Article 1:
Purpose

The purpose of the International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival in Tahiti (FIFO Tahiti) is to promote the image of Oceania to distributors, media and the general audience.

Article 2:
Entries

Documentary films and programmes submitted to the Festival as entries for the official selection should have been produced after 1st January, 2022. These productions should address Oceanian social, economical, ethnological, wildlife, historical, cultural, heritage, environmental… issues.

Short-fictions should have been produced in Oceania.

All documentary films entered to the Festival should be supplied in their original version with English and French subtitles as appropriate.

Article 3:
Audiovisual formats and number of entries

All video formats are acceptable. Filmmakers can enter more than one film. No more than one film per film director will be included in the competition category.
Films under 30 minutes or over 100 minutes of running time may be submitted for the Official Selection, but cannot participate in the “competition” category. They may be chosen for the “out of competition” categories. The selection committee is sovereign in its decisions.

Article 4:
Entry requirements

Film submissions for consideration by the selection committee are free of charge. Entrants shall comply fully with these regulations. The French version of these regulations shall be the only authentic version. Entry forms and copies of the film shall be sent to the Festival office before 1st October, 2024. Films submitted after that deadline will automatically be taken into consideration for the next edition. Any film can be entered only once, unless significant modifications are made.

No exception whatsoever will be made.

Article 5:
Shipment conditions

For the needs of the selection committee, all films entering the Festival should be sent to the Festival office preferably in digital format as a downloadable SD version on VOD website, together with relevant press clippings or advertising material, a synopsis, the film full time-coded transcript and 3 photographs illustrating the film. The transcript of the film with time-codes is mandatory. Submissions without a transcript will not be considered.

In case of difficulties, 3 copies of the DVD or on a USB drive can be exceptionnally accepted.

All shipping charges and customs duties shall be covered by the sender. The shipment should not incur customs duties (please state “no commercial value” on your package), or the Festival organisers may not be able to accept them.

The Festival address to be used is:
FIFO Tahiti – Te Fare Tauhiti Nui
P.O. Box 1709 Papeete
98713 Papeete, Tahiti,
French Polynesia

Any DVDs or USB drives sent to the Festival address will not be returned.

Article 6:
Announcement of the selected films

The Preselection Committee will choose the films to be screened at the Festival among all the entries. The results of the preselection process will be communicated to filmmakers in the course of November 2024.

The selection IN competition and OUT of competition is the exclusive competence of the organizers of the festival.
Other categories can be added if considered appropriate by the festival organizers. Selected films would be considered out of competition only.
Only the films in the competition category will be presented to the jury and the public in a French- and/or English-subtitled version as appropriate. Films selected in other categories will be presented in the original version with French subtitles when appropriate.
The pre-selection committee is independent and sovereign. It acts regarding the festival best interest and its decisions are final and binding.

Article 7:
The Festival awards

Only the films in the competition category will be screened for the Festival Jury and eligible for the ‘Grand Prix FIFO-France Télévisions’ and the three ‘Prix special du Jury’. All the documentary films presented in the official selection are enlisted for the “Audience Award” based on the audience vote for their favorite film.
The short films in each category (fiction and documentary) compete for the best short film, if the category is open, awarded on the basis of a vote of the spectators of the FIFO only in person.

All the FIFO awards are cash-rewarded.
1 « Grand Prix FIFO-France Télévisions » : 500 000 XPF
2 or 3 « Prix Spéciaux du jury » : 600 000 XPF in total, at maximum
1 « Audience Award » : 200 000 XPF
1 «  Best Short Fiction Award» : 100.000 XPF (if the category is open)
1 «  Best Short Documentary Award» : 100.000 XPF (if the category is open)

The 2 or 3 « Prix Spéciaux du jury » are attributed by the jury. Their title can be modified by the jury itself if the jurors wish to (i.e. : best image, best scriptwriting, best editing, best sound design…).

Other awards may be initiated by the FIFO Association.

Article 8:
Obligations

Directors, producers and distributors allow the Festival at no cost to broadcast their productions as part of the Festival and all non-commercial related activities organized by the FIFO Association, particularly but not only for the ‘FIFO Hors les murs’ screenings. Directors, producers and distributors also allow the broadcasting at no cost of a trailer (2 minutes maximum) on the festival and partners’ websites. (Maison de la Culture, FIFO and the channels of the France Télévisions group, specifically local broadcast Polynesie La 1ère, on the FIFO youtube, Vimeo and Facebook pages).

Directors, producers and distributors of selected films shall therefore provide a trailer of 2 minutes maximum. Directors, producers and distributors allow at no cost the festival to include their film in the FIFO collection, available for on-demand viewing for professionals only (producers, broadcasters and distributors) during the festival in the pro area online.

Since the Covid19 outbreak, FIFO has developed a streaming website that allows the films to be screened online from France (and French overseas territories) and all Pacific islands during the official period of the festival.
Directors, producers and distributors allow at no cost the FIFO to upload the films of the official selection on the FIFO’s Vimeo channel for internet broadcast on the festival website and locked viewing with access code during the following year.

Directors, producers and distributors of award-winning entries commit to referring to the award won on press and other promotional material and during any screenings of an award-winning film.

No financial compensation can be demanded to the FIFO Association by directors, producers, distributors or any features of any origins for these obligations.

Article 9:
Members of the International Jury

The International Jury member will be appointed by the FIFO Association. The International Jury shall comprise professionals from Oceanian and European film, television, artistic and cultural worlds. A member of the International Jury or the preselection committee cannot be associated in any way in the production or the marketing of any film presented in the competition category.

Article 10:
Quality and subtitling of documentaries

Selected films shall be uploaded on the FIFO 2025 server by the 2nd of December, 2024.

If possible, they should be subtitled in French or English as appropriate.

The scripts of the selected films should be sent in by the 1st of October 2024.

Article 11:
Film formats for the projections

For the screenings, all selected films must be sent to our server as the following format:

Full HD-MPEG4 H264.

Article 12:
Lost or damage

In the event of loss of or damage to DVD or USB drive, the responsibility of the Festival shall be limited only for the value of the medium.

Article 13 :
FIFO Tahiti Collection

Selected films will be screened during the festival at Maison de la Culture of Tahiti – Te Fare Tauhiti Nui, in Tahiti. They will also be broadcast online from FIFO’s digital website.

A copy of all selected films will be kept in the FIFO Tahiti Collection and archived by the French Polynesia Archival and Audiovisual Heritage Department. However, the selected films are likely to be screened for schools, free of charge, in the year following the festival. These screenings in schools will take place especially in the islands of French Polynesia, in Oceania and in France

The FIFO Tahiti Collection will also be available to the professionals (producers, broadcasters and distributors) during the online pro area.

Article 14 :

The Festival organizers shall have the legal capacity to resolve all matters not specifically covered in these regulations.

The present regulations must be signed in order to validate the entry.