AMV Contest
Otakuthon AMV Contest Screening
Come see original AMVs in a variety of genres!
The Otakuthon AMV (anime music video) Contest screening will be presenting the top entries of each category: action, drama, comedy, dance, and romance. Not only will you get to see the best of the best, you will also get to vote for your favourite and help choose the winners of the Otakuthon AMV Contest!
General Information
AMV entries will be screened at the contest screening on the weekend of the convention. The AMV Contest screening will consist of over two hours worth of the best videos submitted for the contest. During the screening, the audience will vote for their favourite AMV through secret ballots in the following categories: action, comedy/parody, dance/rhythm, drama, romance, and originality. The audience will also vote for the “People's Choice” award for the best AMV. If you are participating in the contest voting, please stay for the duration of the screening to give all AMVs a fair chance in the voting.
All AMVs submitted will also be automatically entered into the “Best of Show” category for best overall AMV, as well as the “Best Visual Effects/Video Editing” category. The winners of these two categories will be selected by a panel of AMV contest judges prior to the convention.
Due to time constraints, not all AMVs will be shown during the contest screening.
Participants may enter a maximum of two video entries total, but only one entry per category.
Deadline: Friday, July 11, 2025, at 23:59
Content Guidelines
Video Content
- Videos may not be shorter than 1 minute and should not be longer than 5 minutes.
- The majority of the video footage must be from any of the following:
- Anime, TV series, movies or OAVs.
- Images from a Japanese manga.
- Japanese video games (such as Final Fantasy, Street Fighter or Gear Solid).
- Live action, non-Japanese video games (such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate) or other sorts of animation footage (notably American cartoons or animation) are acceptable provided that they are not a dominant part of the video.
- Scenes with graphic violence, sexuality, eroticism, ecchi, and horror are permitted.
- Any AMV that contains hentai, full-frontal nudity, explicit sexuality or other pornographic material, as well as extreme or excessive violence and gore, will not be accepted for the AMV Contest.
AMV title, bumper card and creator or studio credits
- Do not include any video opening or closing AMV creator or studio credits, title cards or bumpers.
- Otakuthon will add an opening title card to all entered AMVs containing the title of the music video, the creator’s or studio’s name, the source of the video footage, the voting category, and the music title.
- It will be allowed to have the title of the AMV or the creator or studio names to appear within the AMV itself, as long as it doesn’t violate the credit and bumper card rule.
Subtitles and on-screen text
- In general, there should be no subtitles in the AMV.
- Only in the following instances is where subtitles will be acceptable:
- If there is a voiceover or a scene where characters are speaking
- Karaoke song lyrics
- Any text on screen to convey a story, an idea, or a theme is acceptable.
- Any animated or graphical text that appears in the AMV is also acceptable.
Watermarks
- There should be no watermarks, software logos, or text credits (such as the credits for anime TV openings or endings) of any kind within the AMV.
- It will be allowed to have a small creator or studio watermark be present in the AMV, as long as the watermark is placed in one of the corners and is not distracting.
Audio content
- Music must be used as the main soundtrack and may be from any genre and in any language.
- Voiceovers can also be used as the main soundtrack and can also be from any genre and in any language.
- Coarse language, including music lyrics, must be as acceptable as what can be heard on public radio, prime time television, or any film rated 13+.
AMV that does not comply with the above content guidelines could be automatically rejected. Otherwise, changes or edits could be requested to be made to the AMV before the submission is accepted.
Submission Rules
AMVs submitted for competition must be your own work and must be an original work. You may not submit an AMV on another person’s behalf.
We will be accepting submissions via the online AMV Contest submission form here. We will not be accepting submissions via e-mail.
All AMVs must be submitted by Friday, July 11, 2025 at 23:59 (Eastern time). If your AMV is submitted after this deadline, it will not be considered for the contest.
AMVs can be entered into one of the following six categories:
- Action: High energy or over-the-top scenes that involve fast-action fighting, epic battles, or even climatic sports scenes with an appropriate soundtrack to match the action.
- Comedy/Parody: Anything that will make an audience laugh or see something silly. This includes poking fun of a particular anime, character or situation in a comedic way.
- Dance/Rhythm: AMVs with anime characters dancing to a beat, playing a musical instrument or even singing a song. Anything that will make the audience want to stand up and dance along!
- Drama: Scenes that are dramatic or theatrical. Anything that evokes intense feelings such as tension, excitement, or empathy.
- Romance: Scenes depicting love or romance between different characters. This includes anything that will elicit an emotional response or mystery associated with love.
- Originality: Something that is new and unique or has never been done before. Scenes and music can be put together in an original or creative way, whether it be the editing, the visual effects or a completely wild artistic concept.
Note: Otakuthon reserves the right to change an entry’s category where appropriate.
To submit your AMV, please use the online AMV Contest submission form. The following information will need to be added:
- Contact information
- Your full name
- E-mail address
- Creator’s or studio name
- You can use another name or alias for the opening title card if you don’t want to use your own name.
- You may wish to use a “studio” or group name for the opening title card.
- For multi-editor projects, we will accept either a group or studio name, or a maximum of two creator names.
- Title of your AMV
- The category in which you would like the AMV entered (select one category for each AMV entry, see the list above)
- Source of video footage used (whether that is an anime series, manga, video game or otherwise)
- If there are more than three sources, you just need to state “various”, or the dominant source + various (for example, “Spy X Family and various”)
- Source of music or audio soundtrack used
- Link(s) to download your AMV(s)
When submitting for the Otakuthon AMV Contest, participants may enter up to a maximum of two AMVs, but each AMV may only be entered into one category for voting.
All AMV entries will be automatically entered into the “People’s Choice”, “Best of Show”, and “Best Visual Effects/Video Editing” categories.
To facilitate the judging process, please name your video file the same as your AMV title.
Creators may submit their videos with their submission by:
- Providing a link from Google Drive, Onedrive, DropBox or on any cloud services.
- Providing a link to the AMV on AnimeMusicVideos.org.
The following is a list of “DON’Ts” which will disqualify your submission:
- Don’t send YouTube, TikTok or similar video streaming site links.
- Don’t send AMVs which you did not create.
- Don’t send links from Megaupload, Depositfile or any similar website.
Format
Please note the following guidelines with respect to video format:
- All AMVs must be playable on a PC with the latest K-Lite Codec Pack installed.
- Files for competition should be AVI, MPG, MKV or MP4 format.
- DO NOT send videos in RealPlayer or QuickTime format. These videos will automatically be rejected.
- The minimal video resolution should be 1280 × 720 for widescreen, and 960 × 720 for fullscreen.
- Videos with poor video quality (for example, if they are pixelated or artifacting) will be rejected.
Awards
Each category winner will receive an award in the form of a certificate via mail. All winners will be announced on AnimeMusicVideos.org forums, on the Otakuthon website and official social media feeds. Winners will be contacted via e-mail to provide us with a mailing address so that the award can be shipped to them.
Note
- Otakuthon reserves the right to use any submitted AMVs, in whole or in part, for promotional purposes during and after the convention.
- Otakuthon does not guarantee that any AMV submitted will be screened. The convention reserves the right whether or not to screen an AMV for any reason.
For any questions about the AMV Contest, please e-mail the AMV Contest Manager at amvcontest@otakuthon.com.