AMVs

Retro Matsuri 2025 will be hosting an AMV (Animated Music Video) contest at this year’s event. We are inviting members of the community to submit their videos to this contest. If you are interested in participating, please read through the rules below. The submission form link is at the bottom of this page.

Submission Rules

  1. Any entries that violate the contest rules will be disqualified. We will let you know what makes an entry disqualified in case you want to adjust your entry to submit again.
  2. Your entry must be your own work. If you are caught submitting entries that are not your own work, you will be banned from participating in the Retro Matsuri’s Animated Music Video Contests.
  3. Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted. 
  4. For the refreshness rule, all entries must be less than three years old at the start of the Retro Matsuri convention date. 
  5. For Retro Matsuri 2025, videos that were publicly exhibited (convention showing or uploaded to an online video service) before July 24th 2022, are ineligible.
  6. Contestants are limited to one video per main category, either as a sole creator or part of a collaboration. 
  7. Contestants are also limited to submitting a maximum of four videos, one for each main category videos in total. This does include the Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercials category.
  8. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on June 28th, 2025.
  9. By submitting an entry, each contestant agrees: They have read, understand, and will comply with these official rules, and to the extent permitted by law, consent to the use of their name, likeness, and/or biographical data for purposes of advertising and promotion by Retro Masuri and Retro Matsuri Inc (a nonprofit corporation), without further consent, compensation, or approval.
  10. By submitting a video to Retro Matsuri Animated Music Video Contest, the video creator grants the non-profit Retro Matsuri Inc permission to exhibit that video at the convention, Retro Matsuri 2025. 
  11. The prizes being awarded may constitute income under applicable federal, state, and local tax laws and winners shall be solely responsible for payment of any and all taxes, which may be due with respect to the acceptance of the prize. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.
  12. We cannot be held responsible for lost or misdirected entries.
  13. We reserve the right to modify these rules at any time without notice.

Editor Rules

  1. Due to COPPA regulations, any contestant under the age of 13 will need a parent or guardian to submit the entry on their behalf. Please email if the contestant is under 13 years old. 
  2. Contestants do not need a badge membership to Retro Matsuri to enter the contest, nor attend Retro Matsuri 2025.
  3. Each finalist and one guest will be granted access for the Retro Matsuri Music Video Contests screenings at Retro Matsuri 2025. This does not qualify the contestant for complimentary admission to the convention.
  4. Winners may designate a proxy to pick up their awards on Saturday. Unclaimed awards will be mailed to the winners after the convention. Winners outside the United States may be asked to pay a portion of the postal fees and are fully responsible for any taxes or duties levied.
  5. Retro Matsuri and Non-Profit staff members – except those directly involved in planning and running the contest – may enter the Retro Matsuri Music Video Contest.

Content Requirements

  • At least 75% of the footage in an entry must be from animation footage that dates from 12/31/2005 or earlier to be retro. Any type of animation is acceptable from around the world.
  • Footage of active gameplay from a video game where the game interface is visible is not acceptable, video game footage is counted toward the 25% for non-animated.
  • Live-action footage is not acceptable but may be counted toward the 25% for non-animated sources.
  • Footage recorded from live TV broadcasts is eligible, but not encouraged, as it frequently contains watermarks and is often of lower quality.
  • Footage may not contain:
    1. Watermarks, even if partially obscured.
    2. Subtitles from any commercial or fansubbed release. Editors may add their own subtitles where appropriate.
    3. Title screens, logos, credits, or introductions. If these appear before or after the video, they will be replaced with Retro Matsuri’s standard title screen.
    4. Audio from the commercial dubs of the animation.
  • At least 75% of the entry must be set to music and/or audio.This rule does not apply to trailer and commercial parodies. 
  • Music and/or audio does not have to follow the retro 2005 rule.
  • Entries may not incorporate generative AI video or audio footage. 
  • Videos may not be collections of shorts. AMV Hell–style videos are not eligible for entry to the contest.
  • Entries must conform to CARA PG-13 rating standards as defined in the official ratings guidelines. In particular, there should be no sexually oriented nudity and violence should not be excessive, gratuitous, or constant. 

Technical Requirements

  • Entries in main categories may not be shorter than 60 seconds, nor longer than five minutes. This rule is adjusted for the ‘Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercials’ category, as video may be shorter than 60 seconds. However, no longer than five minutes still applies. 
  • The online file upload form will accept the following file extensions: .avi, .m2t, .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, and .wmv.
  • For your best results, we recommend the following settings:
    • Resolution: HD Content: 1280×720 or 1920×1080 for widescreen, 960×720 or 1440×1080 for fullscreen. SD Content: 480p, 576p (please deinterlace videos before submitting). 
    • Frame Rate: HD Content: 23.976 frames per second; SD Content: please match the framerate of the highest framerate source used in the video. 
    • Video Codec: H264, 2 Mbps or higher
    • Audio Codec: AAC, 160 kbps or higher
    • Audio Sampling Rate: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. Lower sampling rates will be disqualified.
    • Container: MP4 or MKV
  • The maximum file size of each entry is 1 GB.
  • Videos that have significant video or audio quality issues may be disqualified depending on the severity. Examples of issues that qualify include:
    • Avoidable interlacing artifacts 
    • Squashed/stretched aspect ratios
    • Chunky/blocky video (often caused by a low-quality source or excessive data compression)
    • Extreme banding (i.e., color gradients caused by video recompression)
    • Jagged/sawtooth lines (i.e., line aliasing)
    • Audible distortion
    • Audio levels that are too high, overdriven, or clipped
    • Pitch-shifted or speed-adjusted audio (unless by obvious artistic necessity)

Categories

  • We All Dread Gym Class (Action) – If we are sweating we are doing it right…right? 
  • Let Me Explain On AIM (Drama)- Spill that tea, tell me ALL the details. Tell us a story and don’t hold back. Oh you wrote it already on your Myspace? Let me login.
  • To Kool for This (Fun/Comedy) – A time when fart jokes were funny.
  • High School Crush Dreams (Romance) – Remember your first crush? This is them now. 
  • Old Skool Dance Party (Upbeat) – Show us your sweet dance moves to impress your crush. Ah crap, spilled the punch.
  • Art Class is Weird Sometimes (Other) – Entries that don’t fit into the rest of the categories, but they are still cool enough to be displayed in the hallways. (Horror, experimental videos, art pieces, WTF’ers, etc.)
  • Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercials (Ads, Trailers, Shorts go here) – Back when we couldn’t skip ads. 

Categories Rules

  • The staff reserves the right to change a video category if it is determined that the video more properly belongs in a different category than the one chosen by the creator.
  • If this recategorization results in an editor having multiple entries in one category, the editor will be given the opportunity to withdraw one if the deadline has not yet passed.
  • If the deadline has passed and the video is recategorized at the prescreening, one video will be disqualified at the coordinator’s discretion, and may be played during AMV panels at the convention.
  • If any category does not receive a sufficient number of entries, it will be removed and videos that were submitted to it will be recategorized to the next most appropriate category. Any recategorized video will not count against the one-per-category entry limit for the creator(s).

Awards

Audience Voting

  • Best We All Dread Gym Class (Action)
  • Best Let Me Explain On AIM (Drama)
  • Best To Kool for This (Fun/Comedy)
  • Best Art Class is Weird Sometimes (Other)
  • High School Crush Dreams (Romance)
  • Best Old Skool Dance Party (Upbeat)
  • Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercials (Trailers / Ads / Shorts)

Nostalgic Feeling

All videos submitted to the contest that are not disqualified are eligible to win this award. Video is chosen that gives the most nostalgic feeling of the past. 

Retro Beats Award

Entries are automatically eligible to win this award if the music and/or audio used is from 12/31/2005 or earlier.

Coordinator’s Pick

All videos submitted to the contest that are not disqualified are eligible to win this award.

How to Submit

  • Entries may be submitted using a google form. Please provide a link to a downloadable file meeting the above technical criteria. Google Drive or similar links are preferred. YouTube or other streaming video links will not be accepted. 
  • Entrants will receive an email when their entry is received and processed. Due to the high volume of entries near the submission deadline, this email may be delayed. Please be patient.
  • If you do not hear from us after two weeks or within two days after the deadline, contact Retro Matsuri’s Animated Music Video coordinator (ramv@retromatsuri.com).
  • All entries are prescreened by Retro Matsuri’s staff, who have not entered the contest themselves, to determine minimum three, maximum five finalist videos per category to be shown at the convention. 
  • Contestants will be informed prior to the convention if their entry was selected as a finalist.

AMV Contest Submission Form (Click Here)