The Atami Kaiju Film Festival is holding a new monster illustration contest for 2021!
For the Atami Kaiju Film Festival, we are holding a drawing contest and asking you to create your own original monster designs! Please draw a monster of your own creation, then send in your designs to enter the contest! You can enter the contest by simply taking a picture of the monster illustration, and then sending it to the email below. It doesn’t matter how old you are—all ages, from children to adults, are welcome to enter, and even folks from all around the world. This year our contest has the theme of “Atami”. Please consider this theme as you imagine what kind of monster you want to create! You can think about our beautiful city of Atami—the sea, the mountains, the hot springs, our special gourmet food, and more.
Caption: The beach and Atami Castle
Application requirements
For this contest, we are looking for images and descriptions for original monsters that the applicants create themselves. All ages, from children to adults, are welcome to apply—though minors should obtain the consent of their parents first. All applicants will be required to send their applications by email, and enter their names and addresses.
Monster designs can be completed in analog or digital format. In the case of art completed using physical media, just take a picture of the completed drawing via your phone or digital camera, or scan the image onto your computer. For a digital drawing completed on computer, make sure to save your image as a jpeg, png, or tiff and attach the file to the email.
Contest Duration: Thursday, May 20-Tuesday, August 31, 2021.
Send all applications to: info@atamikaiju.jp
Please write “Original Kaiju Drawing Contest 2021” in the subject line of the email.
Please include the following information in the body of the email:
- The name of the kaiju
- A brief biographical description of your original kaiju—its personality, abilities, etc.
- Name of the applicant. (If you prefer to remain anonymous in promotional materials, please also include your chosen pen name.)
- Age (if you are a student, please also include your grade as of 2021)
- Physical address
- Phone number
Before you apply, please read and make sure you understand the following:
All applicants, by submitting their work, will be considered to have agreed with the following.
Concerning copyright and personal information: The copyright for the work (the original kaiju and supporting materials) created by the applicant belongs to the applicant, and thus applicants retain the right to publish and use their kaiju for their own work. However, by applying to the Original Kaiju Drawing Contest 2021, applicants are giving the general incorporated association Atami Kaiju Film Festival/Organizer the right to use the work at the festival itself (rights of publication, the right to display the name, and the right not to change the designs and content of the creation). The general incorporated association behind the Atami Kaiju Film Festival, then, is granted to rights to post the submitted works on websites, SNS, printed materials, etc, free of charge for the purposes of publicizing the film festival and this related competition. All private information, such as the addresses and phone numbers of applicants, will be managed responsibly by the Atami Kaiju Film Festival and will not be used for any purpose except in communicating with applicants about the competition selection and announcement of results. When publishing the original monster designs on the Internet, only the first name provided by the applications, or a pen name if preferred, will be given in order to protect the privacy of the individuals who have entered the contest.
Prohibited activities:
Please note that, in the case of the following, you will disqualify your applications automatically.
–Applications depicting copyrighted characters that have already appeared in media. (If an application seems to depict an existing kaiju, but the submitter is a child, we will accept and display the work, but the submission will be disqualified from the competition.)
–Any application in which a blank sheet of paper is given with the name “transparent kaiju” or similar shenanigans.
–Any application that slanders a specific person or group.
–Submissions that are not in the specified format
–Applications without a full name, address, or contact information
The Atami Kaiju Film Festival reserves the right to disqualify any other entrants that we see fit on a case-by-case basis.
Process of selection—
The entries will be selected during a judging process between September to October of 2021. The winning applicants will be judged by the Atami Kaiju Film Festival Secretariat and a team of special judges. Previously special judges have included illustrator Yuji Kaida, musician Makoto Inoue, and screenwriter Kazunori Ito.
Between three and five awards will be given to the best original kaiju designs. The special prizes for the selected winning entries will be provided by our sponsors.
Publication of works
The prize-winning works as well as other accepted entries will be printed out to be exhibited at the street gallery display of the Atami branch of Mishima Shinkin Bank in the fall of 2021. All accepted entries are also planned to be made viewable on the Atami Kaiju Film Festival website or on our official SNS.
Where did the Original Kaiju Drawing Contest come from?
Last year we had a special Original Kaiju Drawing Contest 2020, in which we invited contestants to submit designs of kaiju which could not be defeated by the corona virus. As a result, a great many kaiju were gathered together from all over the country and combined their power! In the months leading up to the fourth annual Atami Kaiju Film Festival (scheduled to be held in November), we are looking for new monsters that would not lose even to the mighty beasts who made their appearances in our contest last year!
For the 3rd Atami Kaiju Film Festival’s Original Kaiju Drawing Contest 2020, the original plan was to accept physical entries via mail. However, this method of application was canceled to prevent the spread of the virus, and we welcomed entries to be sent via email instead. Through this process, we received nearly 80 entries from around the country, the quality of which was very high. In order to reduce labor and eliminate return shipping costs, as well as to continue to prevent further spread of the aforementioned virus, all entries must be submitted digitally this year, too.
The 4th Atami Kaiju Film Festival
Date: November 21-23, 2021
Location: International Tourism College Atami School, etc.
Organizer: Atami Kaiju Film Festival
Support: Arts Council Shizuoka
