Awards Night
Your speech, if you cannot be there
19 September 2026 at SunPAC, Brisbane
If you cannot get to Brisbane on the night, you can send us a short video and we will play it in the room if your name is read out. This page is everything you need to record one that looks and sounds the way your film deserves.
If you cannot be at the podium, this is how your words get there instead.
We ask every nominee who cannot attend
If you told us on your nominee details form that you cannot be there in person, this page is for you. If you have not filled that in yet, please do - it is how we know to look for your file.
Most of these videos are never played, and that is exactly the point. Nobody is told the result in advance, so the only way your words reach the room is if we already have them before the night. Recording one costs you a few minutes; not recording one costs you the only chance to say something.
It is not a performance and nobody expects a production. A minute of you, in focus, audible, looking at the lens, is better than anything more ambitious that we cannot hear.
What to export
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Length
1 min
per nomination
One minute is the whole speech, and it is more than it sounds like out loud. If your film is nominated in more than one category, record a separate video for each - they may be read out on different parts of the night.
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Resolution
1080 p
1920 x 1080
Full HD. Anything larger is fine to shoot but export at 1920 x 1080, which is what the room plays. Anything smaller will be visibly soft on a cinema-sized screen.
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Orientation
16:9
landscape, never vertical
This is the one people get wrong. Turn the phone sideways. A vertical video plays as a narrow strip with two thirds of the screen black, in front of the whole room.
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Frame rate
25 or 30 fps
held consistent
Either is accepted. What matters is that one file does not change rate part way through, which is what happens when clips shot at different settings are cut together without conforming them first.
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File
MP4
H.264 video
The default export of every phone, camera and editing app in common use. If your software offers a quality slider, the higher end of it costs you nothing here - these are short files.
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Audio
48 kHz
stereo
Stereo at 48kHz, which is the standard video sample rate rather than the 44.1kHz music one. Your voice is the entire point of the file, so give it the better half of your attention.
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Colour
Rec.709
standard video
The normal colour space for HD video, and what you get unless you deliberately chose otherwise. If you graded in a log or HDR space, convert to Rec.709 on export or your speech will look washed out on the night.
This is not your DCP. If your film is also screening with us, that is a separate delivery with its own specification - a different frame rate among other things - and it is on the DCP delivery page. Following one spec for the other file is the mix-up worth avoiding.
Six things that make the difference
A recent phone is completely adequate for this. Everything below matters more than the camera you shoot it on.
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A quiet room
Room noise is the single most common problem. No traffic, no air conditioning, no open window. Hard rooms echo, so a space with soft furnishings will sound better than a large empty one.
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Well lit, from the front
Face a window or a lamp. Never sit with a bright window behind you, which turns you into a silhouette that no amount of correction brings back.
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Camera at eye level
Put the phone or camera level with your eyes, not on the desk looking up at you. Frame yourself from roughly mid-chest, with a little room above your head.
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On a tripod
Or anything that does not move: a stack of books works. A handheld phone reads as unsteady on a screen that size, even when it felt fine while you were holding it.
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A clean background
A plain wall is better than a busy room. The audience should be looking at you, and anything behind you is competing for that.
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Look at the lens
Not at your own picture on the screen. Talking to the lens is what makes it feel like you are talking to the room.
Keep it plain
The less you add, the better this plays on a cinema screen through a cinema sound system.
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A short fade in and out
A half-second fade at each end. It stops the video snapping to black in front of the audience and reads as finished rather than clipped.
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No heavy graphics
No titles, lower thirds, logos or transitions. We introduce you in the room, so the file only has to carry you speaking.
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No music bed
Music under a speech fights the voice through a cinema system, and the room will already have its own. Leave the audio as your voice.
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Check your levels
Play the finished file at a normal volume and listen the whole way through. If you have to lean in to hear it, so will 300 people.
Two steps, and the filename matters
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1
Name the file exactly this way
Award Category - Presenter NameThe award category first, then the name of the person speaking, separated by a hyphen. That single line is what routes your video to the right moment on the night, so it is worth thirty seconds of care. One file per nomination, each named for its own category.
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2
Send us a download link
Upload it to any cloud drive you already use and send us the link. There is no upload form here on purpose: a link you control is more reliable than a browser upload of a video file, it is how the festival already receives films, and it means a slow connection can never lose the thing half way through. Check the link opens for someone who is not signed in as you before you send it.
or email afinfestival@gmail.com
Send a link rather than an attachment: a one-minute video is usually over the 25MB most mail providers allow.
There are no rules about the words
AFIN has no script for this and no list of people you are expected to thank. It is your minute. What tends to work is saying who made the film with you, what it was about for you, and stopping while the room still wants more.
Say the name of your film early. The audience has watched a great many titles by that point in the night, and hearing yours anchors everything that follows.
Write it down and read it if that is easier. Nobody has ever minded a speech that was prepared, and a minute goes faster on camera than it does on paper.
Ask before you record, not after
If anything above is unclear, or your situation is not covered - a producer accepting on behalf of a team, a cast member in a different country, a file that will not export the way this page describes - ask us. We would much rather answer a question than receive something we cannot play.
or email afinfestival@gmail.com