We're looking for creative filmmakers/aspiring marketers who can take a fresh look at a historic brand and help us promote the Vineyard Gazette to a new generation of readers. If you've been to Martha's Vineyard in the past century and a half, you are familiar with the Vineyard Gazette, a newspaper as distinctive as the island it covers.

To be eligible for the competition, your video must be not more than two minutes in length, in good taste (i.e., suitable for family viewing) and should generally leave the viewer eager to buy (and hopefully read) the Vineyard Gazette.

Judging and Prizes: Videos will be judged by a selection committee chosen by the Martha's Vineyard Film Festival. The winning entry will receive a cash prize of $1,000, and will be shown on at the MVFF's Summer Film Series in Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard on Aug. 17, or a date to be determined.

Deadline and Submission: Entries must be received by midnight, Aug. 12, 2011. You may submit a link to your film (on YouTube, Vimeo, your own site, etc.) to brian@tmvff.org. If you would prefer to send a DVD or disc with .mov .avi or .wmv file on it, you can send it to The Martha's Vineyard Film Festival, PO Box 592, Chilmark, MA 02535. You must include your name, " Filmmakers may request access to the Gazette or other supporting materials by addressing specific requests to circulation@mvgazette.com.

Summary of Rules

  • Submissions must be the entrant's own work. No copyrighted material, including music.
  • Video must not be more than 2 minutes in length.
  • Contest is open to all filmmakers 18 or older who are U.S. citizens. If the filmmaker is under the age of 18 years of age at time of filming, signed parent/guardian permissions must be produced upon request.
  • Employees of the Vineyard Gazette and their immediate household and family members are not eligible to win.
  • Submissions must be received by midnight Aug. 12, 2011, to be eligible. All entries must include the name, address, daytime phone number, and email address, of the entrant.
  • No profanity, sex, nudity, illegal drugs, dangerous stunts or weapons.
  • For additional detail, see Official Contest Rules

About the Gazette: The Vineyard Gazette is published twice a week in the summer and once a week the rest of the year in our Edgartown home, which has been updated once or twice since it was built around 1760. The main paper is printed in black and white on our own press, and we pride ourselves on our stunning photography, excellent writing, quirky literary style and intelligent coverage of news and issue. This takes time and effort to create, which is why we ask people to pay for it — a mere 75 cents an issue, or less if you get a subscription. Yes, we've heard of the Internet, and are expanding into all kinds of digital publishing, but we happen to like the newspaper too. It's the only newspaper printed locally right here on Martha's Vineyard and may be one of the last newspapers anywhere that requires a wingspan of a meter to view two pages at the same time. This makes reading difficult on a crowded subway. Luckily, we don't have any of those here on the Vineyard.

About the MVFF: The Martha's Vineyard Film Festival is a year-round organization and all of our events include film, food, music, and art.  The "main event" is our annual winter festival in March but we also produce monthly family events, special screenings, and a filmmaking class.  June-August we produce a weekly summer film series in Chilmark that includes circus fun and short films for kids at 5pm, dinner and live music at 7pm, and at 8pm we screen a feature film followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.