Submissions for the 2014 Beneath the Waves Film Festival will open in November 2013. Please see below for general submission information. To learn about the “Youth Making Ripples” competition, please see the bottom of this page.

General Submission Criteria

We invite submissions from anyone— scientists, professional filmmakers, students, and advocates …if you have a good story, we want it! If you are interested in being involved in our festival in the future, here are some general guidelines:

• Film must tie into some ocean/marine/aquatic theme or issue (underwater footage not required). A research and/conservation theme are encouraged but not required. We welcome films with all types of themes and tones, but we also want to highlight ocean success stories!

• A strong narrative or story is preferred.

• Length: we urge filmmakers to submit short pieces that are 10 minutes or less. Films selected for the flagship screening in at the Benthic Ecology Meeting must be under 15 minutes (this is the absolute cut-off). We will accept longer entries for future exhibition in traveling festival events throughout the year, yet the time/date of these events have yet to be officially confirmed.

• Film and its contents must be your original work.

Youth Making Ripples Competition:
The Beneath the Waves – Youth Making Ripples Film Competition - is an opportunity for K-12 students (< 18 years of age) to use their creative talents and serve as a voice for our oceans. We encourage elementary, middle and high school students to create their own marine related film on a topic of their interest. All submission must be less than 5 minutes. The message of your film can focus on an interesting marine topic, a specific marine related problem or issue, or a call to action for conservation. For examples of films please visit our “previous festivals” page and click on the links for the following films: “Bertha’s Blues,” “The Indian River Lagoon: Muck”, and “Trophic Cascades of the Marsh Crab”

Submission Guidelines:
Student films must be on a marine related topic and less than 5 minutes in length. Films must be submitted by December 1st 2013. Please be sure to include the students name, email and school of attendance with your submission. Additional entry information will be required upon submission. Films may be submitted to youthmakingripples@gmail.com or by sending a DVD or thumb dive with the movie file to:
Philip Gravinese and Dr. Lauren Toth
Department of Biology
Florida Institute of Technology
150 West University Blvd.
Melbourne, FL 32901

The Youth Making Ripples Competition student films will debut to the public on January 18th 2014. The competition will be held on Florida Institute of Technology’s main campus in the Gleason Performing arts center (6-8 pm). Winners will be selected by both 1) panel of scientific judges and 2) viewer’s choice award. Prizes will be awarded to the winners! We can’t wait to see what you create!