The 2009 edition of Festimage – International Image Festival will begin on 8 April; it is as of this date that contestants may send in their entries, with the contest lasting until 14 May.

The festival will include two competitions – with the Official Prize and the People’s Choice Prize up for grabs. The former, which will include 9,750.00 euros in prize money to be distributed among the top five winners, shall be voted on by an international panel. The latter, which will award 1,000.00 euros to the winner, is to be voted on by the public, via the organizers’ website (www.festimage.org).

Summary of Regulations

Official Prize

• The City Council of Chaves, Portugal, created Festimage - International Image Festival;

• All the genres, styles and concepts of Photography and still Digital Art any other type of non-animated artistic digital image shall be accepted, regardless of the techniques used in creating them;

• Any author can enter if registered, regardless of their nationality;

• There are no set topics (open topics);

• Each contestant may take part with only one work;

• The works, in digital format only, may be entered into the contest only using the registration form found at www.festimage.org;

• After being notified, those authors whose entries are selected shall resend their work to the organizers, whose size must be between 3 and 6 Mb;

• Works must be sent in from 8 April to 14 May.

• After the finalists’ works are determined, they shall be put on display on 5 June, in the gallery on the Festimage site;

• From 6 to 13 June, the panel shall vote for the top five works to be selected from among the 50 finalists;

• The winners’ names shall be announced on the site, on 15 June;

• The 50 finalists’ works shall be reproduced on paper, in 30 X 40-cm (11,81 X 15,74-inch) format, and shall comprise that exhibit to be held outdoors, in the main square of Chaves, from 8 July to 31 August;

• From among these same top 50 works, organizers shall select the works to be enlarged to bigger formats and shall put them on display in the squares and streets of the city of Chaves, from 8 July to 31 August;

• The top five works, as selected by the panel, shall be awarded the following prizes:

  • 1st prize – 5.000,00 €;

  • 2nd prize – 2,500.00 €;

  • 3rd prize – 1,000.00 €;

  • 4th prize – 750.00 €;

  • 5th prize – 500.00 €;

The official contest rules are available at www.festimage.org.

People’s Choice Prize
In parallel with its Official Prize, Festimage also includes a People’s Choice Prize, which is governed by the following rules:

Voting

1. To vote on the works accepted into the contest, voters need to be registered at the Festimage site;

2. The voting method takes place with voters giving points to their favorites works, according to the system made available at the site;

3. Each registered individual may vote only once;

4. Excluded from the People’s Choice contest are those entries for which it is shown that the general public or Internet communities or organized groups are called upon to vote.

5. Only those votes from users who give marks to 10 of the entries shall be accepted and validated. If the voter does not cast his/her vote for 10 of the entries, the marks that have been assigned shall not be validated;

6. Voting for the top works shall be verified by Festimage’s computer system, which will cancel votes if a considerable part of such votes come from the same IP;

 Timetable

1. Voting by the public shall take place from 15 May to 4 June;

2. Organizers shall not be held responsible for an eventual saturation of the computer system that may occur during the last days of voting, if the said saturation is caused by a large concentration of operations involving voting;

3. The author who is given the highest score by the public shall be the winner of the People’s Choice Prize, but only if the said author resends his/her work to Festimage organizers from 6 to 7 June, and now with a size of between 3 and 6 Mb;

4. If the work is not resent, as provided for in the previous point herein, he/she shall be replaced with the contestant having the next highest score and who resends his/her work in the required size, prior to the deadline that shall be given;

5. The name of the winner of the People’s Choice Prize will be announced on 15 June;

 Prize

1. The prize for the author garnering the most votes from the public is 1.000,00 euros;

2. The People’s Choice Prize may be awarded to any contestant, including finalists or Official Prize winners;

3. Organizers might not award the prize if it notices that the votes for the top works are garnered, as provided for under point no. 4, as aforementioned, or if the voting is the result of an exchange of points among an organized “cartel” of contestants;

Final considerations
Wherever applicable, the People’s Choice Prize adopts the rules and regulations of the official contest.