Roc on PAWS Film Festival

While New York State may be on PAUSE, our pets definitely aren’t!  The Roc on PAWS Pet Film Festival celebrates all the ways our pets cheer us up while we stay at home.  Capture a video of your pets doing… whatever it is they do best (or worst) and submit it!  Feel free to be creative by adding sound effects, voice-overs, and special effects.  Proceeds will help the Cinema, as well as local rescue groups Mr. Grey’s Strays, Animal Rescue Connection, and Hearthside Cats. When the Cinema re-opens, we’ll hold a special screening of selected submissions! The submission period runs from May 13 to July 27.  The original deadline was June 27, but you can still submit your videos if you enter a special code in the FilmFreeway system.  Use “newdeadline” (minus the quotes) when you submit your video.

First prize is $100 plus a book of ten movie passes to the Cinema Theater.  Second prize is $50 and a book of five movie passes.  Third prize is $25 and one movie pass.

Submissions will be accepted through our dedicated portal on FilmFreeway.  The submission fee is $5.  See below for rules, terms and conditions, and step-by-step instructions on how to submit your video. You can also download a PDF document with the same information.

If you have any questions, please send us email , contact us on Facebook Messenger, or call the Cinema office number at 585.271.1786.  Good luck, and have fun!

Now for the fine print:

Rules

  1. The primary content of your video must be pets! This film festival is for domesticated animals only, not wildlife. 
  2. Submission does not guarantee inclusion in the Pet Film Festival. The Cinema reserves the right to reject submissions at our discretion.
  3. If you are under 18, you must have your parent or guardian’s permission to submit. 
  4. Parent or guardian permission is also required for any minors that appear in your video. 
  5. Submissions must be between 10 and 90 seconds. 
  6. Individuals may submit a maximum of two (2) videos. 
  7. Submissions cannot contain vulgar language or imagery—content must be equivalent to MPAA G rating.
  8. Submissions must not depict animals being harmed or mistreated.
  9. Submissions cannot contain third-party copyrighted content (example: music).
  10. You agree to our Terms and Conditions.

Terms and Conditions

By submitting to the the Roc on PAWS Film Festival, you agree to the following terms: 

All Submitter/s individually and jointly are age 18 or have permission from their parents or legal guardians to submit. The Submitter/s authored the work and own the copyrights to all content they submit and have license from the copyright owners if incorporating third-party content. The Submitter assumes all risk of infringement and holds harmless the organizers and the Cinema from copyright or trademark violations.

The Submitter/s retain copyright to their submissions and grant the Cinema the non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, paid-in full, perpetual license to use, publicly perform and display, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, store, and prepare derivative works of their submission for the Roc on PAWS Pet Film Festival, including promotional and commercial uses. 

The Submitter/s acknowledges that anyone appearing in their video is at least age 18 OR has permission from their respective parents or guardians to appear in the video, consents to participate in the Roc on PAWS Pet Festival, and grants the right to record, edit, use, reproduce, publish and distribute by way of photograph, video, television, and all other media (electronic or otherwise) their visual and/or audio likeness. The Submitter/s take full responsibility for obtaining consent.

Technical Specifications

  • Submitted videos must be in .mp4, .mov, or .avi format
  • Submitted videos must not exceed 2GB.
  • If filming on your phone, submitted videos should be in “landscape” (not portrait) orientation.

Submission Instructions (for FilmFreeway): 

    1. Create an account at Filmfreeway.com.  (Note that you will be charged $5 at the end of the submission process.)
    2. Once logged in, click on “My Projects”.
    3. Click on “Add a Project”.
    4. Fill out the project submission form. 
      1. Section 1 – Project Information: You only need to fill out the title 
      2. Section 2 – Submitter Information: You only need to include your email address, but any other contact information you are willing to provide will be helpful. 
      3. Section 3 – Credits: For “Director” please enter the video creator’s name. For Key Cast, enter the pets’ names and under “Character”, write what type of animal they are. If you choose, please add only the first names of any people who appear in the video. 
      4. Section 4 – Specifications: Please enter the run-time, you can leave the rest blank. 
      5. Section 5 – Screening/Distributions: Leave blank.
  1. Click “Save Project”.
  2. The next screen should give you the option to upload your video file. Please do so. 
  3. Once your file is uploaded, go to: https://filmfreeway.com/roc_on_paws
  4. Click on “Submit Now” and select your project from the drop-down menu. 
  5. Add to cart and check out. 
  6. Thanks for submitting!
  7. Note: The original submission deadline was June 27, but you can still submit your movie if you use special code “newdeadline” (minus the quotes).  The code will allow you to submit the movie through July.  You have to click the “Waiver Codes Only” button and enter the code “newdeadline” (no spaces or quotes) in order to submit your film.

The rules, terms, and conditions are also available as a PDF document.