NASA Wants You To Direct A Short Film Using Their Space Footage

CineSpace is a collaboration between NASA and Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) that offers filmmakers around the world a chance to share their works inspired by, and using, actual NASA imagery through “CineSpace,” a short film competition.  Winners are announced and screened along with all finalists at the annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival which is held in November. 

For the third year in a row, NASA has teamed up with the Houston Cinema Arts Society to bring CineSpace, a short-film competition that encourages both professional and aspiring filmmakers to create works using actual NASA space footage.

So, here's how it works: the works submitted to CineSpace can belong to any genre and style, including but not limited to experimental, narrative, documentary, comedy, drama, animation, ambient, music videos, re-mix, sports, horror, and underground.

You need to include at least 10% of NASA's video imagery, and your short shouldn't last more than 10 minutes. Check out the complete list of guidelines here. The judges will be looking for creativity and innovation, attention to detail and if the pieces are able to provoke an emotional response in the viewer.

Richard Linklater (director of the award-winning film Boyhood) will return as one of the judges. The winner will receive a grand prize of $10,000, followed by a $5,000 prize for second place and $3,000 for the third spot.

The breathtaking array of colors and scenarios featured in NASA's archive – which recently became available to the masses – should provide all the inspiration you need.

So set your mission to explore the NASA video and imagery public domain and find your story. If you're looking for some extra motivation to participate, here's a selection of previous finalists and winners.

The submission period starts on June 1st and ends on July 31st.

A submission from New Zealand, Lani's Space, won special category award last year. You can see the film here: http://cinemartsociety.org/cinespace/20