Ahh don't get it wrong because of Jokers complains
We are VERY international and ALL OF YOU will be allowed to enter videos!
Rozard: The American con scene is more open because of prevalence. Just from what I've seen (Europeans please correct me if I'm wrong), the European con scene is WAY smaller than the US one, with most events down to nothing more than a video room, cosplay show, and DDR tournament. Having an AMV contest is a major draw, and it would be in the interest of any small event to try and keep the proper contest local - you can get from one end of Germany to the other in about 8-10 hours on the ICE (express) trains, so getting there is a possibility, and having their video seriously competing is a good way to get them to come.
Partially you're right, partially not...
The American anime fan scene is much older (early 90s) than the European (big impact in 2000). The con scene is still small here, but steadily growing and cons get really costly, with built in cinema, several guests from Japan and thousands of visitors (Animagic, Connichi in Germany and some cons in Britain). Indeed the AMV scene here is at it's very beginning and due to Europe is divided into many independent countrys, almost each with it's own language it is difficult to organize an international AMV contest and even more difficult to organize an international con.
The two seperated contests at connichi are a start to archive that, at least for the AMV thing.
So the more people from abroard will come, the better (and even more international) next years contest will become.
Why are there two contests?
As far as I can trust the orgas, they are "concerned" that Non-German creators are far better than our's and only having American creators win could dissapoint the German scene...
Honestly, I don't think so - Otakon and AWA are arround the same time and if I was a great AMV creator, I would submit my video there.
European cons still lack professionality at AMV contests, so think of submitting there as pure fun - we Germans do (except Joker maybe

)!
Personally, I think it's cool that they're doing a special contest for people who are pretty much GUARANTEED not to show up. If I was studying and travelling THIS summer, you bet I'd stick around the extra few days for the con, but am I going to drop $1K+ and deal with airport security for a con? As cool as Connichi's reputation is, not really.
Hai, wakarimasu!
There are several other, yet smaller cons over the year, just in case you want to attend one.
Remember, the contest is part of the CONVENTION, and its attendees (non-Americans) should be catered to first.
You may submit without showing up, if you feel comfortable with that
Everybody who submits has the same chances!
Joker: Seperate contests this year, where's the problem? Besides, there's no reason why you guys can't do better than we do. You can always take a page out of the VicBond007 Manual of Videos and figure out the lowest common denominator of your audience (what show have they all seen on RTL2, what music have they all heard on VIVA) and work accordingly =) Good luck to you, my job is to keep my trailer in the screening list despite an extremely un-PC line.
Nochmal in deutsch für den lieben Joker:
Es steht ausdrücklich in den Regeln, dass es zwei Wettbewerbe geben wird, zumindest noch dieses Jahr.
Und als deutscher AMV Macher musst du auch nur gegen deutsche antreten!
Also ist es egal wieviele Amerikaner, Franzosen oder Kroaten ihre Videos einreichen, da du im Wettbewerb garnicht mit denen in Berührung kommst.
Fürchte idch mal lieber vor deinen deutschen Konkurrenten
Zufrieden jetzt?