Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions (“Terms”) shall govern the entry and participation in Ampersand Advisory Sdn Bhd (“Ampersand Advisory”) horror short film competition (“CUT!”).

1. Introduction
   1. Ampersand Advisory presents CUT!, a horror short film competition designed to showcase the creativity and originality of Malaysian filmmakers (“Competition”).
   2. In this Competition, the participants are invited to submit original horror films in accordance with these Terms (“Short Film(s)“).
   3. Short Film submissions will be evaluated subject to the requirements and criteria under these Terms.
2. Eligibility to Participate
   1. The Competition is open to individuals aged 18 and above who are citizens or permanent residents of Malaysia at the time of the Short Film submission (“Participant(s)”). Foreign citizens can take part, as members of the cast and crew, but the producer of the film must be a Malaysian citizen or permanent resident.
   2. There is no limit on the number of permitted Short Films that can be submitted  by each Participant in the Competition.
   3. Short Films can be submitted by individuals (i.e., natural persons) and by corporate entities, organisations, or production houses.
   4. Employees of Ampersand Advisory and any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, and their immediate families are not eligible to submit any Short Film for the Competition.
   5. Participants may be required to submit proof of their eligibility to participate in the Competition, as may be requested by Ampersand Advisory, especially for Student Film category.
   6. Each Participant in the Competition hereby fully, irrevocably and unconditionally agree to comply with these Terms.
3. Competition Timeline
   1. Submission of Short Films by Participants will be accepted from 19^th May 2025 00:00 hours till and must be received by 11:59 PM on 19th September 2025 (“Submission Period”).
   2. Any Short Film submitted after the Submission Period will not be considered and shall automatically be disqualified.
   3. The judging period for submitted Short Films will run from 22nd September 2025 to 24^th October 2025. Ampersand Advisory reserves the right to extend the judging period at its sole discretion.
4. Steps to Enter
   1. To participate in the Competition, each Participant must complete and submit the entry form available on this webpage https://www.ampersand-advisory.com/cut/ (“Entry Form”) during the Submission Period. There is no entry fee to participate in the Competition.
   2. All information provided by the Participant in the Entry Form must be complete, true and accurate. Any misrepresentation could lead to disqualification.
   3. All Short Films must be entered by inserting the (unlisted) YouTube or Vimeo links as prescribed in the Entry Form.
   4. Each Short Film must be labelled as “FILM NAME, FOR CUT!” and must meet the technical standards of [1080p quality, normalized audio levels] and such other requirements/standards as may be notified  by Ampersand Advisory from time to time.
   5. Ampersand Advisory and its representatives shall not be held responsible or liable for:
   6. submissions of Short Film that are lost, stolen, delayed, incomplete, invalid, illegible, or misdirected, all of which will be disqualified at the discretion of Ampersand Advisory and its representatives; or
   7. any technical issues, including but not limited to, malfunctions in network systems and errors of any nature, whether human, technical, or otherwise.
5. Short Film Requirements
   1. Films which had been aired/broadcasted/televised/screened in public are not eligible for submission in the Competition and may be disqualified at the discretion of the Judges. Films which had been submitted to past years’ competitions, or other short film competitions, local or international, will not be eligible for submission in the Competition and may be disqualified at the discretion of the Judges.
   2. Each Short Film shall be of a maximum of five (5) minutes in length, including introduction and excluding the end credits. There is no minimum running time.
   3. All parts of the Short Film must be the original work created by the Participant and must fall under the genre of horror, and the Short Film:
      1. shall not be subject to any restrictions and/or prohibitions, contractual or under the law, which can prevent the Judges viewing, judging and usage of the short film (or any part thereof) pursuant to these Terms;
      2. shall be free of all or any lien, encumbrance or claims of third parties;
      3. shall not infringe any intellectual property rights including but not limited to copyrights or trademarks, or violate any person’s rights of privacy;
      4. shall not contain any content that is illegal, immoral, defamatory, racist, pornographic, libellous, against any religion, or against public policy or public harmony; or the prevailing censorship rules of Malaysia, and
      5. shall not contain any confidential information, trade secrets, copyrighted material or trademarks belonging to any person other than the Participant, unless the Participant has secured the required written permission by the relevant person (proof of which may be requested by Ampersand Advisory).
   4. Participants must ensure that all necessary licenses, permissions, approvals or releases have been secured by the Participants in connection with the Short Film including but not limited to the sourcing of talents and the audio and visual materials of the Short Film. Only original music created for the Short Film or public domain music is allowed, and all other types of music are prohibited. The Jury reserves the right to request for the evidence of such licenses, permissions, approvals or releases.
   5. The dialogue in the Short Film may be in English, Malay, Chinese or any Indian language,  as long as English subtitles are included.
   6. Any Short Film that does not comply with these Terms or are deemed inappropriate by the Jury shall be disqualified without assigning any reasons whatsoever.
   7. Ampersand Advisory, its representatives and the Judges shall not be held responsible or liable for any loss, damages, claims, costs or expenses incurred in connection with or arising from the creation and submission of the Short Film, including the production and delivery of the Short Film.
6. Judging and Awards
   1. All Short Films which comply with these Terms will be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by Ampersand Advisory, and shall be evaluated based on the following criteria:
      1. creativity;
      2. originality;
      3. storytelling;
      4. performance quality; and
      5. production aesthetics and quality
   2. Emphasis will be placed on creativity, originality and storytelling over production value. No further details of judging criteria will be provided.
   3. The judging period will conclude on 24^th October 2025 unless extended by Ampersand Advisory at its sole discretion (“Judging Period”). During the Judging Period, Ampersand Advisory may request from the Participants any further information or documents necessary for the evaluation of the Participants’ Short Films. Failure to furnish those details within reasonable or specified timelines may result in disqualification or reduce the likelihoods of those entries being selected as a winner.
   4. Ampersand Advisory reserves the right to announce shortlisted Short Films and post clips from the shortlisted Short Films together with the details of the shortlisted Participants on all or any of its social platforms.
   5. Winners of the Competition will be notified via the contact details provided by the Participants in the Entry Form. For each entry in the film categories, the Producer of the film will be the only person contacted. For other categories, the requisite individuals will be contacted, via the producer, if necessary.
   6. If for any reason the selected winners cannot be reached by Ampersand Advisory or its representatives after reasonable attempt has been made, up to a maximum period of 1 week (7 days), the judges will select other winners from the shortlisted Participants or any other Participants at the discretion of the judges and Ampersand Advisory.
   7. Three (3) winners will be selected and awarded the following prizes (“Main Winners”). In addition, two (2) finalists will be awarded, and the Best Student Entry will be recognized.
      • Best Horror Film: RM 10,000 only + equipment in kind
      • 2^nd Place: RM7,500 only
      • 3^rd Place: RM5,000 only
      • 2 x Finalists: RM 1,500 only each
      • Best Student Film RM 1,000
   8. In addition to the Main Winners, a winner will be selected for each of the following supporting categories and will be awarded a prize of RM 1,000.00 only each:
      • Best Director
      • Best Cinematography
      • Best Editing
      • Best Actor in a Leading Role
      • Best Actress in a Leading Role
      • Best Screenplay
      • Best Scare
      • Best Actor in a Supporting Role
      • Best Actress in a Supporting Role
      • Best Hair & Make-Up
      • Best Costume
      • Best Use of Music
      • Best Film Shot Entirely on Phone 
   9. Payment for all film category awards will be made to the bank account of the Producer via bank transfer. For Companies or Production houses which may win, Producers can specify the production house bank details. For individual winners, the bank details of the person concerned will be requested, and then payments will be transferred to that specified bank account.
   10. For certain categories like Best Film Shot on Phone and Best Student Film additional proof may be requested. Failure to provide that information could result in disqualification or reduced likelihood of winning.
   11. All decisions by the judges in the selection of winners of the Competition are final and no appeals shall be entertained.
   12. Prizes are non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for other alternatives.
   13. Should it be discovered, at any point of time, after an entry has been awarded, that there was any violation of the rules of the competition, or that the story was  plagiarized, or credit was not duly given, or there was any misrepresentation of facts or eligibility, then Ampersand Advisory reserves the right to disqualify any winning entry or strip the entry of its award.
7. Intellectual Property Rights and License
   1. “Intellectual Property Rights” mean all current and future patents, trademarks or rights in databases, inventions or trade secrets, know-how, copyrights, rights in designs, topographies, trade and business names, domain names, marks and devices (whether or not registered) and all other intellectual property rights and applications for any of those rights (where such applications can be made) capable of protection in any relevant country in the world.
   2. Participants hereby represent and warrant that they own all Intellectual Property Rights in and to all components of their Short Film(s). Participants as the original creators of the Short Films shall retain all Intellectual Property Rights to their submitted films.
   3. By entering the Competition and submitting Short Film(s), each Participant grants to Ampersand Advisory, a royalty-free permission to utilise the Short Film or any part of the Short Film for any purposes of promoting Cut!, at the sole discretion of Ampersand Advisory (“License”), as long as Ampersand Advisory does not make any direct commercial gain from these films.
8. Liability and Indemnity
   1. Ampersand Advisory shall not be liable for any injury or damage to any person or property, caused directly or indirectly by the access or download of any material from its websites, whether such material is created by Ampersand Advisory or third parties.
   2. By entering the Competition, Participants shall release, hold harmless, and indemnify Ampersand Advisory and its affiliated companies, their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, and the judges in the Competition from any claims or causes of action arising from the Participants’ breach of these Terms including but not limited to claims related to Intellectual Property Rights infringement.
9. Modifications and Disputes in the Competition
   1. Ampersand Advisory reserves the right to cancel, suspend, or modify the Competition and/or these Terms at its sole discretion at any time or any number of times by giving a notice in writing to the Participants or updating its website link accordingly.
   2. No disputes regarding the Competition process shall be entertained. This includes, but is not limited to the process of selection of winners or the value of awards. Any issues will be resolved solely by Ampersand Advisory at its sole discretion.
10. General
    1. Failure by Ampersand Advisory to enforce, at any time, any Terms herein shall not be construed as a waiver of its right to enforce the breach of such Term.
    2. If at any time all or any part of one or more of these Terms is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any respect under the applicable laws, neither the legality, validity or enforceability of the remaining parts of such Term, or the other Terms hereof, nor the legality, validity or enforceability of such provision under the applicable laws of any other jurisdiction, shall in any way be affected or impaired.
    3. Ampersand Advisory may assign, transfer or novate these Terms or any part thereof or any benefit or interest conferred by these Terms to any third party without prior written consent from the Participants. The Participants shall not assign, transfer or novate these Terms or any part thereof or any benefit or interest conferred by these Terms to any third party without Ampersand Advisory’s prior written consent.
    4. To the extent permitted by law, the Participants consent to Ampersand Advisory’s use of their names, likeness, photographs and/or statements made by the Participants in connection with the Competition, Ampersand Advisory, and/or any information regarding the awards for promotional purposes in any form or media without payment or consideration of any kind.
    5. The Participants’ submission of Short Film in the Competition is also governed by Ampersand Advisory’s Privacy Policy (“Ampersand’s Privacy Policy”). By participating in the Competition, the Participants hereby agree for their personal data to be processed and dealt by Ampersand Advisory in accordance with the Ampersand’s Privacy Policy.
11. Governing Law
    1. These Terms are governed by the laws of Malaysia, and participants agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of Malaysian courts for any disputes.
12. Contact
    1. For further inquiries on these Terms, kindly contact cut@ampersand-advisory.com