How to organise a ticketed short-film competition and screening

You've invited filmmakers to enter, found a cinema and started talking about an awards night. Then the questions arrive. Does entering mean a film will be shown? Can the director use music licensed only for an earlier project? Who decides the winner, and what happens if one of the judges worked on a finalist?

To organise a short-film competition, agree the entry rules, screening permissions, judging process and funded prize before opening submissions. Build the public event around a confirmed selection you can present properly, with enough ticket income to cover the work that happens before anyone enters the auditorium.

I'd start with one screening and one main jury award. Give people a reason to watch the whole programme, then let the competition add interest to that experience. Selling an awards ceremony before you know what audiences will actually see makes both the programme and the budget harder to defend.

This guide develops a fictional first edition with eight short films, a discussion and a prize presentation. We'll work through submissions, permissions, selection, judging, delivery, ticket sales and the final settlement. The figures are planning examples, not industry prices or predictions of demand. If you're planning several days, screens or passes, our guide to organising a film festival covers that wider structure.

Decide what people are paying to watch

A competition has entrants and an audience. Some people will belong to both groups, but you still need a useful offer for someone who hasn't made a film and doesn't know a finalist. Otherwise your sales plan depends heavily on cast members persuading their friends to attend.

Choose an audience and a programming idea together. For example, you might present short fiction about working life, made by emerging filmmakers in your region. That gives you decisions to make about tone, length and who should hear about the evening. "The best short films" leaves all of those questions unanswered until selection is over.

Our example is an adult evening of regional short fiction, with eight selected films lasting no more than twelve minutes each, including credits. The actual selection totals seventy-two minutes. A host leads a conversation with available representatives, and the evening ends with one jury award. There is no livestream, public online collection or second screening in the proposed offer.

Those limits are deliberate. A single room makes it possible for the audience to see every finalist and for the projection team to rehearse one running order. One award also lets you explain what the jury is evaluating without inventing categories simply to create more winners.

Write the audience promise before your call for entries. Someone buying this example should expect a complete evening of selected films and a discussion, whether or not their favourite wins. They shouldn't need to understand festival submission culture to decide whether the ticket is worth buying.

Then check that people outside the entrant pool want it. Talk to the cinema's programmer, relevant cultural groups and people who already pay for independent screenings. Explain the likely programme, evening and price. Ask what would make the visit worthwhile and what would prevent a booking. Use those conversations to refine the offer before committing to a larger auditorium.

Set a budget that includes finding the films

The public screening is the visible part of the event. Your costs also include answering submission questions, checking eligibility, watching entries, recording decisions, arranging permissions and chasing final copies. If you leave that work unpaid in the plan, a busy submission period can make a successful evening surprisingly expensive.

Use a separate budget line for selection and jury work. Estimate the hours first, then agree fees and expenses with the people doing it. Include your own time too, even if you're paying yourself after the event. Our event budget guide helps organise the wider costs; add the submission workload to that structure.

Here is a fictional budget in USD for our eight-film evening. Venue hire and projection, including agreed advance tests, cost $1,000. Organiser work, submission administration and basic booking support cost $1,200. Reviewers, jurors and agreed substitute cover cost $900. Eight agreed screening payments of $50 total $400. Access provision and approved caption work cost $600. Front-of-house staffing costs $450, promotion $300, insurance and permissions $200, the cash prize $600, and contingency $350.

That totals $6,000. The amounts assume local contributors with no overnight accommodation, agreed travel expenses included in their respective lines, and suitable cinema equipment already included in the venue booking. These are invented allowances to show the calculation. Replace every allowance with an actual scope and quote before adopting the budget.

The model has no submission fees, sponsor income, bar share or merchandise revenue. It assumes no sales tax applies, excludes income tax and treats the contingency as spent. The fixed lines include planned labour, promotion and access costs across the stated attendance range. Each paid ticket has a further fictional $4 allowance for selling and attendance costs, rather than a claim about any provider's fees.

At a $38 ticket price, each paid admission leaves $34 towards the fixed costs. You need 177 paid admissions to cover the plan: 176 leaves a $16 loss, while 177 leaves $18. At 150 paid admissions, the loss is $900. At 195, the surplus is $630. A near sellout producing that result deserves careful thought before you sign.

At 185 sales, the planned surplus is $290. Twenty discounts of $5 reduce it to $190. A $400 overrun instead produces a $110 loss; both changes together produce a $210 loss. If those outcomes are unacceptable, revise the cost, price or format before launch. More submissions won't repair this example's finances because submissions bring in no revenue.

Map payment dates separately. A deposit is an early payment towards a cost, rather than another cost to add on top. Make sure you can meet supplier commitments and the promised prize without relying on ticket proceeds arriving earlier than your actual payout arrangements allow.

Publish entry rules a filmmaker can understand

Write the rules before building the form. If the form introduces a condition that doesn't appear in the rules, or the social announcement suggests something more generous, applicants will reasonably wonder which version applies. Keep one dated version available throughout the submission period.

Start with the event's purpose, organiser, dates and location. Then define eligibility in terms you can check. For our example, applicants must be adults, the director must live in the named region when submissions open, and the completed fiction film must run twelve minutes or less including credits. A production shot locally wouldn't qualify through that fact alone. Choose a test that serves your programme and explain it before people enter.

State the accepted completion period, languages and preview subtitle requirements if they matter to your programme. Decide how you will handle a film that has already appeared online. Don't add a premiere requirement merely because a larger festival has one. Every restriction reduces the possible selection and creates another fact for your team to verify.

The Short Film Conference's code of ethics is a useful industry reference. Its festival guidance calls for written participation conditions, clear awards and notification arrangements, respect for copyright, and clarity about who receives a prize. It also says a representative's absence should not prevent an award being conferred. This is professional guidance, not a universal law or a requirement to copy every festival's process.

For your own call, explain the outcome of entry. A submission means the work will be considered under the published process. It doesn't promise selection, public exhibition, individual feedback or an invitation for the whole crew. If you offer feedback, describe its extent and allow paid time to produce it.

Include a contact, closing time and time zone, notification date, delivery requirements and withdrawal procedure. Explain what happens if the event cannot proceed, an entry is ineligible or a file cannot be reviewed. Have the terms checked for the jurisdiction where you operate, especially if you're charging entry fees or introducing substantial prizes.

Avoid a broad right to change anything whenever you wish. You may need a way to handle an unavailable venue or a serious delivery problem, but entrants should understand which changes you could make and how you will tell them. If a change affects their permission or participation, resolve it with them before proceeding.

A practical entry brief

You can use the following fields to draft a call, then turn the completed answers into clear public rules. These are prompts, not finished legal terms.

• Describe the audience, programme theme, venue, event date and organiser contact.

• Define eligible applicants, the regional connection, completion dates, genres, maximum runtime including credits, languages and required preview subtitles.

• State the opening and closing times, entry charge or free-entry policy, notification date and handling of incomplete submissions.

• Explain the selection process, jury award, judging criteria, conflict procedure and who receives the prize.

• Describe the proposed public screening, required permissions, screening payment, filmmaker admissions and final-copy deadline.

• State what is included for selected teams, what they pay themselves, and how withdrawals, changes and complaints are handled.

Read the finished call as a filmmaker who has never heard of you. They should be able to decide whether to enter, identify what they are agreeing to and understand what happens next without sending an email first.

Keep submission permission separate from public exhibition

You need to watch films to select them. Later, you need permission to show the chosen films to a paying public. Explain both uses, including who can access a preview and how the public screening will work. Don't make applicants guess whether uploading a private link also gives you the right to post their work on your website.

For a UK event, GOV.UK's guidance on showing films in public says permission is needed whether or not you sell tickets. It distinguishes permission from the copyright owner from possible council licensing requirements. Buying a copy of a film or having a personal streaming subscription doesn't settle permission for your public event.

For our proposed event, ask the authorised representative to confirm one in-person screening at the named venue and date, with the agreed audience allocation and payment. Identify the film version and any conditions attached to it. Keep their affirmative written acceptance. An unanswered invitation should remain unresolved in your production record.

Ask who has authority to make that agreement. The person submitting might be a director, producer, distributor or someone helping the team. Being named in the credits doesn't tell you which person can license the film. Where there is uncertainty, pause the booking and establish the correct contact.

Your submission questions should also surface possible rights problems within the work. Ask the entrant to confirm their authority and necessary clearances, and invite them to flag restrictions affecting the proposed use. Music, archive material, performances and underlying source material may need attention. A checkbox is a record of an assurance; it isn't a substitute for resolving a known problem with the appropriate rights holder or adviser.

Agree publicity use specifically. You might request an approved still, synopsis, filmmaker biography and a short trailer for the event page. If you want clips for paid advertising, say so and confirm the permitted material and duration. Permission to exhibit the full film in a cinema shouldn't become an assumption that every promotional use is available.

Keep a short rights record for each selected title. Record the authorised contact, screening permission, fee, approved publicity, restrictions and outstanding questions. Treat an online replay, touring programme or extra performance as a new proposed use to agree. Our example promises none of those, so the team has no reason to request unlimited ongoing distribution rights.

Check local film and venue requirements early

Screening permission doesn't resolve the venue's operating conditions or the film's age classification. Ask the cinema what its hire covers, who handles any additional applications, and which deadlines apply to the exact programme. Do this before choosing a notification date that leaves selected filmmakers no time to supply the required material.

In its guidance on when an age rating is needed, the British Board of Film Classification says theatrical features, shorts and trailers must be submitted unless the local authority has granted permission. For an event under that UK framework, ask the venue and authority how your unclassified shorts programme will be handled. An adult-only marketing description doesn't itself provide permission to exhibit it.

Local processing time can change your whole schedule. Camden Council's film classification guidance says it can only guarantee timely classification when it receives the fee and application at least four weeks before an individual screening or six weeks before a film festival. Those are Camden's published conditions, checked in October 2026, not a lead time to assume elsewhere. Confirm what your own authority needs and when.

Work backwards from the actual deadline. If the authority needs a full film copy, a shortlist alone doesn't allow you to submit a complete application. You need the relevant version, the representative's agreement and any supporting details in time. Keep enough margin to answer questions or replace a title through an approved process.

Record the confirmed age restriction and content information for the whole public offer. Make sure trailers, extra clips and sponsor material have also been considered where required. Staff need a clear admission policy before tickets go on sale, including how to handle someone arriving with a person who can't be admitted.

Outside that framework, use the authorities and requirements that apply in your location. Ask about the actual screening and commercial arrangement rather than seeking a generic statement that film competitions are allowed. Keep the resulting permissions with the venue and programme records so a later change can be checked against them.

Accept only the submissions you can properly review

Start by estimating the viewing work. Suppose our fictional event accepts eighty eligible films averaging eight minutes, and assigns two complete preliminary reviews to each. Viewing alone takes 1,280 minutes, or twenty-one hours and twenty minutes. Allow another five minutes of notes per review and the total becomes thirty-four hours and forty minutes before meetings, correspondence or jury work.

Those are workload assumptions, not suggested judging speeds. A difficult film may need another viewing, and accessibility requirements or a conflict can change the allocation. Assign work against people's actual availability. Set a submission limit or close the call as advertised if your team cannot responsibly accommodate more.

Make the form useful for administration. Give each entry a reference and capture its title, runtime including credits, language, regional eligibility, preview link and password, authorised contact, rights declaration and relevant access information. Ask for a synopsis short enough to use in selection discussion. Avoid collecting large publicity packages from everyone if you only need them after selection.

Send a receipt that explains the next step. It should identify the entry and the notification date, without implying that a film is eligible or selected before anyone has checked it. Give entrants a way to correct a broken link and make clear which changes you will accept before the deadline.

Restrict previews to the people who need to review them. Use individual access where your system supports it, avoid passing credentials around informal group chats, and tell entrants how long you plan to retain their material and contact details. Keep the administrative record separate from the public programme information you will eventually publish.

Choose an entry-fee policy deliberately. Our example is free to submit, with review costs already in the event budget. If you charge, explain what the fee covers, the treatment of invalid entries, any waivers and the circumstances for refunds. Have the policy checked locally. Don't expand the call simply because another round of fees would make a weak public screening budget look healthier.

Build a small list of submission questions and publish the answers consistently. If someone asks whether a twelve-minute limit includes credits, the answer should reach all potential applicants. Keep private details private, but add general clarifications to the public information without changing the underlying eligibility after entries have arrived.

Select a programme, then judge the award

Selection and prize judging solve different problems. Selection asks which eligible films make the promised evening. The jury then chooses the winner from that confirmed competitive programme. Explain the distinction so an entrant understands why a strong film might not fit the event and why selection doesn't guarantee an award.

For the preliminary reviews, use the same basic questions. Does the work meet the rules? What does it achieve? How well does it fit the stated programming idea? Can the team describe its strengths and reservations with examples from the film? Ask reviewers to record those observations before discussing favourites together.

Record conflicts before allocating films. A reviewer who helped produce an entry shouldn't quietly mark their own work, and a juror with a close professional or personal connection needs a clear way to step aside. Publish the types of connection people should declare, then have a named person decide how to manage them.

Our example uses three jurors and an agreed reserve, all briefed and budgeted before the call opens. If a conflict removes a juror from a particular decision, the reserve follows the published replacement procedure. Check their availability and relevant conflicts too. Having a name on standby is little help if that person hasn't watched the affected work or can't attend the decision meeting.

Give the substitute access to all finalists in advance. If the same unconflicted panel cannot compare the whole programme, resolve that problem before judging starts. Swapping one person's mark into a single film's total without an agreed method can change the comparison. In our event, the reserve replaces a conflicted juror for the final award decision as a whole, leaving three decision-makers. The replaced juror doesn't take part in that decision.

Keep the process proportionate. You can give reviewers a common scoring sheet, but a total doesn't explain every programming decision. Have the selection lead record why the final combination fulfils the stated brief. Don't quietly change the competition into an invitation-only showcase because a late prestigious film becomes available.

For the award, publish criteria you can actually apply. In our example they are storytelling, creative choices and how effectively the film realises its intentions. Judges should consider the work in context rather than treating expensive equipment as a category of merit. Ask for a reasoned assessment against each criterion, then discuss differences.

If you use scores, decide how they determine the result. A simple model could give each criterion an agreed scale and use the total to identify the leading films for deliberation. State whether the highest total wins automatically or whether the jury makes the final choice after discussion. Mixing those systems after seeing the scores invites a dispute you could have prevented.

Decide ties and unavailable judges before judging begins. The rules might provide for a further recorded vote among non-conflicted jurors, with a joint award if that also ties. If a joint award splits a cash prize, say that in advance and explain the amount each winner would receive. Don't promise multiple full prizes unless you have funded them.

Confirm the finalists and the prize in writing

Make provisional invitations while you still have time to resolve permission, eligibility and delivery. Tell the representative exactly what acceptance requires and when you need the reply. Keep reserve titles private and approach them in order if a place becomes available, allowing the same checks rather than treating a reserve as automatically ready to screen.

Our final programme contains eight films. Each accepted team receives two named screening admissions and the agreed $50 screening payment. The $600 jury prize goes to the named authorised payee for the winning entry under the rules. Those payments are separate, and neither depends on the team purchasing additional audience tickets.

Explain who the prize belongs to before submission. If it is awarded to the director but paid to a production company by agreement, record that arrangement rather than trying to resolve it during the ceremony. State any paperwork, payment timing and locally relevant tax handling. Promise only a payment process you can carry out.

If the sponsor is supplying a service prize, describe the usable benefit and its restrictions. "Post-production package" could mean a useful booked service or a discount requiring a substantial extra spend. Confirm availability, expiry, location, transferability and who pays related costs before placing a claimed value in the announcement.

Our example uses a funded cash award to keep that promise straightforward. The rules provide that a joint win divides the $600 equally, so two joint winners would receive $300 each. The organiser holds the award money within the budget and agrees the payment deadline in advance. A sponsor dropping out wouldn't remove a prize already promised to entrants.

Tell unsuccessful applicants when you said you would. A short clear decision is better than silence while you promote the finalists. If you don't provide individual feedback, say that politely and avoid a generic compliment suggesting you have written a personal review of every film.

Keep a correction route for factual mistakes. An entrant should be able to report that you logged the wrong runtime or overlooked an agreed eligibility document. That doesn't require reopening every artistic judgment. Name the person who will review a procedural complaint and explain when a decision becomes final under the published process.

Build and test one complete screening programme

Ask the projection team for its delivery requirements before you send instructions to finalists. The relevant question is whether the exact film, with the agreed sound and captions, will play properly through the venue's equipment. A private preview that opens on your laptop doesn't answer that.

The Independent Cinema Office's technical and equipment guidance explains that digital cinema commonly uses a Digital Cinema Package, or DCP, loaded onto a cinema server. Encrypted films need a separate Key Delivery Message, or KDM, to unlock playback. Ask the projectionist which formats this event needs and whether any keys must cover advance testing as well as the public screening.

Create a delivery record for each film. Include its entry reference, title, version, exact runtime, language, caption or subtitle files, accepted format, delivery contact and test result. Agree who pays for necessary conversion or correction. Keep a received file marked as untested until someone checks it through the intended system.

Test each complete film, not just the first few seconds. Check credits, end frames, subtitles, sound and the transition into the next title. A programme with eight different sources needs attention between films as well as within them. Keep the verified running order and playback materials under the projection team's control after approval.

Don't replace a finalist's film with a revised cut without reviewing the consequences. The new version could change the runtime, content approval or the work the jury evaluated. Agree a final-version deadline and a procedure for genuine technical repairs. Keep creative revisions separate from fixing a damaged file or missing caption track.

Set a technical decision date early enough to act. If the exhibition copy fails and no authorised replacement can be tested in time, decide whether to withdraw the title or change the programme through the agreed process. Check the effect on permissions, judging and ticket holders together. Uploading an unapproved preview five minutes before doors is a poor rescue plan.

Make access part of the promised evening

Check the route a visitor will actually use, including entry, auditorium, toilets and departure. Confirm wheelchair positions, companion arrangements, seating sightlines and the availability of assistive listening equipment with the venue. Publish concrete details and a contact for questions rather than relying on a broad statement that everyone is welcome.

The World Wide Web Consortium's accessible-event checklist recommends asking about participants' requirements, arranging relevant communication support and considering access when planning the schedule. Apply those questions to the films and the live discussion. A captioned film followed by an inaccessible conversation gives the audience an incomplete version of the evening.

Ask finalists what access materials exist and which version they belong to. Translation subtitles and captions describing speech and relevant sound do different jobs. Confirm what you can provide, who approves any new text, and the time needed to test it. Our budget's access allowance assumes an agreed deliverable; it isn't evidence that $600 will cover every programme's requirements.

Give the host and participating filmmakers clear microphone instructions. Repeat an audience question into the microphone if the person asking it doesn't have one. Agree how any live captioner or interpreter receives names and programme information beforehand. Tell ticket buyers which parts of the evening have the confirmed support.

Keep content advice accurate and useful. A filmmaker's synopsis may omit material that affects whether someone chooses to attend. Have an agreed person review the selected versions, confirm the relevant advice and place it where buyers can find it before checkout. If the programme changes, check that information again.

Schedule the films, discussion and award together

Start with the measured runtimes. Our fictional selection lasts six, seven, eight, eight, nine, ten, twelve and twelve minutes, totalling seventy-two minutes including credits. The permitted maximum of twelve minutes doesn't mean all eight run that long. Keep the actual total in the production schedule and update it when the approved version changes.

The proposed public evening runs from 19:00 to 21:10. It includes a five-minute welcome, seventy-two minutes of films, eight minutes in total for planned transitions, a ten-minute interval, a twenty-minute discussion, ten minutes for the award and a five-minute close. That is 130 minutes. The projectionist and venue still need to approve the actual transitions and operating plan.

In that running order, films and transitions end at 20:25. The interval ends at 20:35, discussion at 20:55, award at 21:05 and close at 21:10. Doors open at 18:30. Public departure and room clearance happen afterwards within the agreed venue booking, with a proposed 22:00 handback only if the venue accepts the clearance and staff plan.

The jury reaches its decision in advance after viewing the same final versions, so the interval isn't an improvised judging meeting. Hold the result securely, prepare correct names and brief whoever makes the announcement. If a technical fault prevents a finalist being shown, the published process should explain how the competition decision and the public programme will be handled.

Use our event programme template to organise the timings, then add the internal jobs around them. Include technical checks before doors, staff briefing, filmmaker arrival, agreed discussion positions, the result handover and audience departure. The public timetable can stay simple while the team works from a more detailed version.

Keep the host's questions focused on the work people have just seen. Confirm which representatives will participate, pronunciation, topics they prefer to avoid and the finish time. Don't imply that all eight directors will appear if you only have acceptance from four. A properly hosted conversation remains valuable without pretending every invitation is confirmed.

Release tickets after accounting for every audience place

Our fictional auditorium allocation allows 220 audience positions in the approved setup. Sixteen are held for film representatives, three for the serving jurors, and six for agreed companions or other guests. A reserve attending as a replacement uses the replaced juror's allocation. That leaves 195 paid admissions. Organiser and venue workers are separately included in the venue's total occupancy assessment and staffing plan; these figures aren't a recommendation for another room.

Allocate actual wheelchair positions and any associated seats in the agreed layout before releasing inventory. A total count alone doesn't show whether the remaining places suit the people booking them. Keep one person responsible for changes to filmmaker and guest admissions so several teammates can't each promise spare places that don't exist.

Show selected filmmakers how to confirm their named admissions and when any unused allocation may be released under the agreed rules. Additional cast or crew can buy from the remaining public allocation. Don't assume a filmmaker will be absent and sell their promised place twice. A late-arrival policy also needs to respect the venue's film-entry arrangements.

For the public booking, Loopyah's ticket selling tools let you set ticket types, prices and quantities, then take payment and send confirmation with a QR ticket. That handles buying admission to the screening. Your team still owns competition eligibility, screening permission and the judging process, which should be managed through the entry arrangements you've published.

Test the purchase on a phone. The buyer should see the date, venue, start and expected finish, confirmed programme, age conditions, access details, full payable price and what the ticket includes. Make the refund and cancellation information easy to find. Check locally applicable pricing and consumer requirements when finalising the offer.

Keep submission status out of the audience checkout. An applicant who hasn't been selected may still want to attend, while a selected representative already has an agreed admission. Clear separate messages prevent people buying a ticket because they think payment is necessary to remain eligible for the prize.

Promote the programme and give buyers useful updates

You can announce a call for entries before the final selection exists, but that message serves filmmakers. Once tickets launch, explain why an audience should spend the evening with the selected work. Describe the theme, the kind of films, the discussion and the cinema experience using approved materials.

Invite finalists to share an accurate booking page and agreed assets. Treat their support as welcome distribution, rather than making each team responsible for filling a quota. Selling more tickets shouldn't improve a film's chance of winning a jury award. Keep those decisions separate in your communications as well as in your judging room.

Work with the cinema and relevant cultural partners on a small, specific launch plan. Agree who will email, which audience they can appropriately contact, when the message goes out and which booking link it uses. Our example's promotion budget covers the planned activity; adding paid campaigns or a launch reception requires a revised budget.

For ticket-holder instructions, Loopyah's attendee email tools let you prepare, test and schedule an event update. Use that for confirmed arrival details, access information and programme changes. Keep a service message about a purchased visit distinct from promotional campaigns, which need an appropriate audience and permission for the place where you operate.

Watch paid bookings against the decision dates in your contracts. If sales are weak, ask whether people understand the programme, whether relevant audiences have heard about it and whether the evening competes with another local event. Choose a response while you can still change the plan. A last-minute discount has a visible cost in the example's already narrow surplus.

Run the evening and finish the competition properly

Brief door staff, projection, the host and the competition lead from one confirmed programme. Name the person who can authorise a change and the person who communicates with attendees. Keep filmmaker admissions, guest holds and public ticket records available to the appropriate staff without exposing private submission notes.

Before doors, check the approved playback order, microphones, captions and result announcement. Rehearse a failed-film response too. If playback stops, the host should explain what is known and when another update will follow, while the projectionist diagnoses it. Staff shouldn't promise a restart time they haven't confirmed.

Keep any award decision change within the published procedure. A sponsor preferring another winner or a finalist bringing a large audience isn't a reason to reopen the jury's result. Record a genuine eligibility or procedural problem and have the designated person handle it. The host needs the final approved wording before going on stage.

After the event, pay the promised screening fees and prize, confirm receipt, and complete venue settlement. Reconcile paid admissions, discounts, refunds and actual costs against the original plan. Include late staff hours and technical repairs so the result reflects the full cost of repeating the event.

Send selected teams the agreed attendance information and approved results. Publish names and credits accurately, and use only the publicity permissions you have. Follow the stated retention and deletion arrangements for previews and final copies, while keeping the administrative records your business needs under its actual obligations.

Before you open the next call, decide what must change. Perhaps the programme length worked but review hours were underestimated, or the filmmaker allocation was useful while the paid audience was too small for the cost. Price and scope the next edition around those findings. Reconfirm the venue, review capacity and funded prize before asking another group of filmmakers to enter.