The American Contests & Festivals

Ned Cordery tries to unscramble the various Contests/Festivals.

The Contests

The American International Film and Video Festival (AIFVF) has been organized and juried by the American Motion Picture Society (AMPS) since 1990 when the Photographic Society of America (PSA) divested itself of the Festival and George Cushman of Long Beach, CA founded AMPS specifically to run the Festival which had originated in 1930. It has never been under the management of AMMA. There is a short history here. AMPS continues to survive thanks to a few people.

The Ten Best of the West (TBW) was founded by George Cushman in 1956 to give the clubs in the West a contest. The intention was that the contest would rotate around the clubs in the West each taking turns to judge and host the contest. Theoretically there was no support organization; the clubs automatically setting up the contest each year but in practice Roger Garretson the Sec/Treasure of AMPS acted as the Executive Sec and asked clubs to take on the task, AMPS also supplied seed funds where required to set up the meeting and the award certificates. As the Western clubs have closed it has become increasingly difficult to run the contest and there has been a steep decline in entries and this year we at AMPS decided to concentrate our efforts in a different direction. If the Western clubs wish to continue the TBW then they will have to find an organizer and enough active clubs to rotate. TBW was never actually part of AMPS but Roger took it under his wing when it became difficult for the clubs to organize.

North American Movie Makers Awards (NAMMA) was created this year by AMPS as a contest open to residents of the USA and Canada. This is a Ten Best style contest covering a wider geography than TBW and so hopefully attracting a wider entry. It also answers the concerns that many of the European entries are of such a high standard they are believed to be made by quasi-professionals with access to funds and equipment outside the scope of the average amateur. This year we have included NAMMA entries into AIFVF at no additional cost.

AMMA (Amateur Movie Makers Association) ran two contests, the open annual AMMA Ten Best contest (nothing to do with the Ten Best of the West or AMPS) and the Magic Moments contest for one minute films open only to AMMA members. Sadly AMMA closed its doors due to the difficulty in finding people to take on the tasks of management.

The Festival

For some years now the traditional contests have been combined into one Festival, frequently held in the West. This was originally organized by the club that hosted the TBW but for the past two years organized by Roger Garretson, Dicie Sizemore and Walt Gilmore on a purely voluntary and unofficial basis.

Click here for details of: AIFVF | NAMMA | Other Festivals