The fan film awards are back, but now it’s no longer just for fan films. The Star Wars Fan Awards now celebrate three categories of fan creativity – Videos, Photos, and Visual Art. There are multiple categories under each – video counts both short (15 seconds and under) and long (up to 5 minutes) in multiple categories, Photo also includes pet photography and food presentation, while Visual Art covers digital, 2-D, 3-D, custom costumes, and custom figures. In short, there are a lot of ways to participate.
Submissions open up at StarWarsFanAwards.com on July 18 and close September 17. Winners will be chosen by a Lucasfilm panel, with Audience Choice voting in November.
The fan documentary Looking for Leia is looking for backers. With only 7 days left in their Kickstarter campaign, they still need more than $8,000 to meet their goal.
The documentary is covering fans of all ages and walks of life:
We’re featuring an intergenerational and culturally diverse group of female fans, as well as women who are film buffs and cultural scholars, cosplayers and gamers, artists and authors. We’re talking to women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math); women who use Star Wars in the classroom; women whose career path was shaped by Star Wars; women whose love of Star Wars has helped them battle cancer and live with disability and mental illness; mothers, daughters, and sisters in Star Wars families; women who are rebels and royalty, imperials, bounty hunters, and jedi. Every generation has a Star Wars story, and we’re hearing about the original trilogy, prequels, animated series, comics, Extended Universe/Legends, video games, new trilogy, stand-alone films, and conventions.
As is quickly becoming tradition, Phil Noto (on his own) did a post-trailer poster. (Also on his Tumblr.) Revelist has collected some of the first wave fan art. (You can also keep an eye on the Rogue One tag on our Tumblr.)
→ Here’s one for any of your less-than-obsessive friends who might be confused about where Rogue One fits in, from our pal Bryan Young. (On that note, as I was writing that last sentence, my mom texted me asking about “the Jedi in the white cape.” That said, I have no doubt that Lucasfilm is already well aware of the issue and has planned marketing accordingly. We’re still most of a year away from the movie, remember?)
→ Naturally, our first official announcement post-trailer was the toy packaging.
→ Second official announcement: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, co-producer John Swartz, and executive producer John Knoll will pick the Filmmaker Select award for the Star Wars Fan Film Awards. (Seems like this replaces the ‘George Lucas Selects’ category of previous years.) Submissions are open through April 24.
→ Of course, you can’t have a new Star Wars movie trailer without folks jumping to conclusions about certain characters, and ‘Jyn Erso is Rey’s mom!’ has been popular enough to warrant pieces arguing against it from Birth Movie Death’s Devin Faraci and IGN’s Terri Schwartz, both of which I very much agree with. (I also find the oh-so-related ‘Jyn is the new Mara Jade!’ speculation deeply distasteful, which I may go into further detail on soon. As for the Jan Ors comparisons, Pablo has it covered.)
The Star Wars Fan Film Awards have returned! Fan filmmakers can submit theirs through January 16, and they’ll go up on StarWars.com sometime in March for fans to vote on. The winners will be announced at Celebration Anaheim in April.
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