Kumoricon 2022 AMV Contest - Award Winners Up!

[SashaHiwatari]

Hello there! I've sent 3 of my entries - let me know if everything's alright with them Thank you in advance!

[MinetChan]

Hi everyone!

First off, thank you so much for your entries! As per usual, we had a lot of TOUGH decisions to make and plenty of hours ranking and discussing the lineup. Even if you don't see your alias here, do know that we appreciated your time, talent, and effort. During the convention, we will be playing our top non-finalists for the purpose of awarding a "Best Non-Finalist" award, so stay tuned!

We are also proud to announce that this year we will have an additional Retro category, due to the high volume of entries fitting those qualifications.

Thanks to the amount of support and traffic we had last year with our livestreams, we have plans to continue them again this year! We will be posting information regarding both the AMV Contest Livestream, as well as the Winners Livestream later in October/early November.
For more information regarding the convention, please take a look at our website: https://www.kumoricon.org/

Now, onto the part you've all been waiting for... Here are the editors who will be participating in Kumoricon's 2022 AMV Contest!

AllyKatAVR 
Arcothy B3stEck 
Bauzi x2 
BecauseImBored 
DopplerDo x3 
FadingSundown 
Faevily 
HagarenViper 
Hikikomori / Dreambox 
Kireblue x2 
l33tmeatwad 
Lelani x2 
Liepe 
lordlook 
MadMegatax x2 
ManlyMango 
Nashironeko 
Nuke / ENP 
PantsAMV x2 
pwcagal / PixelBlended Studios x2 
Rider4Z x3 
shorisquared 
SilkAMV x2 
Trenzilla 
TritioAFB 
Troubleclef / Tsunderbird x2 
UnluckyArtist 
VRSaskayzx

Thanks again for all of your support!
We cannot do this without your hard work and dedication!

[Bauzi]

Gratz! Congratulations at all the finalist. Shutout to my bro Arcothy B3stEck. I wonder where that Retro-Category came from

[DopplerDo]

Just putting it out there that the surprise retro categories, for me personally, are frustrating. It's vague and misleading in that a video with say an intentional 80s aesthetic would win even if it's not the best since it's more on theme or, say, a comedy video with an older source could sweep versus drama videos with an older source. The whole idea as a spontaneous category feels like a manifestation of bias against older anime, which is not only part of the fandom, but generally harder to work with imo. Of course, you can run your contest however you like and this is obviously not malicious, but it feels like a form of unintentional othering. I'd rather not make the cut because there are too many good videos in a category than be pushed into a category I didn't apply for.

[Bauzi]

@DopplerDo: I feel the opposit on this. For me this is an expression of honest admiration and honoration for those videos. If so many fit the category, so be it. Retro is a lot. Slap together Edgerunners with some Carpenter Brute song and maybe cyan/violet colour combination and boom: Retro. Except nothing is actually old source. Heck even that cyan/violet colour combination is nostalgia that came up in the 2010s (I guess). Place VHS effects on Your Name: retro. You get the point.

As a contest host myself, I often run into the problem that, some admissions are too short and more of that, social media style. There are never enough to give those videos their own space and give them credit. They are often not bad, but just don't fit the contest structure. However I want to honor them as well.

Or see it this way: You get 10 awesome trailer AMVs that kind of don't fit in the regular categories, but are great on their own. Why not giving them their own spotlight?

I'd rather not make the cut because there are too many good videos in a category than be pushed into a category I didn't apply for.

ok I guess. I can understand that.

[DopplerDo]

Hey Bauzi, I completely respect your opinion and I imagine there are a lot of reasonable justifications out there. Heck, there are people just so stoked to get in that might not have otherwise and perhaps all the judges are just like heck yeah I want to spread the love let's go :p. I think that feeling is very cool and quite kind. My personal opinion stems from the fact that it fundamentally changes the lens through which these videos are judged and it also happened in 2020. I've also had my videos moved to fan fiction, etc. throughout the years. Bear with me here: for me, it's like making a drama film for Sundance that centers around a birthday incident and being placed in a category at the last minute called "best use of cake." Who wants to compete for that?

I don't think that my opinion is more valuable than anyone else's and I do appreciate the assumed interest in showing more videos, but it does come at the cost, for perhaps just me, of twisting the intent of the submission and relegating/compartmentalizing the work of people who had earlier childhoods.

Thanks for the sweet counter-opinion, Bauzi, and congrats on getting freaking two videos in! I look forward to seeing them!

[MinetChan]

Thanks for the feedback and discussion!

I'd like to add our judges thoughts here, just so that we're fully transparent.

For clarification, to qualify for our Retro category this year, your submission must be mostly comprised of sources that are at least 15 years or older. Our intention is to highlight older anime and share a greater variety of videos with our audience. We also ensured that the Retro category picks were well-balanced throughout our judging (so no comedy videos in Retro, since they would have a larger advantage).

Like DopplerDo mentioned, we move videos into other categories if a majority of judges believe that a video fits better or is more competitive in a different category. Our main goal throughout all of this is to create a balanced contest with a large variety of high quality videos, but we also can see that it could be jarring to have your video moved when you intended to have it somewhere else — and if that's ever bothered anyone else we apologize. Just know that we mean no disrespect by it — it's all for the betterment of the contest. We are very intentional about these decisions and don't take them lightly.

[Rider4Z]

Hey Bauzi, I completely respect your opinion and I imagine there are a lot of reasonable justifications out there. Heck, there are people just so stoked to get in that might not have otherwise and perhaps all the judges are just like heck yeah I want to spread the love let's go :p. I think that feeling is very cool and quite kind. My personal opinion stems from the fact that it fundamentally changes the lens through which these videos are judged and it also happened in 2020. I've also had my videos moved to fan fiction, etc. throughout the years. Bear with me here: for me, it's like making a drama film for Sundance that centers around a birthday incident and being placed in a category at the last minute called "best use of cake." Who wants to compete for that?

I don't think that my opinion is more valuable than anyone else's and I do appreciate the assumed interest in showing more videos, but it does come at the cost, for perhaps just me, of twisting the intent of the submission and relegating/compartmentalizing the work of people who had earlier childhoods.

Thanks for the sweet counter-opinion, Bauzi, and congrats on getting freaking two videos in! I look forward to seeing them!

Just curious if you've never had any of your videos moved cuz the judges felt it suited another category better.

[DopplerDo]

Hey Bauzi, I completely respect your opinion and I imagine there are a lot of reasonable justifications out there. Heck, there are people just so stoked to get in that might not have otherwise and perhaps all the judges are just like heck yeah I want to spread the love let's go :p. I think that feeling is very cool and quite kind. My personal opinion stems from the fact that it fundamentally changes the lens through which these videos are judged and it also happened in 2020. I've also had my videos moved to fan fiction, etc. throughout the years. Bear with me here: for me, it's like making a drama film for Sundance that centers around a birthday incident and being placed in a category at the last minute called "best use of cake." Who wants to compete for that?

I don't think that my opinion is more valuable than anyone else's and I do appreciate the assumed interest in showing more videos, but it does come at the cost, for perhaps just me, of twisting the intent of the submission and relegating/compartmentalizing the work of people who had earlier childhoods.

Thanks for the sweet counter-opinion, Bauzi, and congrats on getting freaking two videos in! I look forward to seeing them!

Just curious if you've never had any of your videos moved cuz the judges felt it suited another category better.

For sure. Definitely in Kumoricon specifically and with no malicious intent whatsoever. Just to be clear again, I simply voiced a personal frustration, not anything more serious.

My personal opinion stems from the fact that it fundamentally changes the lens through which these videos are judged

If 2 of the last 3 years of competitions (including this one) have had a spontaneous retro category, it should just be made a thing. For me, getting moved to an "old stuff" category is not enjoyable. Remix culture, in my opinion, includes the element of time. To lump older sources together is just not my favorite thing I've seen. This is not to say anything needs to change as I am just one dude. It is just a perspective that may be helpful.

[Rider4Z]

For sure. Definitely in Kumoricon specifically and with no malicious intent whatsoever. Just to be clear again, I simply voiced a personal frustration, not anything more serious.

It's a pretty common trait for a number of contests. Coordinators have to weigh editors wishes with putting together an entertaining show that repeatedly brings audiences in.

If you don't like how a contest is run, there are plenty of others to enter. (If that sounds like an attack it's just meant to be a general statement.)