- Valve announces the 2021 Short Film Contest which will come along with The International 10
- All submissions are welcome by July 25 and the first ten entries will divvy up a $43,500 prize pool between themselves
- Previous winners have demonstrated a witty and powerful artistic work which has really forwarded the Dota 2 community artwork
Three years of creativity has washed over the Dota 2 community with the Short Film Contest now returning back in 2021.
The International 10 Welcomes Back Short Film Contest
After dropping a major piece of news that Dota’2 The International is indeed coming back with a hefty $40 million prize pool, Valve is on its way to continuing with its latest initiative designed to build hype ahead of the event and test your creative mettle. The Short Film Contest will provide artistic community members with ample opportunity to submit their 90-second entries and have a shot at divvying up the award which is worth $43,500 split across the first ten contestants.
First, second and third places will get the lion’s share with $25,000, $10,000, and $5,000 respectively. To enter the contest, you need to put together a short cinematic edited out from the game or created from scratch with up to 90 seconds footage that is related to Dota 2. Usually, the winner entries create unique storylines and highly creative storylines, so just editing out of the game would probably not be enough.
There is no restriction on how you produce the videos and all entries must be at least 1080p, but there is no obligation to use the built-in Source Filmmaker. All entries can be submitted by July 25, 15:00:00 PST, the company update states. You can do all of this and review existing submissions through the official Film Contest page.
To make for a fair assessment of all entries, Valve will put the materials up to a vote by the Steam Workshop and Community. You can tap into all and any Valve intellectual property, but the content must be fresh, previously unseen footage.
However, if you end up using non-Valve IP, your entry will be disqualified, unless you have obtained an explicit permission to actually use the creators’ assets. One person may submit multiple entries if they have the time and creativeness to dabble further.
Stoking the Artistic Flames of the Dota 2 Community
Please bear in mind that all submissions should not advertise anything at all. Understandably, the news has caused a bit of a furor and the 2021 Short Film Contest is the latest way Valve is engaging with its Dota 2 loyalists and the most talented among them.
Of course, such contests are also an opportunity for fans to get involved with the creation of fan content and hone their own skills. There have been already several contests to date, all of which offered some interesting peeks into the creativeness of the Dota 2 universe.
The previous entries into the event were witty, original, and admittedly, a great work of video editing work. Content creators are bound to come up with more excellent options in the next editions, and 2021 is no exception.
