Secondary school students, film school and tertiary students are invited to submit short documentary films with 'a French flavour' for the French Film Festival Short-Doc-Film Competition. Prizes range from DVD and book collections to an all-expenses-paid trip to France in July for a film industry workshop.

The competition is part of this year's festival in February at Rialto Cinemas in Auckland and Christchurch and The Embassy in Wellington.

"We have tried to give new dimension to this year's French Film Festival," says festival director Typhaine Biard-Hamon.

"We don't just want people to see movies, we want them to discover and experience French film and culture."Category 1 entrants must be Year 11, 12 or 13 pupils enrolled to study French language and/or culture at a New Zealand secondary school for the 2008 New Zealand academic year at the time of submitting a documentary film.

Category 2 entrants must be aged between 18 and 25 years inclusive and be enrolled at a registered New Zealand film school, polytechnic or university at the time of submitting their documentary films.

The documentary films submitted to the Competition must be a maximum duration of 10 minutes in duration. Individual or group submissions will be accepted.

The films must be seen to have "a French flavour", an aspect that is open to broad figurative interpretation by the documentary filmmakers.

Any monologue, dialogue or narration (none of these is obligatory) in the documentary films must be either predominantly in English or feature English subtitles as appropriate. The members of the independent jury may not all be French speakers.

Category 1 prizes:

1st Prize - a selection of 15 French films on DVD (PAL)
2nd Prize - a selection of 10 French Films on DVD (PAL)
3rd Prize - a selection of 5 French Films on DVD (PAL)

Category 2 prizes:

1st Prize - an 8-10-day all-expenses-paid trip to France in July 2008 to take part in a film programme/workshop.
2nd and 3rd Prizes - A selection of French films on DVD (PAL) and books in English on French film.

All winners will be given the opportunity to screen the films with which they have won as part of the 2008/2009 Festival of Festivals, New Zealand's annual French documentary film festival hosted by 10 museums and cinemas around New Zealand, and organised by the Embassy of France.

The Embassy of France reserves the right not to screen one or more of the winning movie(s) in unique, unforeseen circumstances.

Submissions must reach the French Film Festival office (PO Box 11-281, Wellington) by 31 March 2008.

There is no charge to enter a documentary film in the Competition.

Full details, rules and regulations can be found on the Festival website

The French Film Festival presented by AXA is at Rialto Cinemas in Auckland Feb 20-28 and Christchurch Feb 26 - March 2, and The Embassy in Wellington Feb 13-21.

04/02/08