS!
• Upload your video(s) to Vimeo.com.  Entries should be in MOV or AVI format.
• Submit your entry (including the link to the Vimeo page with your video) via our online form.

Selecting the winners

A panel of reviewers will select the finalists, who will be notified by e-mail. The finalists will then be screened at a film festival at the Evolution 2020 conference in Cleveland, OH.  After screening the videos, the audience will vote for their favorites.  The first-place winner will receive $1,000, and a really cool trophy!  The runner-up will receive $500.

Eligibility

You don’t need to attend the conference to submit an entry. All videos submitted by Monday, June 1st, 2020 are eligible to win.

Additional regulations

By submitting an entry, you confirm that you have the right, including any required permission of individuals depicted in the video, to publicly display the video. You also confirm that any music or images contained therein do not violate any copyright, trademark or other rights of any third party. By submitting your video, you grant contest organziers the right to display the submitted video on the Film Festival website (evolutionfilmfestival.org).

For more information please contact Dr. Jory Weintraub at jory@duke.edu.

COVID-19 UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the Evolution 2020 Conference in Cleveland and the challenges associated with trying to run our Film Festival/Video Contest online, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s event. For those of you that have already submitted a video, THANK YOU and we’re sorry that it won’t be part of an event this year, but please do consider submitting it next year! For those of you who have already started working on a video, please finish it and submit it next year! We look forward to holding this event in 2021. Until then, please stay safe and well.