One post tagged with "White Poplar Award"

Submissions for this year's Aniwow2026 Animation Festival will close at 24:00 on September 14, 2026 (Beijing Time).

Thank you all for your understanding and support. Let us head together toward this grand celebration of visuals and art!

This category refers to moving image works that create movement or character performance through frame-by-frame techniques, including both narrative and non-narrative works. Animated short films may be made using hand-drawn animation, computer animation, stop-motion animation, and other frame-by-frame methods; however, motion capture and live puppetry manipulation recordings are not included. Animated short films must be under 30 minutes in length, with at least 75% of the runtime created using frame-by-frame techniques. In narrative animated short films, the performance of main characters must be created through frame-by-frame techniques. If a submitted work is very close to live-action footage in its final presentation, entrants must submit additional text, images, and video materials explaining why the work meets this category's requirements. Trailers, commercials, and excerpts from animated features or animated series are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to non-single-panel works that express a complete story or creative concept primarily through images, usually supplemented with text and presented through a sequence of panels or images. Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to digital art works in which audiences participate in the experience in some way, or short films that use digital visual effects technology for narrative expression. This category includes two directions: Interactive Art: works emphasizing audience participation and real-time interaction, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and interactive installations;

Digital Intelligence Imagery: short film works (including fiction, experimental, animation, and other types) created using digital visual effects technologies such as computer-generated imagery, motion graphics design, and AI-generated imagery.

Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to digital game works that run on electronic media platforms and allow users to interact via video devices. Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

1. Entries must have been completed before September 14, 2026, including works created by students of relevant programs at higher education institutions (including vocational colleges, undergraduate, and graduate students) during their enrollment (including graduation works); works created jointly by higher education institutions and enterprises (institutional works take priority); graduates of the class of 2026 may submit unfinished works at the application stage, but once shortlisted, they must submit the completed work (failure to submit the completed work will result in disqualification from the shortlist).

2. Works that have participated in competitions of previous editions of the China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival may not enter this year's competition.

3. Entries may be submitted by individuals or teams, or collectively organized by an institution. There is no limit on the number of entries submitted collectively by institutions. Published works may enter this competition, but this must be indicated as required at registration.

4. Entries must be original works. All entrants must be the legal owners of the submitted works, hold full copyrights, and bear the corresponding legal responsibilities. Collective works may only be entered with the consent of all principal creators and the authorization of the copyright holders.

5. All works that have used artificial intelligence technology must be submitted to the Digital Art category (Category C). Please specify exactly how the AI technology was used in the submission materials.

6. Entries must have healthy content and must not violate the laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China. Plagiarism, imitation, and copying of others' works are strictly prohibited. If others' works are used in an entry, legal authorization must be obtained and written proof of such authorization must be submitted. Otherwise, the organizing committee has the right to disqualify the entry. If the competition suffers serious negative impact as a result, the organizing committee will pursue legal liability.

7. By participating in this animation festival as an individual, team, or organized institution, entrants agree to authorize the Organizing Committee of the 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival to publicly screen, exhibit, and otherwise present their works offline. The above authorization period is from September 14, 2026 to December 31, 2026.

The judging of the "Poplar Award" of [Aniwow!2026] The 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival consists of two stages: selection and judging. In the selection stage, professional selectors will choose the shortlisted works from all entries and hold public screenings. In the judging stage, the jury panel will select the nominated and winning works from the shortlist. The jury will be composed of renowned animation, comics, digital art, and game professionals and scholars, as well as senior executives of relevant institutions. The judging process adheres to the criteria of thoughtfulness, originality, and artistry, and strictly upholds the principles of fairness and impartiality.

1. Animation entries and digital short films in the Digital Art category must all be packaged in Mp4 format, with h.264 encoding for the preliminary selection. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, a ProRes 422 encoded mov or mp4 file of the shortlisted work must also be submitted, with a video bitrate of no less than 6Mbps, a resolution of no less than 1920×1080p, and an audio bitrate of no less than 128Kbps; high-quality compressed or uncompressed files are preferred.

2. Comics and picture book works must be submitted as digital files in TIFF or JPEG format, along with a formatted digital file in PDF format. The frame size must be no smaller than A4 paper, with a resolution of no less than 300dpi. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, a Chinese-English correspondence table of the text within the shortlisted work must also be submitted.

3. Interactive works in the Digital Art category and game entries must include a screen recording of actual gameplay or interaction, or an on-site recorded video of the interaction process, of no less than 3 minutes. Slight editing and subtitles may be added to better explain the concept, but conceptual demo videos or promotional CG animations may not be submitted. The video must be packaged in MP4 format with h.264 encoding, accompanied by a work description document in PDF format. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, the executable file of the shortlisted work must also be submitted (which may be a web-based interactive HTML5 page, a desktop .exe or .app, or a mobile APK or iOS file), accompanied by a work operation manual in PDF format that includes project files and runtime environment instructions.

4. All entries must be accompanied by a content synopsis of 50–80 characters.

5. All entries must be equipped with English subtitles.

Shortlisted works must submit digital files in TIFF or JPEG format of 1 work poster and 3 or more work stills. The poster aspect ratio is 50x70cm, with a resolution of no less than 300dpi.

1. There is no entry fee for participating in the Poplar Award competition of [Aniwow!2026] The 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival.
2. Submissions and judging will be conducted uniformly through the Filmfreeway platform. Entrants should submit their works via the following link: Filmfreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/Aniwow2026

Institutions are welcome to submit works collectively. For submission-related questions, please inquire via email.

Official email: aniwowcuc@163.com

3. The submission deadline for entries is September 14, 2026. All entries should be submitted before the deadline.

4. The organizing committee will notify the nominated and winning authors based on the relevant information in the registration forms and will send out certificates, trophies, and prize money. Entrants must fill in their registration information accurately.

(For more detailed registration and submission instructions, please follow the official website: http://aniwow.cuc.edu.cn/)

​Office address: School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China

​Mailing address: To the Organizing Committee of the China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival, School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China, No. 1 Dingfuzhuang East Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing

​Postal code: 100024

​Phone: +86 010-65783476

​Email: aniwowcuc@163.com

2. "Author" refers to an entrant who has completed registration through the organizing committee's registration procedure. Authors must provide truthful personal information at registration. Although the organizing committee does not substantively verify users' identities, users whose personal information is false or invalid will lose the opportunity to have their works recommended for publication on various media.
3. "Work" refers to a work created by the author in the form prescribed by the organizing committee and within the scope of the competition. Whether or not it wins an award, the author enjoys copyright in accordance with the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China.
4. "Publication" refers to making a work public within the scope prescribed by the organizing committee. Unless under special circumstances, once a work is published, it cannot be withdrawn or deleted.
5. The organizing committee does not accept works that are legally prohibited from publication or dissemination, or that contain any of the following content: a. content opposing the basic principles established by law; b. content inciting ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination and undermining ethnic unity; c. content that insults or defames others or infringes upon their lawful rights and interests; d. other content prohibited by laws and administrative regulations.
6. To respect copyrights and better protect authors' lawful rights and interests, authors must agree to the following statement upon submission: I hereby declare that I am the copyright holder of this entry. I personally participated in creating this work, and I am responsible for any disputes arising from copyright issues concerning characters, stories, music, etc. I agree that, for the purposes of the festival's publicity and promotion, the organizing committee may broadcast, screen, exhibit, publish, and otherwise use the work on relevant media without payment of remuneration. I have truthfully completed the entry registration form and am responsible for its contents.
7. As a rule, all entries will not be returned; entrants should keep the originals of their works themselves.
8. Regarding plagiarism: a. Plagiarism refers to the act of taking another's work, either verbatim or with alterations, as one's own without the original author's consent.

b. The organizing committee does not have sufficient capacity to monitor all instances of plagiarism. However, once discovered, it has the right to disqualify plagiarized works from the competition. The organizing committee bears no legal responsibility for such infringements; all legal liability for infringement rests solely with the plagiarist.

c. When judicial authorities or copyright holders request the organizing committee to provide the background information of an infringer, the committee has the obligation to assist in providing such information.

d. Authors who submit works to the organizing committee are deemed to have agreed to the corresponding measures taken by the committee under the preceding provisions. After the committee takes corresponding measures such as disqualification under the conditions of the preceding paragraph, it shall not bear liability for breach of contract or other legal responsibility to the submitter, including compensation for damages caused to authors by unfounded infringement claims.

The festival organizing committee reserves the final right of interpretation of the above content. In case of any conflict with the relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, the laws and regulations shall prevail.