MAD Contest and Submission Guidelines

Read the rules for the current edition first

This page is a plain-language guide to common requirements, not a universal rulebook for every contest. The current contest column, supplementary announcements, and written responses from the organizer always take priority. Do not assume that a source type, publication method, or AI tool is permitted this year merely because it was permitted in a previous edition.

This page primarily discusses mainland Chinese MAD·AMV contests that use Bilibili as their central platform for publication, screening, and archiving. It draws on MAD Producer’s “Standard Rules for MAD Contests” and 43 contest columns listed under MAD Producer’s “Contest” category as of Jul. 25, 2026.

Common Contest Formats

Comprehensive Contests

Comprehensive contests generally provide several weeks to several months for production or submissions, accept a wider range of work types, and offer shortlisting, rankings, and category awards. They may use one open category or judge separate divisions for anime-based work, still-image work, AMV, ASMV, or organizer-defined categories.

Before entering, confirm:

• Whether the entry must be produced after the announcement or simply never have been published;
• Whether judges, organizing staff, or previous finalists may enter;
• How many entries one person may submit and whether a collaboration consumes a separate slot;
• Whether an entry may be published immediately after submission or must wait for the finalist compilation;
• Whether mixed-media work, GMV, tokusatsu, film edits, PV, hand-drawn work, or original animation falls within the submission scope.

IC／Iron Chef

An IC is a timed creation contest, commonly lasting from 72 hours to one week. At the start, the organizer provides a song pack, theme, or source restriction, and participants must complete their entries within the stated period.

An IC is not only about “working quickly.” Important questions include:

• Whether music may cross song packs or categories;
• Whether the original song from the pack is mandatory and whether it may be shortened, remixed, or retimed;
• Whether the contest accepts only anime AMV or also still-image work, GMV, and ASMV;
• The minimum required proportion of anime or manga material;
• Whether participants may publish previews, stream their project, or release the completed work during the production period;
• The precise relationship between solo entries, two-person Collabs, MEPs, and team formats.

NMIC#II allowed songs to cross packs and accepted Solo, Collab, and MEP entries. IFT IC #6, by contrast, prohibited cross-category use and required anime or manga clips to constitute 70% of the work. “ICs generally work this way” is not a substitute for the rules of the current edition.

Theme Contests, Format-Restricted Contests, and Invitation Events

These events restrict the theme, source type, or participant eligibility. MMGC, for example, has long centered its submission scope on static MAD. University contests may impose restrictions involving school affiliation, year level, or in-person attendance. A theme contest may require work built around a specified concept.

Invitation-only, shortlist-based, and open-call formats are also distinct:

• Invitation-only: The organizer contacts creators in advance to confirm participation and publication arrangements;
• Shortlist-based: All submissions undergo selection before finalists proceed to screening or ranking;
• Open call: Any eligible participant may submit, but not every entry is guaranteed a place in the official selection.

Exhibition Matches and Screening Events

Exhibition matches generally have no overall ranking or cash prize and are held for festivals, anniversaries, organizational exchange, and screenings. They may still specify a theme, duration, review process, and publication window, but “selected” generally does not mean “ranked finalist” in a competitive contest.

What Most Contests Repeatedly Emphasize

MAD Producer’s Contest category contains 43 verified columns. Wording differs across years, but the following requirements recur.

1. The Participant Must Submit Their Own Entry

In contest contexts, “original” usually means that the participant personally created the editing, compositing, and expression of the submitted work. It does not mean that the anime, manga, or music used is also the participant’s original material.

Generally unacceptable:

• Reposting, stealing, or submitting another person’s work under a false name;
• Simply splicing, replacing the music in, or retiming another creator’s completed MAD·AMV—commonly called “triple-editing”;
• Closely copying extended shot sequences, transitions, compositing designs, or creative execution from another work;
• Submitting a draft with only parts completed or obvious placeholders;
• Repeating a loop merely to meet the minimum duration.

No universal percentage separates “homage” from “imitation.” When a work has a clear reference, the participant should proactively explain the extent of that reference to the organizer. A recreation exercise should not be submitted directly as an original contest entry.

2. Confirm Publication Windows and Multiple-Contest Entries

Many contests do not accept works that have been or were previously published and prohibit the same work from entering multiple contests simultaneously. “Published” may include:

• Uploads to Bilibili, YouTube, Douyin, Weibo, and other platforms;
• A publicly available master file, full preview, or downloadable version;
• A complete showing on a public stream, at a screening, or on a social-media account.

Some contests instead allow publication after delivery: once the organizer confirms receipt, the creator may release the work independently. The 12th Nanjing MAD competition in 2026 and Rosa Festa have used publication arrangements that differ from the standard rules.

The safest practice is: do not publish the complete work before delivery; after receiving confirmation from the organizer, publish it according to the current rules. If the work has appeared at a small event, campus screening, or overseas contest, disclose that history before submission.

3. Each Contest Defines Its Eligible Source Media

A contest may accept all MAD·AMV or only a particular type of source. Common restrictions include:

• Anime, manga, light-novel illustrations, and game CG must constitute the primary source material;
• Live-action film, original footage, or non-ACG material may not exceed a stated proportion;
• GMV, tokusatsu, ASMV, PV, hand-drawn work, original CG, or raw editing may be excluded;
• Still-image and anime-based entries may be judged in separate divisions;
• Mixed-media work may be assigned according to its primary source proportion or the organizer’s decision.

Do not determine eligibility solely from “AMV” or “static MAD” in a title. When uncertain, send the organizer a short preview and a description of the source composition, and retain the written response.

4. Entries Must Meet the Publishing Platform’s Moderation Requirements

Contests published collectively on Bilibili generally require entries to comply with submission, content, and moderation requirements for the Anime category and MAD·AMV subcategory. Illegal content, pornography, gambling, drugs, excessive gore or exposure, hatred, and other high-risk sensitive material are generally rejected.

The fact that an image appears in the original work does not ensure that a contest compilation will pass moderation. Replace shots, shorten exposed material, or confirm with the organizer in advance when necessary.

5. Duration, Logo, and Technical Specifications Are Not Universal Constants

MAD contests commonly request MP4, H.264/x264, and 720p or 1080p and above, but actual restrictions vary widely:

• Minimum duration may be 20, 30, or 45 seconds, or 1 minute 30 seconds;
• Maximum duration may be 5, 6, 8, 10, or 15 minutes;
• Some contests accept 4K, MKV, MOV, or H.265, while others accept only MP4/H.264;
• Some require the contest logo within the main program, while others require only an intro or event text;
• The original rules determine whether an intro, outro, staff credits, source list, or loop counts toward duration.

An encoding guide can explain how to export correctly; it cannot determine what a contest permits. Before export, copy every current requirement for file format, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, file size, and audio into a checklist.

6. Collaborative Entries Must Identify Participants and Responsibility

• Collab usually refers to a work jointly made by two or a small number of creators;
• MEP usually assigns musical sections to multiple creators and is assembled by a coordinator;
• A team entry may be submitted under a team name but must still identify the actual participants;
• Prize money is generally awarded per entry and distributed by the collaborators, rather than multiplied by headcount.

Delivery materials should state the organizer or coordinator, every participant ID, profile URL, and role. Some contests do not accept collaborative entries, or allow them without counting them toward team or individual rankings.

How Contests Handle AI Assistance

The Bilibili MAD·AMV community discussed by this site commonly distinguishes two situations:

Lightweight Assistance

AI does not replace the main images, sound, or expression of the work and instead improves source processing or project efficiency, for example:

• Assisting with the selection, retrieval, and organization of source material;
• Extracting dialogue, vocals, or accompaniment and preparing a draft transcript;
• Producing an initial cutout or mask and repairing a small number of edges;
• Assisting with expressions, scripts, or batch commands;
• Checking typos, missing files, and delivery items.

Such uses are generally more readily accepted in ordinary creative discussion than extensive generative substitution, but this does not imply that every contest permits them. IMAC FUN#4, for example, explicitly prohibited AI and AI-assisted creation.

Generated Content Forms the Main Work

When character images, primary shots, dialogue, singing, or complete passages are generated by AI, the work departs substantially from the current Bilibili MAD·AMV convention of re-editing existing ACG source material. It is therefore generally less likely to be accepted by that community or by traditional contests.

Rosa Festa 2026 explicitly rejected entirely AIGC animation; this does not mean it automatically accepted every other form of AI use. Creators must still ask the organizer to confirm the tools used, scope of processing, input material, and location of generated content.

Recommended practice:

1. If the rules prohibit AI, do not use any AI tool within the stated scope of the prohibition;
2. If the rules exclude only entirely AIGC work, do not assume that voice cloning, generated video, or outpainting is permitted;
3. When uncertain, describe the exact feature to the organizer before production rather than asking only “Can I use AI?”;
4. Retain original source files, manual masks, project records, and the organizer’s response;
5. Even when a contest permits the use, comply with platform labeling requirements and obtain the necessary rights for source material and voices.

Common Judging and Results Structures

Method	Meaning and notes
Preliminary review／shortlisting	First checks compliance and the quality threshold for selection; the finalist ratio may change with the number of submissions
Final judging／ranking	Final judges score, rank, or discuss shortlisted entries to determine awards
Trimmed mean	Removes the highest and lowest score before averaging; may not be used with a small judging panel
Judge vote	Determines results through placement ballots, ranked ballots, or preference votes
Audience vote	Commonly used for daily rounds, battles, or popularity awards and does not always determine overall ranking
Category awards	Awards for anime, still-image work, narrative, compositing, emotion, creativity, newcomers, and other categories may coexist with overall ranking
Feedback	Some events provide feedback on every submission; others comment only on finalists
Exhibition entry	Screened for presentation or entertainment in a battle but excluded from official ranking and prize money

If judges or organizing staff may enter, confirm the recusal process: entrants must not judge themselves, and another judge may need to supply the score. Some events permit participation but exclude those entries from the overall ranking.

Typical Delivery Package

• The final video exported to the contest specifications;
• A 1920×1080 cover or the dimensions specified by the contest;
• Work title, creator ID, Bilibili UID, and contact details;
• Division, work type, source material, and work introduction;
• A complete participant list and coordinator for a Collab or MEP;
• Project screenshots, profile screenshots, or other evidence required by the contest;
• Notes for judges on source material, rights, AI assistance, or an unusual aspect ratio.

Compressed archives and email subjects must follow the naming format for the current edition exactly. Avoid temporary filenames such as “final2_really_final.mp4” that cannot be reliably identified.

Pre-Submission Checklist

1. Do I meet the eligibility requirements, and may judges or organizing staff enter?
2. Are my work type, source proportion, and division accepted?
3. Has the work been published or entered in another contest?
4. Does it contain triple-editing, undeclared imitation, stolen material, or unfinished sections?
5. Is my AI use explicitly permitted, and has the organizer confirmed the specific use?
6. How is the main-program duration calculated, and do the logo, intro, and staff credits comply?
7. Do the file format, codec, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and size comply?
8. Are the cover, TXT document, creator list, profile URLs, and contact details complete?
9. Was the upload completed before the deadline in the specified time zone, and did I receive confirmation?
10. When may the entry be published, and which title format, tags, and event topics are required?

Verification Sample

• MAD Producer: “Standard Rules for MAD Contests”
• 2024 First EAC MAD Contest
• NMIC#II · What can IC
• 2024 First SWT MAD Contest
• 3rd Chengdu University MAD Contest and 27th Red & White MAD Contest
• Rosa Festa 2026
• IMAC FUN#4
• 8th ALS AMV IC
• QG SOLO MAD CONTEST #S2
• IFT IC #6
• 12th Nanjing MAD competition

This page extracts only shared patterns and points of variation. Contest dates, group numbers, prize money, judges, and delivery channels are time-sensitive; always return to the original column and the organizer’s latest announcement for verification.