A leading technology company has announced the return of what it describes as the world’s largest short film competition, with a million dollar cash prize pool.
My Rode Reel, from Rode Microphones, is offering filmmakers around the world the chance to enter across 10 categories.
The prize pool includes a top reward of 200,000 dollars (about £153,000), and Rode said it is the biggest cash prize ever offered in a short film competition.
Peter Freedman, founder of Rode, recently paid six million dollars (about £4.6 million) for a guitar once belonging to Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain and plans on exhibiting it around the world, with all proceeds going to the performing arts.
And the company’s CEO, Damien Wilson, said the competition was designed to support artists amid the crushing conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“People in the film industry are doing it tough right now,” he said. “This year, we wanted to not only give entrants the chance to win Rode mics and awesome gear, but also offer a substantial amount of cash to help kickstart the career of the next big thing, fund new projects, or cover living expenses so filmmakers can continue to work through these trying times.
“This money will make a big difference for a lot of people.”
There are 10 categories in total, including five genre categories: animation, behind-the-scenes, drama, comedy and documentary.
And the five special categories are judges’ choice, people’s choice, sound design, young filmmaker and best Chinese film.
The top three short films – which can be a maximum of three minutes in length – for each of the competition categories will win a share in the million dollar cash prize pool while the winner of the major prize, the judges’ choice, takes home the 200,000 dollar reward.
The competition is open now and closes on October 7. Visit myrodereel.com for more information.