Terms & Conditions

About the Festival & Awards:

SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival (“SILBERSALZ”) is a joint initiative by Documentary Campus gGmbH and Robert Bosch Stiftung. The next edition will take place from 30 October - 3 November 2024 in Halle (Saale), Germany.

SILBERSALZ Science & Media Awards (“Awards”) are managed and presented by the festival to recognize and celebrate excellence in science storytelling internationally and across disciplines.

Submission of a (“Production”) to the Awards competition is subject to and conditional on the “Entrants” accepting below defined rules and terms.

1. Submission Guidelines:

1.1. Deadlines:
Awards competition will be open for submissions from 14 December 2023 through FilmFreeway.

The official entry deadline for all submissions is 23:59 CET on 30 April 2024.

Late submissions are at the discretion of SILBERSALZ and additional fees may be charged.

1.2. Entry Fees:

An entry fee applies to all submissions via FilmFreeway. Fees can be paid by credit/debit card or PayPal.

Submission fees are non-refundable.

1.3. Categories & Eligibility

The competition is open to new or established broadcasters, film or television production companies/distributors/sales agents and independent filmmakers, artists and science communicators internationally.

Submissions are accepted for documentary films, factual series, social media productions, and XR productions representing all scientific disciplines, research areas or concepts, across natural and social sciences, STEM subjects, health and medicine, and across genres (science, natural history, history, geopolitics, journalism, impact...)

Production must have been completed after 1st of January 2023, and not have been entered for a previous “Science & Media Awards” competition. Productions in rough cut or work in progress stage are not eligible.

Submissions in all languages are welcomed. All Productions in a language other than English must be subtitled (or dubbed) or accompanied by a dialogue book in English. If nominated for an award or screening, Entrant must provide a screener copy with English subtitles.

Entrants automatically consent to the Production being screened for non-commercial, educational purposes during the SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival. Entrants acknowledge that they are not entitled to any payment in respect thereof.

The screening format is unencrypted DCP, HiRes/ProRes or Blu-ray. In order to reduce the Festival’s carbon footprint and enable an easier print traffic service, SILBERSALZ uses digital film delivery platforms and all copies must be submitted via digital delivery.

1.4. Submission Process:

1.4.a Film & Factual Series:

All Entrants require filling in the submission form online through FilmFreeway platform for each Production, and choose an award category for judging. Submission for multiple categories is possible with the corresponding entry fees.

For Long Form categories: factual documentaries (greater than 40 mins) made for television, digital platforms or theatrical release, are eligible.

For Factual Series; limited or ongoing factual series (greater than 20 mins per episode) made for television and/or digital platforms are eligible.

For productions on Social Media (such as Youtube, Vimeo, Snapchat, TikTok, IG etc.) the productions, less than or equal to 20 minutes, and submitted by students, researchers, web-video makers and science communicators are eligible.

All submissions must be accompanied by the materials as follows:

-Completed online submission form, including productions details, synopsis, credits, promotional materials (electronic press kit, still images, project links…), exact contact details of Entrant

-A brief statement regarding the Production, which describes its scientific relevance to the field, its relation to the society, its strengths in terms of global reach and impact.

-Online screener copy of the Production: Please either upload a high-quality version of your video to FilmFreeway (up to 10GB), or embed a Vimeo/Youtube/Dropbox/Google Drive etc. link to the platform. Please include the access codes for protected Vimeo links for judges.

- Additional material for series: Please nominate one episode from the series on the submission form and make maximum 2 additional episodes available for judging online such as Vimeo or Dropbox.

SILBERSALZ reserves the right to reject submissions that are incomplete.

1.4.b XR Productions:

XR submissions will be judged in their native format. Please include as much information as possible on submission form. For length, put "00". Please upload representative images (ideally 1920x1080) and other information/media (creative deck, all the platforms compatible with your program, your preferred platform) on a Dropbox folder or send us directly at awards@silbersalz-festival.com

You will be contacted by our teams prior to the judging for the necessary media.

2. Judging & Selection Process:

All submissions received by the entry deadline will be reviewed by a Preliminary Jury for each category, and nominated for consideration by the Final Jury.

Productions submitted to the “Young Audience Award” will be reviewed by a special panel composed of middle and high school students.

Both the Preliminary Jury and the Final Jury will comprise science and media professionals selected from a range of disciplines and countries, balanced in age, gender and experience. All submitted Production will be watched in its entirety.

All Entrants will receive notification of the outcome of the judging process by August 2024 before any public announcement regarding nominated Productions.

All nominated films will be reviewed by the Final Jury, which will then decide on the winner of each award category and the winners will be notified by September 2024. Failure to respond within 24 hours to notice of winning may result in disqualification.

On 2nd of November 2024, the prize winners will be celebrated during an evening ceremony, featuring some of the prominent names in science communication showcasing incredible achievements in translating science to screen.

Nomination and award decisions are made by the members of the Preliminary Jury and Final Jury in their absolute discretion and by them alone and all decisions are final.

3. Rights & Releases

Productions which have been nominated for an Award will be asked to provide high quality screening copies for viewing by the Final Jury.

SILBERSALZ is entitled to screen nominated/awarded Productions to the public, for educational, free-to-the-public screenings or exhibitions during the SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival. Entrants acknowledge that they are not entitled to any payment in respect thereof.

The scheduling of screenings remains entirely at the discretion of the SILBERSALZ.
SILBERSALZ reserves the right to edit the information supplied by Entrants for use in print publicity materials and online promotional materials.

For promotional purposes, SILBERSALZ reserves the right to use extracts from Productions submitted for the Awards on radio, television and any other form of audio-visual media including, but not limited to, the World Wide Web and digital media. Usage of extracts from submitted Productions for promotional purposes shall not exceed 2 minutes of featured music or 3 minutes duration in total (in respect of any individual Production).

Entrants acknowledge that SILBERSALZ is entitled to use of all images they provide for submission, for promotional publicity throughout the world in all media without the requirement to credit such Production or any other person or make any payment in respect of such usage.

Shipping Details

Entrants are responsible for shipping charges and insurance for submitting entry materials. All screening copies of Production submissions will be retained by SILBERSALZ unless otherwise requested. Those who request the return of screening copies are responsible for return shipping costs and customs clearances. SILBERSALZ does not assume any liability for damage to prints due to improper containers or otherwise. All films in our possession will be insured against damage or loss while participating in the SILBERSALZ.

Certification of Entrant

By entering the Awards competition, Entrants represent and warrant to SILBERSALZ that they have all of the rights and consents necessary to enter the Awards competition and to grant SILBERSALZ the rights granted in these Rules & Terms; that the film Entry does not violate any contractual obligation that Entrant has and that the very best of Entrant’s knowledge or belief does not violate the rights of any third party, including without limitation the right of privacy, publicity, or the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of any third party, and that it does not violate any law or regulation.

SILBERSALZ will not be held responsible for any breach of above mentioned rights or permissions arising from any entries submitted.

The participation in the Awards implies full acceptance of the above terms and conditions.