Festival Rules & Instructions

Welcome to the Devon Film Festival.

It can be said, and probably has, that rules ruin the fun. But the fun here is about watching and discussing movies so we are going to have a few rules.

Participants are welcome to watch films, and judge films based on the criteria below but they do not have voting rights. If you would like to become a judge please contact us.

Judges (or groups of judges) please submit three(3) films for review per genre. Please submit your films (title and year of release) to the festival Whatsapp group or festival email below:

submissions@devonfilmfestival.co.uk

Due date for submissions is 25 July 2021

Once all the submissions have been received we will begin the watching parties. It is recommended that you watch films again even if you have seen them before.

For the category of Action film your submissions can fall into any of the Action sub-genres, e.g. action-comedy, action sci-fi, action thriller etc… However the primary genre must be Action – a comedy with a fight scene does not an Action film make.

Your submissions must be films released from 1980 to present.

In the spirit of the changing the industry they need not be released to theatres (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) but they cannot be your homemade version of Star Wars or Tik Tok stitches.

Future genres may have additional rules.

Judges must watch the film in order to judge it.

In the event there are duplicate submissions the Judge who submitted last may opt for an alternate.

Additional Common Sense Rules:

• No chatting during films (this should be obvious)
  • If you are watching alone we do not condone talking to yourself but we cannot stop you.
• No punching, kicking, biting or causing harm to participants or judges
• There will be no nominations for:
  • Twilight films
  • 50 Shades Films
  • Grimsby
• No cheating; we’re not sure how you cheat at a film festival but if you figure it out, don’t do it.

Film Scoring System

Films will be scored using a 10 point system.

• 9-10 – Technically excellent and immensely enjoyable. This is a film I would watch again and proudly recommend to friends.
• 7-8 – Technically good, no major issues. I enjoyed the film and may recommend it.
• 5-6 – Technically ok, a few issues here and there. I could tell a friend who might like this specific type of action movie.
• 3-4 – Quiet a few technical problems. Nothing really exciting or original. Wouldn’t recommend but it didn’t offend me.
• 1-2 – Rubbish. It displeases me.