SUBMISSIONS FOR #NZWF23 ARE CLOSED

Our submission period is 1 February – 31 August.

Please read this page before submitting. It ain’t short but it contains important info.

DEADLINES

Our submission deadlines are Early (31 March), Regular (31 May), Late (31 July) and Final (31 August).
Submissions are via FilmFreeway.

Fees increase after each deadline, so save yourself $$$ and submit early if you can.
Your submission has an equal chance of selection regardless of when you submit it.

WAIVERS

Put the puppy eyes away! We do not offer fee waivers except as part of swap arrangements with partner festivals. Don’t waste your time asking.

Every year we receive over 100 requests for fee waivers. To us, they represent the potential for more work and less income to deliver our festival. To you, they represent greater competition for selection, award nominations and wins. Many requests are sent to us as a bcc email, so we feel really special when we get those.

Our answer is always the same, and the second word is ‘off’.

We do offer fee discounts to our Alum Award winners, and to the submitters of shows from our most-recent edition. We make these offers directly, via email, before we open submissions. If you submitted a show to us in 2022, you should have already received a discount code.

If you didn’t, please do get in touch with us at admin@nzwebfest.co.nz

YOUR SUBMISSION

Do us and yourself a favour, and make sure your submission info is correct and complete – and please update your FilmFreeway page if something changes after you make a submission.

We receive around a dozen submissions each year for which the contact info supplied doesn’t work by the time we confirm all our selections in September. If that info is wrong, we probably can’t contact you. If we can’t contact you, we won’t select or nominate your show for awards.

Please make include stills and social media links in your submission. We spend more time hunting down these things than any other info from submissions.

Please adhere to the runtimes. We don’t mind a submission being a tiny bit over the runtime, but please DO NOT submit a complete series as a single file, unless it’s below the runtime.

LANGUAGES & SUBTITLES

Podcasts are accepted in the English language only.

Shorts and Web Series: If your submission is not English language, English language subtitles must be included, either baked into the video file or as a separate file (we prefer .srt).

NEW in ’23

We’ve introduced a Short Film category this year. It’s been a while coming, but it brings us into line with several other Web Series World Cup festivals, and we welcome the chance to give more short-form content an opportunity to be seen, enjoyed and celebrated!

Vertical format shows
Shows in vertical formats submit to existing web series or short film submission categories, and are eligible for consideration for all awards in that category.
In addition, vertical shows are eligible for consideration for a ‘Best Vertical Show’ award in each submission category.

Student work
Shows made by students submit to existing submission categories, receive fee discounts, and are eligible for consideration for all awards in that category.
In addition, shows by students are eligible for consideration for a ‘Best Student Show’ award in each submission category.
‘Student’ means registered at a recognised educational institute, not a ‘student of life’ or whatever other term you use to describe unemployment. Work submitted must have been created while a student, and may be part of coursework or made independently.

MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER

We know that it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on with every festival you submit work to.
We can’t fix that, but we can make it a bit easier.
Here’s what you can expect from us after you submit.

We communicate by email to let you know what happens next, whether that’s to commiserate with the shows we’re unable to select, to request audio and video files from selections, to requests clips for award nominees, to issue invitations to award ceremonies, to check mailing addresses for trophy winners.

Please check that emails from nzwebfest@gmail.com and admin@nzwebfest.co.nz don’t end up in your spam folder.

Of course, if you follow us on socials (@nzwebfest on facebook, instagram and twitter) and/or sign up for our monthly newsletter, you’ll also be up to date with what we’re up to – and see timely deadline reminders for NZ Web Fest and other Web Series World Cup festivals.

If you’re one of those organised people who loves to plan ahead, here are our key dates for 2023.
1 Feb: Submissions open
31 Mar: Early deadline
31 May: Regular deadline
31 Jul: Late deadline
31 Aug: Final Deadline
5 Sep: Selections announced
3 Oct: Award nominees announced
10 Oct: Full programme announced
5 Nov: NZWF23 opens
5-13 Nov: Enjoy all selected shows
6-11 Nov: Convo sessions
12 Nov: Awards ceremonies
13 Nov: NZWF23 closes

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

We try to keep this info correct and up to date, but please refer to our FilmFreeway page for definitive category-specific and submission fee info. Please note, where possible we present separate awards for NZ and International work.

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES: PODCASTS
FICTION SERIES
Up to 30 minutes – original fiction, adaptation of pre-existing property, or fan fiction. Must be available on at least one podcast app and have a minimum of three episodes released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023.
If an anthology podcast you may submit material from more than one episode, so long as it’s one file. Please note that podcast submissions on Film Freeway must be made as Music/Songwriting.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Audio Fiction World Cup.

SHORT FICTION
Up to 30 minutes – original fiction, adaptation of pre-existing property, or fan fiction. Must be self-contained and not part of a larger story, and have been released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023.
If an anthology podcast you may submit a single episode with a self-contained story to this category. Please note that podcast submissions on Film Freeway must be made as Music/Songwriting.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Audio Fiction World Cup.

ACTUAL PLAY
Up to 30 minutes – Stories told for audiences using Roleplaying Games as a storytelling device. Must be available on at least one podcast app and have a minimum of three episodes released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023. Please note that podcast submissions on Film Freeway must be made as Music/Songwriting.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Audio Fiction World Cup.

NON-FICTION
Up to 30 minutes – original non-fiction or adaptation of pre-existing property. Must be available on at least one podcast app and have a minimum of three episodes released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023. Please note that podcast submissions on Film Freeway must be made as Music/Songwriting.

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES: SHORT FILM
ANIMATION/PUPPETRY SHORT FILM
Up to 25 mins – standalone or part of an anthology.
If a short is from an anthology in which titles are made by different teams, only the title submitted is considered for selection, not the whole collection. You may submit separate titles from an anthology as separate entries.
If a short is from an anthology series in which titles are made by the same team, the series may be submitted to the appropriate Web Series category.
Must have been completed after 1 January 2022.

NON-FICTION SHORT FILM
Up to 25 mins – standalone or part of an anthology.
If a short is from an anthology in which titles are made by different teams, only the title submitted is considered for selection, not the whole collection. You may submit separate titles from an anthology as separate entries.
If a short is from an anthology series in which titles are made by the same team, the series may be submitted to the appropriate Web Series category.
Must have been completed after 1 January 2022.

NARRATIVE SHORT FILM
Up to 25 mins – standalone or part of an anthology.
If a short is from an anthology collection in which titles are made by different teams, only the title submitted is considered for selection, not the whole collection. You may submit separate titles from an anthology as separate entries.
If a short is from an anthology collection in which titles are made by the same team, the collection may be submitted to the appropriate Web Series category.
Must have been completed after 1 January 2022.

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES: WEB SERIES
FACTUAL
Up to 25 mins – a non-fiction series (serialised narrative or anthology) of which a minimum of 3 episodes have been or will have been released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023.
You may submit a single episode or combination of episodes up to 25 minutes as a single file.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Web Series World Cup.

NARRATIVE
Up to 25 mins – a narrative fiction series (serialised narrative or anthology) of which a minimum of 3 episodes have been or will be released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023.
You may submit a single episode or combination of episodes up to 25 minutes as a single file.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Web Series World Cup.

ANIMATION/PUPPETRY
Up to 25 mins – a narrative fiction or non-fiction series (serialised narrative or anthology) of which a minimum of 3 episodes have been or will have been released between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023.
You may submit a single episode or combination of episodes up to 25 minutes, as a single file.
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Web Series World Cup.

PILOT
Up to 25 mins – a narrative fiction or non-fiction series (serialised narrative or anthology) FOR A FIRST SEASON ONLY of a show which has released no more than TWO episodes at time of submission.
You may submit a single episode or combination of episodes up to 25 minutes as a single file. Awards: Pilot. Also eligible for consideration for all awards in the category for which the show would qualify if a full series (eg, Animated, Factual, Narrative)
Selections in this category earn ranking points in the Web Series World Cup.

TRAILER
Up to 3 minutes – a trailer for an animated or live-action narrative fiction or non-fiction series, of which a minimum of 3 episodes have been or will have been released by 30 September 2023. Trailers may be for a first or subsequent season of a series but NOT for a standalone short film.

THAT’S IT, THANKS

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.

If anything’s unclear or you have questions, please reach out to us at admin@nzwebfest.co.nz

Submit your work to us via FilmFreeway.

And, finally, good luck!