Subtitle and Caption Standards for Film Finalists

Any film that is not in English must have burned-in subtitles (part of the video image). Thoroughly check your subtitles for quality (translation and typos) and readability. Subtitle quality directly affects the audience and jury’s viewing experience. 
 

• Subtitles should be white with a strong (not too thin) black outline around the letters for maximum readability against all film elements. Font should be between point sizes 40 and 56.
• All subtitles should be center justified and placed at the bottom of the screen, within the Title Safe Zone, except when other text on screen overlaps. In this case, ensure subtitles are positioned to avoid overlap with onscreen text or graphics.
• Each line should be no longer than 40 characters (including spaces). If longer, break the subtitle into two lines. Do not use more than two lines per subtitle.
• Keep the subtitle reading speed to a maximum of 20 characters per second. Non-essential information can be removed but try to preserve as much meaning as possible.
• No subtitle should be on screen for less than 2 seconds.
   

In addition to burned-in subtitles in your film master, we also request an SDH caption .srt file. This .srt file should adhere to the same subtitle timing standards as above, and include all audio information such as sound effect, music, and speaker identification. This is not currently a required piece, but we encourage you to include accessibility pieces such as this as a standard part of your post-production.

Our preference is to receive a full SDH caption file, in .srt format. SDH captions are for d/Deaf and hard of hearing, and include all audio information, such as sound effects, music, and speaker identification, on top of dialogue.
 

• Thoroughly check your .srt file for quality and readability.
• Each line should be no longer than 40 characters (including spaces). If longer, break the subtitle into two lines. Do not use more than two lines per subtitle.
• Keep the subtitle reading speed to a maximum of 20 characters per second. Non-essential information can be removed but try to preserve as much meaning as possible.
• No subtitle should be on screen for less than 2 seconds.
   

If a full SDH caption file is not available, please send through any subtitle file (.srt) or transcript you have, following the guidelines above.