Effective August 26 we will be posting the weekly Challenge Words at 10am every Friday. 

Please visit our Admin Blog page frequently for news and updates.

BlogUT writes a blog on the Hart House Film Challenge! To read the article and to see what Hart House Film Challenge committee member Camille Johnson has to say about HHFC, click here.

UTTV News interviewed filmmakers Ammar Keshodia & Gulzab Nawaz on their short, Diversion. Check out the video on our Other Videos page.

The Hart House Film Challenge is an initiative of the Hart House Film Board and the University of Toronto Film Festival. We aim to inspire creative filmmakers and people who just want to have some fun. 

Want to volunteer to help run the Challenge? Email us. 

For more information on the Film Board visit: http://www.hhfilmboard.com
For more information on the U of T Film Festival visit: http://www.uoftfilmfest.ca
Visit us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Weekly Genres / Themes and Challenge Words 
 1. Every Challenge starts with a  genre / theme, posted in advance on our Calendar. 

2. Every Friday at 10am we tweet two Challenge Words for that week’s genre / theme. The words can also be found on our Calendar.

3. To be eligible for prizes Entrants must address the weekly genre / theme and incorporate the two Challenge Words into their video.

Entering and Completing the Challenge
1. Sign up on the Enter a Challenge page before 10am on any given Friday and you are in.  Late entries will not be eligible for that week’s Challenge.

2. When you enter your Team Name will be posted on this site. This is an incentive for Entrants to feel committed to completing the Challenge. Teams Names will not be left on the site for eternity. It is not meant as a wall of shame and we don’t want you to change name every week to dodge your growing reputation for procrastination :) 

3. To complete the Challenge Entrants upload their videos to Youtube and email the Youtube link to filmchallenge@harthouse.ca no later than noon the following Monday. We'll embed all videos received on our Submission Videos page before end of day every Monday. (We know you are anxious to see them all but we are a volunteer operation. Want quicker results? Volunteer to help us :) 

4. NOTE: Youtube will remove your video if it detects copyright violation. Keep your music original.

5. We accept entries from all around the world (though our prizes are Toronto-centric, see below). 

6. NOTE: Entering once does not automatically mean you are entered every week thereafter. You must enter anew each time you want to participate.  

Length Restriction
1. Each video must be under 5 minutes in length. NOTE: 5-minutes is the maximum length. Shorter videos are welcome and encouraged (easier to make and easier to watch). 

1. At the end of each month, all eligible participants will be entered into a random prize-draw (we want to reward participation first and foremost). The prize: a double-pass for the Bloor Cinema in Toronto (thank you Bloor). If the winner is unable to use the pass we will continue to draw names until we find someone who can (i.e. if you don’t live in Toronto we don’t have much for you at the present time but we hope you enter nevertheless).

PRIZE UPDATE: The Bloor Cinema was recently sold to Hot Docs (Documentary Festival) so we are not sure if they will honour our passes. While we work that out enter knowing we will have something to give away.

2. We will have occasional special screening passes (typically previews of upcoming big releases) and these we will award to Toronto-based Entrants who make best use of the week’s Challenge Words.

 1. All entries to the Hart House Film Challenge will be considered for our two annual screenings: The Hart House Film Board Fall Screening Party (Date TBA) and the UofT Film Festival (March 2012, date TBA). 

2. Three Entrants were screened at the 2011 Festival: Writer's Block by Lexsi Reinhardt and Rade Jenkins, Speechless by Tanya Hoshi and The Survivor by Team Solo. A prize was awarded to Speechless.

3. If selected, Entrants can decline the offer to screen at these events. 

4. We encourage Entrants to continue working on their videos after they have been submitted to this Challenge and re-submit the same work, now “new and improved”, as part of our Submission Call for these events (see links above).