CMV competition

The CMV Competition a.k.a Cosplay Music Video Competition is an open-for-all video competition. The videos are judged by the performance as well as the quality of the edit. 

You can take part alone or as a group. The winner of the competition is chosen by a pre-selected jury, who choose their favorites based on the set judging criteria. In addition to the judges, the audience gets to vote for their favorite music videos during the competition. The instructions for audience voting will be explained at the event during the finals. The winners of the competition will be announced at the finals, the time of which will be published later.

There are no source restrictions for the material used in the video. The source material can be from any licensed work, for example TV series, movies, games or books.

In case there is a large number of participants, a pre-qualification will be organized if necessary. In the pre-qualification, the judges select the videos that will make it to the finals, which will be shown at the event. The results of the pre-qualifications will be announced by e-mail for all who applied for the competition.

The competitors do not have to be present at Kotae Expo. You can participate in the competition even if you cannot attend the event in person. The finalists of the competition are offered the opportunity to buy a ticket of regular price to the event.

Schedule

• The applications for the competition open: June 1, 2025
• The applications for the competition close: October 20, 2025 at 11:59 PM
• The finalists will be chosen: No later than November 2, 2025

The winners will be announced in Kotae Expo. The date and time of the finals will be announced at a later date.

Rules

The applications for the competition open June 1, 2025 and close October 20 at 11:59 PM.  The videos sent outside of the application period will be automatically disqualified. You can only sign up for the competition by applying as instructed by the competition organizers. You can find information about applying from below. You can apply with one (1) video only. Videos created as a group or collaboration will be counted as one video for all its creators.

The length of the video should be at least 1 minute (1:00) but no longer than 4 minutes (4:00). In addition, the video can have opening and closing credits, which can be 30 seconds combined. In that case, the maximum length of a video can be 4 minutes and 30 seconds (4:30).

The video has to be a cosplay music video. For example generic convention videos are not allowed. However you can include material shot at at events.

The video material must be shot and edited by the competitor or their team. The competition video must be created mostly of video footage. Occassional use of still images is however allowed.
The quality of the video footage must be adequate. The organizers might disqualify videos that don’t meet the technical criteria. The criteria is listed down below.
The audio of the video must be mostly music. The usage of multiple songs, sound effects, text and dialogue is allowed.

We don’t require the videos to premiere at the event. The video can be published before the competition. However we won’t accept videos that have made it to the finals of other CMV competitions.

The characters used must be from a licensed source, otherwise there’s no restrictions on the source material. Your own sources or original characters are not allowed, unless used as a nameless background characters if needed.
When applying, you’re required to send reference images of the characters. You can find more information about this from below.

The cosplays shown on the video will not be judged separately so the costumes can be either self made or bought. However the costumes can be judged on how they affect the overall look of the video, the video as a whole and whether the characters are recognizable.
However the main focus is on how recognizable the characters are.
The production team has to have a permission from all people filmed to being shown on the video as well as to show the video publicly in the competition.

Material for mature audiences only is prohibited. The organizers will disqualify videos with material too rough for the event.

Technical criteria

Aim to film and save your videos with the best possible quality. The recommended resolutions for videos are 1920 x 1080 px or 1280 x 720 px. The smallest accepted resolution is 480 x 360 px. The FPS (frame rate) of the video must be at least 23.976 fps, but no higher than 60 fps.
The recommended file format for the final video is MP4. Other accepted file formats are AVI, WMV ja MOV.
Please use the best possible quality for the music. Pay attention to the quality of spoken dialogue and sound effects as well.

Judges

The judges will be announced later.

The points given by the judges will not be published publicly on the event’s websites or social media accounts. The competitors can ask for their points after the competition. More information about the points and feedback will be sent to those chosen as finalists.

Would you like to judge the competition? Apply as a judge now!

The responsibilities of a judge are as follows:

• Scoring the videos according to the provided information and form
• Meeting of the judges, where you decide the winners of the competition
• Writing down the reasons for choosing the winners or telling those reasons to the CMV Competition organizers orally
• Reading the reasons for choosing the winners out loud on stage during the competition and giving the awards
• Writing constructive feedback after the competition to the competitors who asked for it

Awards

• Competition’s Best, places 1 to 3
• The Audience’s Favorite

If there’s less than five (5) videos taking part in the competition, only the first place and Audience’s Favorite will be awarded.

Sending the videos

Information about sending your videos will be updated here when the application period opens in June 2025.

Required uploads

• The video for the competition
• Reference images of the character(s), 1 to 3 images per character
• Short synopsis

You can also include material about the creative process. The attachments can be photos, screenshots, video material and/or text. We recommend the following file formats: jpg, png, mp4, pdf and doc/docx.

Please check your information and materials before sending them. If problems arise, try using the site with another browser first. You can always contact the CMV competition organizers with questions and concers via e-mail: cmv [at ] kotae.fi.

Restrictions on competing

Those organizing the competition or their close family members can’t take part in the competition.

The handling of personal information and Terms of Competition

The personal information of the participants will only be handled by the organizer of the CMV Competition, the event organizers and the people responsible for the transfer service, Säätöyhteisö B2 ry. The information you give us will be sent to the aforementioned personnel only.

By taking part in the competition, the competitor accepts the terms of these rules. The competitor also allowes the addition of their information to the Kompassi system. If your video makes it to the finals and you don’t own a ticket to the event, you can buy a ticket for the regular price. The perk is personal and can’t be transferred to others. More information and instructions will be sent to the chosen finalists before the event.

Contact information

If you have any questions regarding the competition, please contact the CMV Competition organizer via e-mail: cmv [at] kotae.fi.