Rules LOOK!-competition

The LOOK!-competition focuses on the artistic interpretation, the 'look' that lifts films to a higher level and makes them must-see on the big screen. Every year, a selection of at least eight (documentary/animation/fiction) films is evaluated by an international professional jury. 

Prizes/categories

The Best Film receives 10,000 EUR. The cash prize is transferred to the rightful distributor/sales agent to support the distribution/promotion of the film. 

The films in the LOOK!-competition are also eligible for the UFK press award, determined by jury members appointed by the Union of Film Critics.

Eligibility

All feature films are eligible for the LOOK!-competition. The rightholders will provide promotional material as much as possible or give permission to use film fragments for promotional purposes. No compensation is provided for this. The selection of a film in the LOOK!-competition implies the permission of the rights owners to screen the film a minimum of one and a maximum of five times during the duration of the festival, after agreement of a BO split or screening fee.

The distributor/sales agent will provide a version with different subtitles for the jury free of charge if required.

Selection procedure

The team of FFO programmers will make the selection of the films competing. The inclusion in the LOOK!-competition will be confirmed to the rights holders by e-mail prior to the festival. The selection is not linked to a fee. A laurel 'Official Selection LOOK!-competition - Ostend Film Festival' will be provided which can be used by the producer in the selected film and its promotional material. The selection will be added to the IMDb-profile by the producer.

The decision of the selection committee to select or reject a film is final. No correspondence will be conducted regarding this decision.

Jury

Every year, a diverse professional jury is composed of people

recently active in the film industry. Preference is given to screenwriters, DOPs, Production Designers, directors, artists, etc. People who are professionally involved with aesthetics or film and enjoy recognition from their peers within their field. An odd number of jury members guarantees victory by simple majority of votes. After the award ceremony, the jury members provide a short motivation text in which they substantiate their choice for the awarded film(s).

The jury members commit not to communicate anything to the outside world about the deliberations during the jury process. The jury members undertake not to leak the private meetings and the results. 

In case the jury members have a direct link with a production that is eligible for a prize or in case of doubt, they must mention this in advance and abstain from voting when the film in question is discussed.

Awarding

The award ceremony takes place during an official moment before a film screening in the presence of the jury president, the festival director and the audience present during the second half of the festival. The producer and distributor will be informed of the win and kindly asked to delegate someone to the ceremony. The profit of the LOOK!-competition will be added to the IMDb profile by the producer and any travel expenses will be reimbursed by the festival. 

Partners

The official LOOK!-competition of FFO is realised in collaboration with a title sponsor of FFO. These and possible other sponsor mentions will always be made in commercial/eventual announcements within the framework of FFO and cannot have any association in terms of content and/or form with the selected films.   

Organisation

The Ostend Film Festival and the LOOK!-competition are organised by Les Films du Bord de Mer vzw.