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Welcome to the SkyFest Film & Script Festival!

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MISSION & OBJECTIVE
The mission of SkyFest is to recognize, honor, and further the career of talented filmmakers and screenwriters. This is accomplished in two ways:

1. By the awarding of numerous quality trophies and certificates of excellence
2. By awarding a significant portion of the proceeds for the entire festival as cash prizes to the winners in each of the nine categories, plus a prize for Best Overall.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
SkyFest was created by Ralph Roberts, a nationally-known author for the past 33 years and now a professional filmmaker and scriptwriter. Ralph takes his experiences with film festivals in general, what he likes and what he feels is detrimental to submitters, and puts together a festival oriented toward MAXIMIZING the odds for submitters! But, let him explain it:

Hi. Ralph here. I love film festivals. The crowds, meeting big stars and just plain old aspiring filmmakers like me. I like entering my stuff in the festivals. I've won a few awards but mostly lost while spending a lot of money on travel, motels, and food. All that's great for the folk who put on these festivals (and I love them) but not the most efficient way for us guys to get what we want and need from a festival. The two most important things, in my opinion, being a return on our huge investment of time and dough in creating video, and some recognition for that work that we can build on in furthering our careers. Both would help us keep going!

To do this, I've created SkyFest.

First, the name: I live up here in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, long known as "the Land of the Sky." I also own a book publishing imprint, Land of the Sky Books. So, its a good, descriptive, appropriate name. And let me hasten to say that we have no connection with the very nice Asheville Film Festival, other than (so far) spending a good amount of entry money for no wins. Maybe this year or, at least, I qualify for the Asheville Rejects Festival like last year, eh? (Didn't win that one either but my film was shown a couple of years ago! And, of course, I won't win SkyFest because anyone connected with SkyFest, including me, is ineligible to win any award this festival gives out.)

Unlike most other festivals, which spend a ton of money on the actual event, SkyFest minimizes expenses by NOT having showings or banquets or hiring big name actor guests. We may or may not have an actual physical event (depending on how many submissions we get, but all awards will be awarded! During both SkyFest I and Skyfest II we awarded thousands of dollars and scores of trophies and certificates. The odds of you winning a significant award are much greater, by design than in most festivals because this is what we emphasize!

And you don't have to worry about our about our expenses because it DOES NOT affect your award money. Here's how SkyFest works (i.e:. a sampling of the rules, full rules are here):

How It Works!

1. A full fifty-percent of all money we take in, primarily entrance fees and advertising revenues, goes into the awards fund. NO expenses or anything else is charged against this fund (and the money goes into escrow as it comes in, protected for you to WIN!).
2. ALL expenses come out of the other half of the money and, if that's not enough) out of our pockets, but that's not your problem and never will be.
3. For SkyFest II there are 262 awards!! Your odds of receiving an award are MUCH better for this festival than any other I know!
4. Trophies and certificates will be substantial and classy (see the SkyFest I trophies and certificates at the top of this page).
5. The awards fund is shared out in this manner: 10% goes to Best Overall. In each of the nine categories, the winner gets 5% of the overall award fund, second place 3%, third place 1.5% and 4th place .5%. 1st to 4th place winners get trophies and the next TWENTY-FIVE finishers tie for 5th place and receive a Certificate of Excellence (remember, our goal is to give out as MANY awards as possible). In essence, there will be TWENTY-FIVE 5th place winners in each category. Great odds, huh?
6. ALL money WILL be awarded. If there is just one entry in a category, that entry wins the full 10%. (This, by the way, is in response to a pet peeve of mine about film festivals, several times I've had the only entry in a category and NOT been awarded the prize because of 'not enough participation' and this will durn well NOT happen at SkyFest! Ff you win, you WIN!)
7. In the unlikely event of no entries in a particular category, that amount of money will be divided out and added to the other categories. And also the Certificates of Excellence will be parceled out into other categories.
8. You can enter as many films as you like in as many categories as you like. You can even enter the same film in more than one category. IF there is a reasonable case it fits each area (paying the standard fee for each category, of course).
9. The regular entry fee is US$35.00, regardless of length and category *(remember, all categories share equally in the award money and there will be no waivers or other freebies!)*
10.  Entry fees are the same for each category because each category shares equally in the award money.
11. Judges are professionals in the industry. All decisions of the judges are final.
12. It's a simple and very fair concept. Don't miss out! Enter today.

--Ralph Roberts

Director, SkyFest Film & Script Festival