Graduate Student Rules

The BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international exhibition of award-winning faculty & student works chosen in the following competitions: Audio, Documentary, Film & Video, Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies, News, Scriptwriting, Sports, and Two-year Colleges. Winners will receive recognition and exhibition of their works during BEA’s annual convention.

Eligibility Requirements

  1. Predominant Authorship and Originality: The festival invites submissions of original creative works in which the entrant maintains predominant authorship over the project’s content and aesthetics (producing, directing, writing, editing, etc.). 
  2. Previously submitted works will not be accepted. However, a derivative of a previous work may qualify for submission if it can be shown that substantial changes have been made to the original work assuming that the author has legal rights to the original. In these cases, the entrant must provide additional clarification.
  3. Partial works or works-in-progress will not be accepted.
  4. Completion Date: Only works completed after December 15, 2022, are eligible for submission.
  5. BEA Members Only: The competition is open to full-time graduate students who are BEA Graduate Student Members. Membership forms and information are available on the BEA website at www.beaweb.org. Entrants must certify that the entry was completed while enrolled full-time as a graduate student at a university or college. Entries completed while seeking a graduate degree by then part-time or full-time faculty members are not eligible to enter the Graduate Competition; please submit your entry to the proper BEA Festival Faculty competition. 
  6. Legal Permissions: The entrant agrees to clear all licenses, copyrights, and permissions to ensure that the submission can legally and ethically be presented at the BEA convention and online at the BEA Festival website. If an entity other than the entrant owns the rights to all or part of the submitted program, the entrant must attach written consent from the owner or an authorized representative of the owner to the entry form.
  7. Exhibition Rights: The Festival of Media Arts includes both a site exhibition at BEA’s annual convention in Las Vegas and an online exhibition at our website. By entering this festival the entrant is stating that they own the rights of exhibition and that they grant BEA the limited rights to exhibit the work in these two forums. If these rights cannot be granted for a legitimate reason, the entrant secondarily agrees to create a “substantial trailer” that can be exhibited and will give the viewer a sense of why the complete work was an award-winner. BEA must receive a winning entry’s trailer within 72 hours of the February announcement of winners to retain its winning status.
  8. Language: Works must be in English or have English subtitles.
  9. Submission Deadline: All entries must be submitted online. Online submissions will be accepted from November 15 – December 15, 2023. Winners will be notified of the results by February 15, 2024.

Submission Requirements

  1. One Entry Form for Each Entry: The entrant must complete one entire entry form for each work submitted. Each entry has its own non-refundable entry fee.
  2. Entry Stipulations / Limitations: A student may enter as many as three different creative works in BEA’s Festival of Media Arts, with the following restrictions:
  3. A single work may be entered only once in the entire Festival Competition. If the same entry is entered into more than one competition category the Festival chair will reject duplicate entries and assign the remaining entry to the single most appropriate category for adjudication.
  4. An entrant may enter a single competition category only once. Second and third entries from the same entrant must be in different competition categories.
  5. Entry fees will not be refunded for rejected or reassigned entries.
  6. Entry Fee: A non-refundable entry fee of $40.00 (U.S.) is required for each work submitted. Paying online by credit or debit card is the best way to ensure that your payment is received on time. Check or money order payments are accepted, but must be received by January 5, 2024.
  7. Choose the Appropriate Competition and Category: Entrants are responsible for submitting their work to the appropriate competition and category. If the competition chair determines that an entry does not fit the selected category, the entry may be reassigned or rejected. Entry fees will not be refunded for rejected or reassigned entries.
  8. Submission Process: Entrants must follow the online procedures for electronically submitting video, audio, scriptwriting, and interactive media/technology entries. Media submissions that fail to work or are not comprehensible for any reason will result in the disqualification of the entry. Failure to properly complete any portion of the submission process (completing the online entry form, submitting the media, and paying the entry fee) by the December 15, 2023 deadline will disqualify the entry from the competition.
  9. Upload File Size Limit: We have a 2 GB file size limit for each upload field. For streaming purposes, we recommend compressing entries to be under 1 GB.

Judging Process

  1. Evaluation Criteria: Entries are evaluated according to the following criteria: 1) professionalism; 2) the use of aesthetic and/or creative elements; 3) sense of structure and timing; 4) production values; 5) technical merit; and 6) the overall contribution to the discipline in both form and substance.
  2. Judging: A panel comprised of media educators and/or industry professionals with expertise in the submitted category/discipline will judge each entry. Short-form entries (less than 15 minutes) will be viewed in their entirety. For long-form entries, judges are required to watch at least 15 minutes of each entry. Judges will not be assigned to review an entry where there is an obvious conflict of interest or in cases where the judge is institutionally affiliated with an entrant.
  3. Blind Review: Every effort will be made to conduct a blind review of each submission. Wherever possible, entrants should remove information that points to the identity of the work’s author and/or co-author(s).

Award Levels and Prizes

  1. Award Levels: The competition chair will review the judging evaluation forms and determine the final ranking and award level for each winning entry as follows: Best of Festival – The top-ranked entry in the overall competition (across all categories) is eligible to receive the BEA Best of Festival King Foundation Award. Best of Festival individual winners will receive a $1,000 cash award from the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation. Best of Festival newscast and group winners are not eligible to receive the $1,000 cash award. Best of Festival winners will be honored during a special ceremony at the BEA convention.  Graduate competition chairs generally recognize the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place and Awards of Excellence finishers in each category within a competition. Awards are based on the individual merit of an entry. Winners may or may not be chosen for all categories and/or award levels. The decision of the judges is final.
  2. Plaques and Trophies: Each winning entrant will receive one award plaque at no charge. Each Best of Festival winning entrant will receive one award trophy. Additional plaques and trophies may be ordered within 8 weeks of the convention.
  3. Exhibition: Winners are expected to attend the 2024 BEA Convention to exhibit their entry. Winners are responsible for all costs associated with attending the convention including airfare, housing, meals, and BEA conference registration. If the lead author is not able to attend another member of the project’s creative team should be sent to represent the production team. Failure to send a viable representative from the entry’s team may result in the withholding of any cash award.