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73 EW ASCRS•ASOA 2015 the excitement. "If there are more people there, it makes it more of an event," he said. EW Contact information Hoffman: rshoffman@finemd.com T he ASCRS Film Festival will be back at this year's annual meeting on Mon- day, April 20, with submis- sions expected from phy- sicians around the world. Richard Hoffman, MD, Eugene, Ore., serves as the chairman of the Film Festival, and he discussed the process and what to expect at this year's event. Dr. Hoffman said this year's event will be similar to Film Festivals in the past. There will, however, be new judges. Each year, there is an international guest judge, and this year's will be Chee Soon Phaik, MD, Singapore. The chief judge will be Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, Chicago. Returning judges include Nicole Fram, MD, Los Angeles; David Hardten, MD, Minneapolis; Spencer Thornton, MD, Nashville, Tenn.; and Mitchell Weikert, MD, Houston. Two new judges will join the group: Elizabeth Hofmeister, MD, San Diego, and Shachar Tauber, MD, Springfield, Mo. How judging takes place Once films are submitted, they are sent out to judges, who are paired in teams of 2 to review the films and rate them. "They're rated based on several different criteria," Dr. Hoffman said. The first category is eligibility. Films must be less than 8 minutes, and producers have to state any relevant financial interests (or indicate no financial interests) at the beginning of the film. The film also must be in English or have subtitles. Films are graded on a scale of 0 to 5 on applicability, educational value, originality, scientific content, clarity, cinematic quality, and artis- tic effects. Judges are also allowed to give a discretionary merit point. "We then meet at the [ASCRS• ASOA Symposium & Congress] on Thursday and Friday and go through the films to award a winner and a runner up for each of the catego- ries," Dr. Hoffman said. The 3 best films are chosen and a grand prize- winner is selected out of those. This is quite challenging, he said, because there is usually a heated debate over which film should receive the grand prize. Awards ceremony The awards will take place on Mon- day at the ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress. Last year, door prizes were handed out, Dr. Hoffman said, which is likely to continue this year. Prizes included video editing soft- ware and an iPad mini. The ceremony is typically around an hour long, he said, with each judge presenting the runner up and winner in the different catego- ries. Clips from the winning videos are shown, as well as longer portions of the top 3 videos. "It's neat to see the people who win the awards because they put a lot of work into it," Dr. Hoffman said. It's tough to win because of the amount of competition in each category so winners are often very excited. Dr. Hoffman said there were roughly 180 submissions last year, and he expects a similar number for this year's Film Festival. Submissions last year came from 30 different countries. Dr. Hoffman encour- ages physicians from the U.S. to submit films because there were not as many U.S. submissions as international submissions last year. Young producers and first tim- ers are also encouraged to submit videos. Dr. Hoffman added that some interesting topics for films might in- clude unique cases, new techniques, and new technologies. However, it is not only the subject matter but also the quality of the film that is important to the success of the film. Last year was Dr. Hoffman's first year as the Film Festival chairman, and he said that it went well, even though he was a bit nervous on stage. Fortunately, ASCRS has a wonderful group of technicians who run the Film Festival, working on the music and film clips, he said. "[The] job as the chairman is to allow all the judges to be heard," he said. The Film Festival awards will take place on Monday, April 20 from 5:00–6:30 p.m. A reception will precede the awards from 4:30–5:00 p.m. Dr. Hoffman encourages ev- eryone to attend because it adds to by Ellen Stodola EyeWorld Staff Writer ASCRS Film Festival returns with award-winning films 2014 Film Festival winners and judges Source: ASCRS

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