Anime USA 2025 AMV Contest [Submissions Open!]

[yokochan2010]

Welcome to the Anime USA 2025 AMV Contest! Keep reading below for the rules and how to enter!

** Live Action videos are allowed! See the rules for specific instructions! **

This year’s events are as follows:

The Main AMV Contest: Any AMVs submitted to this should be for a general convention audience. An all-aged audience may be in attendance. Any AMV disqualified due to content will be shifted to the NSFW Contest or an After Hours showcase dependent upon the Editor’s request.

The NSFW Contest (18+ content allowed): Try your hand at being naughty or giving nightmares! Two categories available and live action videos will be placed in one of those categories as normal. Relaxed restrictions on violence, gore, nudity, or language. Please see rule #3 for more information.

AMV Showcase: AUSA AMV Staff will choose videos that did not make the final cut. If an AMV is disqualified but it falls within the rules of the main contest, it will be shown here time permitting. You may also request to have a video go directly into this showcase. The AMV staff will determine what content will be placed in this panel. Videos going directly into the showcases will not count against the amount of videos allowed for the submission in the contests.

AMV After Hours Showcase: Similar to the regular showcase, but with 18+ content allowed, following the same guidelines as the NSFW contest.

AMV Panels: Do you like AMVs and want to share thoughts you have about them? Do you make AMVs? Are you an AMV Judge at another con? If you wish to discuss AMVs then apply for a panel spot! The AMV Department Coordinator will inform anyone of accepted panels, and the panel times. These panels are for anything to do with AMV's, your top 10, your best editing tips, your best tips to have AMV's judged well in contests. Also if you wish to have 18+ content please inform us on your panel submission. You do not need to be an editor or staff to present a panel.

Fan Parodies: We may show some parody videos/movies at Anime USA. If you know of a fan parody you would like to have shown or you made one yourself let us know!

Anime USA 2025 AMV Contest Rules:

Submissions will be accepted starting April 7, 2025.
Submission deadline: August 17, 2025 by 11:59pm Pacific time.

1) Each person/studio may submit up to 3 AMV’s in total in 3 separate categories.
*NOTE*: If you are part of a studio, you may submit AMV’s either as yourself or as the studio. You are still limited to the submission limits of each contest no matter which association you apply to each video.

2) Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. Any attempt to submit work that is not your own will result in immediate disqualification and banning from competing in all future Anime USA contests. Note that the use of prompt-based Generative AI (such as language learning models, text to image/video generators, or any type of content generator where the tool used could have been trained in uncredited source material) is considered plagerism and will result in the same consequences.

3) You may use footage from video games, anime, Japanese live action or any other content as well as animation you created yourself*. Your AMV must contain majority content from works inspired by Japanese video games or Japanese anime. Some examples of animation inspired by Japanese anime or video games would be the Netflix Voltron series, Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, and Legend of Vox Machina. Submissions will be judged on a case by case basis. Videos that violate this rule may still be screened at a showcase per staff discretion.

*Exception is the Live Action Category where you may use any sources of live action content and not just Japanese live action content. To qualify for this category you must have more than 60% live action content.

4) Your submission should not include the following:

-Dubbed audio from licensed content.
-Any original audio directly copying the official dub script.
-Subtitled, Credits, or logos from your original sources. This includes game footage; a clean capture is required.
-Your own bumpers or credits for your video.
-Any commercial studio logos or other forms of watermarks that you did not create yourself as a parody of said logo or your own logo.
-Any attempts to cover up watermarks or studio/television logos.
-Any form of reference to the MPAA whatsoever.
-Unaltered video from your audio selection’s official music video.

For the Main Contest: No nudity, offensive language or excessive violence or gore. The contest will have a general, all age audience. This will be evaluated during judging.
NSFW Contest: This rule is mostly relaxed. Extremely offensive content may still be rejected at staff discretion.Live action videos are accepted in both the Nightmare and Naughty categories.

5) "Freshness Rule": Videos must not be premiered before September 1, 2024. Further, regardless of premiere date, videos must not have won 3 or more major awards. Major awards are defined as Best of Category and Best in Show.

6) Submissions should be between one minute and six minutes in length. The sole exception is the trailer/parody category, where the minimum length is 30 seconds. If the trailer/parody category is combined with comedy, the exception will still be given.

7) All submissions must be attributed to an entry into the Google Docs form for submissions. The file name must match exactly to the question asking for the file name.

8) If any issues with your submission violating these rules are noticed before the submission window ends, you may be contacted at staff discretion to see if you can edit the video for submission.

9) We reserve the right to reject or disqualify any entry for any reason; all rules here are subject to change and will be applied equally to all submissions. All content submitted submissions may be used in panels or showcasing subsequent to the actual contest airing at staff discretion. Proper credit will always be given to the editor if it is used in any form whatsoever.

10) Anime USA AMV staff may alter the rules at any time. Any change that is enacted is retroactive to the beginning of the submission window and any submissions affected will be communicated to the Editor(s) at that time.

11) All decisions by Anime USA’s AMV staff are final.

The Main AMV Contest categories:
Action
Comedy
Drama
Trailer/Parody
Upbeat
Romance
Live Action

The NSFW AMV Contest: (separate mature/18+ content contest)
Nightmare (horror)
Naughty

**Please note: Categories of similar vibes may be combined if submissions are low, for example, Comedy and Trailer/Parody may be combined. Combination is at the discretion of AMV Staff**

Anime USA AMV Staff will judge the entries to determine the finalists, and then the finalists will be presented to the attendee audience to vote. Awards will be given to AMV’s that are Best in Category, Best in Show, Director’s choice and Judge’s choice. Second place will be announced and recorded. There may be other awards given at the discretion of the AMV staff.

The deadline for receipt of all forms of submissions is August 17, 2025 by 11:59 pm Pacific Time. Extensions will not be given unless the AUSA AMV Staff decides it is warranted, please let us know if there are problems and we will inform you if there is an extension warranted.

During judging of the submissions if there is an issue with your submission we will contact you to allow you to address or dispute the issue, and if you are able to correct or submit a different video, in place of the video with the issue, by the submission deadline that will be accepted. If you accidentally submit the wrong file, you may email the file to me and I can get it replaced within the Drive folder.

All submissions will be screened at 1080p. We accept most common file formats and codecs (eg. mp4, mkv, or avi). Every attempt will be made to convert file formats and codecs to be screened at the best possible quality. If we are unable to convert your video to our screening standard, we will do our best to contact you.

Files must be smaller than 1GB.

Submission information:

Submissions will be required to have the Google Doc form filled out with the corresponding CORRECT file name. We need you to copy and paste the file name so that we can easily identify your video in the corresponding video folder. You will submit a download link this year; this link can be any cloud service such as Google Drive, DropBox, or Mega.nz, or from a-m-v.org directly. If you use DropBox, please note the additional instructions on the form. Please do not use VARIOUS when you have multiple anime/song sources, please list all sources up to a minimum of six sources. If you use more than six sources, just list the six most used sources. Ballots may display “various” in many cases, but we need to confirm sources for judging.

Submission Link: https://forms.gle/7aEY41iQuHJnrFM27

If you would like to submit a panel for the AMV room, panel submissions will open in Late April or Early May. An update will be posted when submissions are opened. When it is, fill this form out and clearly mention you would like to be in the AMV room’s schedule.

We will try to schedule your panel to your preferences as best as we can!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to shoot me an email at sage.childress@animeusa.org.

Thank you so much for your interest and I'm excited to see what you guys send us!

Mako-chan
Sage Childress
Anime USA AMV Track Director

[yokochan2010]

[Reserved for Finalists]

[yokochan2010]

[Reserved for Winners]