GIPHY Launches A Film Festival For 18-Second Masterpieces

GIPHY is launching a film festival that will award films up to 18 seconds in length. But that’s not all. They will have to be GIFs of course!

Can you entertain the world in only 18 seconds or less? GIPHY thinks so, as it launches the first-ever GIF Film Festival in collaboration with Squarespace. The GIPHY Film Festival announced last week, will feature a range of looping images in five different categories – stop-motion, animated, experimental, narrative, and other.

On the dedicated site for the event, GIPHY says it believes “audiovisual storytelling does not have to be feature-length or even short length,” and that you can “tell a compelling, creative, entertaining, professional-grade story in only 18 seconds or less.”

Can you entertain the world in only 18 seconds or less? GIPHY thinks so, as it launches the first-ever GIF Film Festival in collaboration with Squarespace

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Each category will have its finalist, but there will be one final winner, who will get $10,000 and a five-year Squarespace subscription.

The competition is open until September 27, for GIFs (with or without sound) that are up to 18 seconds long. The judges – a group of filmmakers, comedians, and museum curators – are looking to see the most compelling, entertaining, creative and professional-grade entries.

The judging panel includes artist and filmmaker Mukunda Angulo, Spotify’s Global Creative Director Alex Bodman, Director of Communications and Culture at The Animation Guild Brooke Keesling , Vice President of Digital at Topic Mona Panchal, and others like comedian, actor and writer Joe Pera, co-founder at Women Who Draw Julia Rothman, or The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern ArtRajendra Roy.

All top entries will be screened during the festival on November 8 at the Metrograph theatre in New York City. Of course, the entries will also be available to view online on a platform hosted by Squarespace. Thinking of taking part? Well, the festival is unfortunately only open to entries from the U.S.

You can find the full contest rules at www.giphyfilmfest.com.

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