Short Film competition for Guildford schools 2023 

     Make a 2-minute film – in German – win a prize!

Make a video in German featuring an interview with one or more well-known people, real or imaginary. Your film should be between 90 seconds and 2 minutes long.  Make it interesting for a person your age from our twin town Freiburg. (We’re inviting Freiburg schools to do the same, in English!)  

 Judges will be looking for original work, range of content and variety of film techniques.

Make a film, and we’ll give prizes for the best ones in each category and share them with Freiburg.

Films can be made by individuals or groups of up to 3. 

As examples you can see some films made by Guildford Town Guides: there is one on GTA YouTube and more on Guildford Town Guides Facebook – and you can see winning entries from previous years here.

• Closing date: midnight Tuesday, 7 November 2023. Send your film and entry form to us via WeTransfer by then. 
• Prizes of Waterstones gift vouchers will be awarded to the winners in each category.
• Judges include:
  • the Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Masuk Miah
  • Nick Bale, Leader of Guildford Town Guides, and
  • Professor Susan Pratt, Professor of Film Production, University of Surrey.
• Winners will be announced and prizes presented at the Guildford Twinning Association (GTA) Christmas Market in the Guildhall, High Street, Guildford on Sunday 3 December 2023.
• Winning entries will be exhibited on the GTA website and shared with our partners in Freiburg.
• Please read and carefully consider the following rules, terms and conditions before you submit your short film and entry forms. Note: if you’re under 16 you’ll need to have a parent or guardian sign the entry form as well as you.

Rules, terms and conditions

1. Eligibility
   1. Entry is open to all students in any secondary school in the Borough of Guildford.
   2. Films may be created by 1, 2 or 3 students. A group of 2 or 3 students should choose one of them to be the Team Leader.
2. Technical specifications
   1. Each film must be between 90 seconds and 2 minutes in length.
   2. Each film must be maximum 2GB in size.
   3. Each film and must use file type .mov or .mp4 .
   4. Films must be in German. Enthusiasm is important, so the occasional error will not be a significant disadvantage.
   5. Films must be respectful of other people, their feelings and rights, and must avoid political comment.
3. Judges’ criteria - they will be looking for:
   1. original work. The film must be entirely or predominantly filmed by and with commentary by the entrant(s);
   2. a range of content. The film needs to be interesting; and
   3. a variety of film techniques. For example: close up, long shot, zoom, fade, tracking...
4. Some assistance from parents/teachers is acceptable, particularly for younger students, but the creative vision for the film must be the entrants' alone and the bulk of the work must be done by the entrants themselves.
5. Copyright/other people’s rights
   1. Ensure that all content in your film is your own (including footage, songs, music, images, etc). If you do choose to include any copyrighted or trademarked content, you must be able to provide written permission for its use.  To be on the safe side, if you do want music, you could use some of the free-of-charge royalty-free music here: mixkit.co/free-stock-music
   2. Make sure that you have the consent of any person who contributes to the film eg if you interview someone, you must be able to provide a copy of their written permission for the use of their contribution, and if that person is under 16, from their parent or guardian too. Here is our template consent form.
6. Promotion/publicity                   
   If you win a prize, you agree if reasonably practicable to attend the award ceremony on 3 December 2023 in the Guildhall and to allow the GTA to photograph or film the presentation.

7. Entry procedure
   1. You must first download and complete this entry form, ensuring you have all the required signatures. Check carefully that you have filled it all in.
   2. To submit your entry to the competition, you/the Team Leader must, by midnight on Tuesday 7 November 2023 send the completed entry form (a scanned copy or a photo is fine) plus your film to us, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., via WeTransfer. (See wetransfer.com:  it’s free and really easy to use – here's a link to one of many online tutorials.)
8. Rights & data protection
   1. The GTA (Guildford Twinning Association) reserves the right to use entry content (including all or part of any film submitted by an entrant) and images of the award ceremony in any reasonable manner we choose, including sharing it with our Freiburg partners, for the purposes of:
      1. administering and publicising the competition, and
      2. promoting town twinning and the GTA.
   2. Submission of an entry constitutes consent by the entrant(s) for the GTA to use the content and images in this way. On your entry form you must provide written consent or confirmation in respect of your own contribution and your own personal data and also, if you are under 16, the consent of your parent or guardian.
   3. Entries remain the property of the relevant right-holders, but submission of an entry to the competition constitutes the grant by the entrant(s) of a royalty-free licence to the GTA to store, upload and display a copy of the film and of images of the award ceremony, and to share any of that material with our Freiburg partners, for up to ten years in the case of prize-winning films and for up to 2 years in the case of the others.
   4. The GTA takes no responsibility for any failure by an entrant to obtain any necessary authorisations. Entrants warrant that their entries (and any material contained in their entries, including, but not limited to, any music) do not infringe the intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person (which includes companies).
   5. The GTA will only collect personal information, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address and age, for the purpose of administering this competition and will not use any personal information for any other purpose without your separate consent. By providing this information, you consent to it being used by GTA for that stated purpose. See also the GTA’s privacy policy.
9. The competition judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into regarding either the judging process or any outcomes reached.

If you have any questions, or are having trouble submitting your entry, or need help with sending it, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – we'll be happy to help.