Categories:

  • Best Action
  • Best Drama
  • Best Comedy
  • Best Short
  • Best Extended
  • Best Overall

Submission Rules:

  • Entries must be no longer than 3 minutes, except for entries to the Extended category, which can be no longer than 5 minutes, or entries to the Short category, which can be no longer than 1 minute.
  • Each entry must be at least 720p.
  • Entries must be rendered using the Source Filmmaker, although those renders can be further edited with post-production tools for titling and other effects.
  • Entries must be uploaded to YouTube, added to your Steam profile, associated with the 7th Annual Saxxy Awards, and tagged with the relevant Saxxy Awards categories.
  • Only entries submitted between Thursday, March 1, 2018 3:00 PM PST and Thursday, March 8, 2018 3:00 PM PST will be considered. (between 23:00 March 1 and 23:00 March 8, GMT). The submission process must be entirely completed before the submission period ends.
  • Voting begins Thursday, March 8, 2018 and continues until Tuesday, March 13, 2018 3:00 PM PDT.
  • Winners, selected by Valve from the community-chosen nominees, will be announced Thursday, March 15, 2018.
  • All co-creators must be finalized by voting deadline to be considered.
  • You are free to use any Valve IP.
  • If you use any non-Valve IP, you must be the copyright owner or have explicit permission from the owner and include a URL to the included work or creator's online presence in the description of your entry. This includes music, character likeness, etc. Any submissions found to be infringing non-Valve IP will be disqualified. Note that for workshop items, you still need to provide a link to the items used, but you do not need explicit permission from the creator, since submission to the workshop automatically grants permission to use the item.
  • Multiple submissions per person are allowed.
  • Submissions must be free of advertisements.

Prizes:

  • Winners will receive a Saxxy award in Team Fortress 2.
  • Winner of Best Overall will be flown to Seattle, WA for a tour of Valve and to meet Valve's filmmakers.

Frequently Asked Questions:


How do I view and vote on submissions?
All submissions will be viewable on the Seventh Annual Saxxy Awards Steam Community Hub when voting starts on Thursday, March 8, 2018.

How do I upload a submission?
First, upload your video to YouTube, with privacy set to public, embedding enabled, and advertisements disabled.
Then, navigate to your videos page on Steam Community.
If you haven't recently linked your YouTube account and Steam profile, you'll see a Link YouTube Account button at the top of your Videos page. Click that button, click the Access your YouTube videos button on the next page, and log into YouTube.
If you have recently linked accounts, you'll see an Add Videos from YouTube button at the top of your Videos page - click that button.
Select the Video you want to upload from the list of your YouTube videos, then under Associate the video(s) with a game, choose 7th Annual Saxxy Awards. Then click the Add Video button.

How do I tag categories for my submission?
Once you've added your video to your Steam account, it should appear in your videos page on Steam Community. From here, simply click on the video; once it pops up, click on View Comments and Details to view Owner Controls.
Clicking Update Tags will pop up a dialog allowing you to add the appropriate tag for each of the categories. Remember that entries up to one minute should use the Short tag, and may also use the Action, Comedy, and Drama tags. Entries up to three minutes should pick at least one of Action, Comedy, and Drama, and entries longer than three minutes should only use the Extended tag.

Other people helped me with my submission. How do I add them as co-authors?
Once you've added your video to your Steam account, it should appear in your videos page on Steam Community. From here, simply click on the video; once it pops up, click on View Comments and Details to view Owner Controls.
Clicking Add/remove Contributors will pop up a dialog showing you your friends list. Click on friends to select them as co-authors of your submission.
Your friends should then receive an email letting them accept or decline whether they are a contributor to the submission. Remember to get your co-authors to accept before the deadline!

Who should I consider as co-author?
This question is primarily up to you and the people you worked with to create your submission. In general however, anyone who made a significant contribution to, and worked directly on, your submission should be considered a co-author. If you used music, models, etc from the SFM workshop or other online repositories that were created independently of your submission, you should get permission and cite the creator's work (see next question), but the creator shouldn't be considered a co-author. If you used assets that were created specifically for your submission, the creator should be considered a co-author. (even if they were later were uploaded to the SFM workshop or other inline repositories)

My submission uses work created by others, but they didn't work directly on the video. Do I need to get permission and/or add a citation referencing their work?
If your entry uses music or other intellectual property (IP) that wasn't created by Valve or part of an SFM downloadable content pack, you need to get permission from the creator, and provide links to the included work in the description for your submission. For workshop items, you can generate the list of used items in your session within the SFM via Show Used Workshop Items under the File -> Community submenu. While you should provide links to used workshop items, you don't need explicit permission from the creators, since it is implicitly granted by submission to the workshop.

Can my video contain YouTube annotations or cards with links to other videos or channels?
No, any form of embedded link in your video is advertising that other video or channel, and is not allowed. Links are allowed in the description of your video, so if you want to thank contributors or give viewers a way to find you online, that's where to put them. Any videos with embedded links, whether it be from YouTube ads, annotations or cards, will be disqualified.

Can I submit a video that I also submitted to the Dota 2 Short Film Contest?
If your video was created using the SFM, then you can submit your video to the Saxxy Awards.