PG-13

BestFest's Rating Guidelines

BestFest hopes the following guidelines do not censor or infringe on the creativity of student filmmakers but at the same time ensure for family viewing of films screened during BestFest. Please use these guidelines when creating and editing your films:

COLLEGE FILMS

BestFest accepts UNRATED films in the college division. However, for gratuitous scenes and extremes in violence, nudity/sex, language and drug use, BestFest judges may exclude an entry from festival consideration.

HIGH SCHOOL FILMS

The following guidelines further clarify the PG-13 rating for BestFest high school entries, allowing students to edit their films for consideration. Overall, if you shoot and edit your films with prime time TV (not cable) in mind, your entry should be okay.

DRUGS/ALCOHOL: Normal use (or effects of use) is permitted within the confines of age-appropriate behavior. Excessive use (explicit shooting up of drugs, crazed binges, overt underage abuse) will disqualify an entry.

NUDITY/SEX: If nudity is sexually oriented, the film will NOT qualify. For sexual scenes and content, use of reaction shots or teasing the audience with sound and, as with violence, showing the aftermath of an encounter is permitted.

LANGUAGE: A great rule of thumb - when in doubt, bleep it out. A film may use a single harsh sexually-derived word, though only as an expletive, not within a sexual context (i.e., a character, frustrated with a situation can mutter “s**t”). If more than one such expletive or one use of these words in a sexual context, the film will be disqualified.

VIOLENCE: If violence is too rough or persistent, the film will not qualify. As an example, filmmakers should focus on the aftermath of violence or use sound and quick-cut edits instead of showing explicit/overt scenes, allowing viewers’ minds to fill in the missing pieces. Films will be disqualified if they show anything overt like chainsaws ripping into bodies, knives, hatchets or swords impaling people, or a shotgun blasting off a person’s arm.

If you have questions about your film's content as it pertains to qualifying for BestFest, please contact us.

Learn to make better movies. Every entrant receives their film's scoring sheets.