The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) once again is collaborating with Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) to make Cinespace a reality. The space organization has been offering filmmakers around the globe the opportunity to be inspired by NASA’s actual footage. The competition, internationally known as CineSpace, invites Short Film entries to be premiered at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The ‘hallmark’ of spaceflight
The short film competition has been accepting entries both from professionals and beginning filmmakers since 2015, the first time CineSpace was held.
Entries that were received will then be judged based on their creativity, innovation, and their attentiveness to detail, which is the “hallmark” of spaceflight in NASA. At least 10 percent of the film’s portion should incorporate real-world footage from NASA’s publicly available images. There are no limits set for genre and style of the work, but they all should showcase a mastery of "craftsmanship in filmmaking." Subtitles should be included in foreign language entries.
A total of $26,000 in prizes are up for grabs in the CineSpace competition, with cash awards for the top three submissions. There are two special rewards of $4,000 each for films that demonstrate “Benefits of Space to Humanity” and “Future Space Exploration”.
Although the competition is only accessible for people who are 18 years and older, the parents and guardians of filmmakers who are currently younger than 18 have the option of submitting the short films on their behalf. On the Houston Cinema Arts Festival’s CineSpace Day, the 2017 finalists will all have their works screened from November 9 to November 16.
The CineSpace collaboration
According to a release posted by NASA on the organization’s website, the second annual CineSpace gathered 460 entries from 48 countries worldwide. Out of them, 15 finalists were premiered on the festival day. The films included in their make-up, imagery and moving images collected from NASA’s 50 years of history.
The winning works were also screened on NASA TV and on the International Space Station. The entries from 2015 were 194 short films the works of people from 22 countries and 32 U.S states. Academy Award-nominated director, producer, and screenwriter Richard Linklater, who is also the judge for this year’s competition, was one of the judging panel members.
