Hi all! I am organizing a brickfilm festival (and competition) for the Bricks by Bay Convention in California. I wanted to encourage all of you to participate, even if you can't attend the conference. We are hoping brickfilmers will create and submit a film that exemplifies the convention theme of "Fun and Games," OR send us their most recent stop-motion masterpiece.

Winners in the following categories will be announced during the Bricks by the Bay Convention awards ceremony and will receive a brick-built trophy and a LEGO set:

• Best Film

• Best Film in the convention theme (2104: “Fun & Games”)

• Best Story

• Best Technical Achievement

• Young Filmmaker Award (12 and under)

• Special “Sweatbox” award to the best Film by a convention attendee

Judges for the 2014 festival include David Pagano, founder of Paganomation, an award-winning production studio whose work has been seen on LEGO.com, Nickelodeon, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and BrickJournal magazine. If you have any questions, you can post them here or send me a message. Thanks for reading and I hope you participate!

Rules:

• To be eligible, films must have been published publicly to YouTube.com between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

• An email containing name, age, link to the video, stating if the video is an entry into the best convention themed brickfilm category, and whether a convention registrant must be sent to [email protected] by 11:59 PM Pacific time, June 30, 2014.

• Entries may be made by an individual or team.

• Limit one film submission per person or team.

• To be eligible for the Convention-Themed Film category, films must be made specifically for the festival and incorporate the convention theme of “Fun & Games.”

• You do not need to be a registered Bricks by the Bay participant nor do you need to be present to be eligible for the Best Film, Best Story, Best Technical Achievement, or Young Filmmaker awards. You do need to be a registered participant in attendance at the convention to be eligible for the “sweatbox” award.

• Brickfilms in languages other than English should include subtitles.

• The principal animation technique must be stop-motion using LEGO bricks. CGI, live-action or other forms of video may be used to supplement, but brickfilming must be the focus.

• Films must be at least 30 seconds long, but no longer than 2 minutes in length (excluding credits).

• No mature/explicit content is allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: swearing, excessive violence, overt sexual content, discrimination and intolerance. Bricks by the Bay is family-friendly event and we ask that the contest entries be family-friendly as well.

• Please refrain from using licensed LEGO themes, such as LEGO Star Wars, or construction toys from other companies, such as Mega Blocks.

• You must possess or have obtained the rights to all the materials, such as music and graphics, in your film.

• Bricks by the Bay reserves the right to deem any film ineligible for any reason, at their discretion.

For more information about Bricks by the Bay go to http://www.bricksbythebay.com/ or follow us at http://www.facebook.com/bricksbythebay