14^th International Short Films & OTT Cinema Award Fest 2025

Voting Terms and Condition for The Great Pan-India Independent Cinema Campaign

1. The Short Film Mantra International Film Festival Foundation has initiated the Over The Top (OTT) Awards (“OTT Cinema Awards”) for the Year 2024-2025. It is a non-profit initiative organized by SFMIFFF to recognize the best Indian content and creators in the dynamic digital Over The Top (“OTT”) space of Indian Cinema. By voting in the Hindi/Gujarati, Marathi and South film industries (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and Punjabi language OTT Cinema Awards), you (“Voter”) agree to be bound by and abide by the terms and conditions of this Festival Event (“Terms”/ “Voting Rules”) governing the same, which are as follows:
   


2. Voting is available online at www.ottcinemaawrd.com, with the categories detailed therein. Each Voter shall be eligible to cast only one vote per category. Voters shall confine their choice of nominees across categories to Indian Hindi/Gujarati/South films like Kannada, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam ,Bengali and Punjabi films released between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, per the alphabetical list of eligible films and platforms provided. Voters shall fill in the name of the films and the platform which is provided in the drop-down menu in the link. The final nomination of films to be categorized shall be displayed on the website : www.ottcinemaawrd.com
   


3. The voting will open at 12:00 p.m. on 1^st July, 2025, and will close at 12:00 p.m. on 10^th July, 2025. By clicking the link, voters will be directed to the website to cast their votes: www.ottcinemaaward.com/ottcinemaaward2025. Any votes registered outside the announced voting times will not be counted. The voting times may be subject to change.
   


4. The voter must be above the age of 18 (eighteen) years and should be a citizen and resident of India. The voter hereby represents and warrants that they are not under any disability, restriction, or any kind of prohibition that would prevent them from performing or adhering to any of the terms herein and has not entered into and shall not enter into any agreement that may violate these terms. The voter shall submit their proof of age if requested by SFMIFFF, as may be required to confirm the voter's eligibility.
   


5. The SFMIFFF reserves the right to make any changes to the entries at its discretion at any time, without notification or reason. An entry may also be removed at any time upon request (supported by a valid reason) from the OTT platform or concerned authority. However, the decision to consider such requests rests with SFMIFF, and SFMIFFF reserves the right to keep such reasons confidential.
   


6. The SFMIFFF reserves the right to disqualify votes or suspend voting if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent voting has occurred or if it considers that there has been any attempt to rig or manipulate the voting. Furthermore, such fraudulent or manipulative acts may lead to the disqualification of the entry itself. SFMIFFF has the right to substitute an alternative voting method at its absolute discretion. If a voter is found to be in non-conformance with the voting rules, SFMIFF will be entitled, at its sole discretion, to disqualify the vote(s). Any such decision shall be final and binding on the voter(s) and shall not be disputed or challenged. SFMIFF shall not be liable to provide an explanation for the disqualification of an entry or vote on any grounds whatsoever.
   


7. The SFMIFFF will not permit or entertain any requests or claims to check, audit, or challenge the current voting rules, the counting of votes, or the voting mechanism. SFMIFF’s decision concerning all matters affecting the votes is final and binding on all parties. SFMIFF shall not be liable to release any data or vote counts about any entry or category of the OTT Awards for any reason whatsoever.
   


8. The SFMIFFF has the right, at its sole discretion, to use or not use information, votes, or other data provided by the voters, audience, or participants in any manner it deems fit. The voters, audience, and participants expressly consent to such use or non-use of their information, votes, or other data, as the case may be, and as decided by SFMIFFF.
   
   Vote weightage to the voters’ choice and the judgment of a specially appointed panel of jury (“Jury”) shall be determined by SFMIFF at its discretion.
   
   The shortlisting of entries by the Jury / SFMIFFF, declaration of votes, and/or any decisions made by SFMIFF and/or the Jury regarding the OTT Awards, including the selection and declaration of the winner, shall be final and binding on all voters. In no event shall the voters dispute the decisions made by the Jury, SFMIFFF, and/or its employees in connection with the same. SFMIFFF shall not be required or bound to release the names of the Jury members or the shortlisting and selection criteria for selecting the winners.
   
   The SFMIFFF reserves all rights to make amendments to the existing voting rules or to withdraw, change, alter, or amend the voting mechanism, process of selection of entries, winners, voting rules, period, and/or OTT Awards without giving any prior notice. Any changes shall be posted on this website and shall constitute sufficient notice. It shall be the sole responsibility of the voters to review the voting rules and terms from time to time. SFMIFFF reserves the right to cancel and/or reschedule the OTT Awards and/or the subsequent selection rounds, and/or extend or alter the period without assigning any reasons and/or without giving any prior intimation to the voters. Such decisions shall be final and binding on the voters and shall not be disputed or challenged in any manner whatsoever by the voters.


9. Voters shall not, under any circumstances, make any claims against SFMIFF, the Jury, and/or any person appearing at the OTT Cinema Awards ceremony, their employees, festival organizers, and affiliates arising out of or relating to any costs, injuries, accidents, deaths, losses, or damages of any kind, including, without limitation, those due to any technical faults or directly or indirectly related to their voting.
   
   The SFMIFF is in no manner whatsoever responsible and shall not be held liable in any manner for any injury, damage, harm, loss, death, or mental or emotional trauma suffered by the voters in any manner or for any reason in connection with the OTT Cinema Awards or any aspect related to the voting mechanism.


10. The Voter, in consideration of being allowed to vote, agrees to hold harmless and indemnify the Jury, any celebrities appearing on the OTT Awards, SFMIFFF, its affiliates, group companies, employees, officers, directors, or any other person from and against any claims, injuries, damages, harms, losses, deaths, or mental or emotional trauma suffered by the Voter in any manner whatsoever in connection with the votes, voting mechanism, use or non-use of any information provided by the Voter, and/or the OTT Cinema Awards, and/or the Winner selected, and/or any personal information submitted by the Voter. The Voter hereby waives all rights to file, in person, through any family member, and/or third party, any applications or criminal and/or civil proceedings in any courts or forums in India to claim any damages or reliefs.
    


11. The SFMIFFF shall not be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for any network problem, breakdown of machinery, unclear network, disruption in the network, technical disruption, connection failure, electricity failure, any other reason whatsoever and/or the cost of the Internet session charged by the telecom/mobile operator, etc. Any dispute in connection to the above shall be settled between the Voters and the telecom/mobile operator directly, without involving SFMIFF. In addition, SFMIFFF shall not be liable and /or responsible in any manner whatsoever in the event of any malfunction / fault / failure in the voting mechanism including without limitation voting system/failure in the mechanism of recording votes due to any reason whatsoever including technical disruption/default in internet lines /connection and /or due to technical /technological restrictions and /or due to reasons /events/incidents beyond the commercially reasonable control of SFMIFFF.
    


12. The Voter agrees not to attempt to gain unauthorized access to servers or networks connected to SFMIFFF’s services by any means, including but not limited to circumventing or modifying, attempting to circumvent or modify, or encouraging or assisting any other persons to circumvent or modify any security, technology, device, or software that underlies or is part of SFMIFF’s services.
    


13. The SFMIFFF reserves the right to suspend any Entry and/or the Jury and/or any celebrities, host, or performer(s) if it has reasonable grounds to conclude that the individual has been alleged in any public domain and/or social media websites for any misconduct, sexual harassment, physical abuse, coercion in any form, criminal cases, or any other reasons which may amount to general misconduct.
    


14. Other third-party websites may provide information related to the voting mechanism for the OTT Cinema Awards, timelines, or any other relevant information. However, the content on such websites is not subject to the control of SFMIFFF. Their owners may be independent of SFMIFF, and SFMIFF does not endorse or accept any responsibility for their content and the casting of votes (if any) by the voter based on such information.
    


15. While all attempts will be made to protect the votes and corresponding data received from the voters from loss and/or corruption, the voter agrees and acknowledges that all systems are prone to failure and hacking attempts. In the event of any data loss, SFMIFF shall make reasonable endeavours to rectify the same and may disqualify all the votes received, conduct a re-contest, or continue with whatever data is available in the manner it deems fit. SFMIFF shall not be responsible for any damage resulting from the loss of data or actions taken by SFMIFFF on account of the same. SFMIFFF will not be responsible for compensating for any loss or dissatisfaction suffered by the voter on account of such loss.
    


16. It shall be the sole responsibility of the voter to familiarize themselves with the Terms, including amendments thereof from time to time. SFMIFFF reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel and/or postpone the OTT Cinema Awards without any prior intimation to the voter, make amendments to the existing Terms and/or OTT Awards, the categories, and/or the voting period, and/or withdraw, change, alter, or amend the Terms without any notification to the voter. SFMIFF may extend or curtail the voting period and/or suspend or abandon the same at any time without any notifications to the voters. The voters shall have no objection to the same whatsoever, nor shall the voters make any claims or disputes in respect of the same. You further understand and acknowledge that you shall be solely responsible for visiting the website from time to time to be informed of any updates, revisions, curtailments, or extensions in the Terms, and/or any abandonment, termination, or postponement of the OTT Cinema Awards, and abide by the same without any recourse to SFMIFF, its authorized representatives, and each of their employees, for any reason whatsoever.
    


17. The voter must agree and acknowledge that nothing contained in these Terms will be deemed to constitute a grant of license/assignment and/or transfer of any rights in and to the voting mechanism, OTT Cinema Awards, or any such event whatsoever from SFMIFF in the voter’s favour. The voter must agree and irrevocably acknowledge that SFMIFF shall have the sole and exclusive right, including but not limited to intellectual property rights (copyrights and trademarks) and other proprietary rights, in and to the OTT Cinema Awards, the format of the OTT Awards, the voting mechanism, and all its components whatsoever.
    


18. The voter undertakes that they shall not violate the rights of any third party, including but not limited to privacy rights, copyrights, trademarks, or any other intellectual property rights. They shall not upload, store, collect, transmit, or cause the upload, storage, collection, or transmission of any information through the website that violates any applicable laws, including, inter alia, information belonging to another person; or that is harmful, harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, invasive of others' privacy, paedophilic, libellous, hateful, racially or ethnically objectionable, disparaging, harmful to minors in any way, or that violates any law currently in force.
    


19. The voter agrees that they shall not indulge in any activities like spamming or, either directly or indirectly, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, make any enhancements, modifications, customizations, changes, additions, translations, or deceive or mislead about the origin of such messages that are grossly offensive or menacing in nature, or allow any kind of unfair practices such as multiple votes that affect the transparency of voting. SFMIFF reserves the right to take appropriate action, including criminal action, in such conditions during the festival.
    


20. By the act of voting, it shall be construed that the voter has waived his/her right to raise any dispute about the OTT Cinema Awards and/or the voting mechanism in any manner whatsoever. Further, by the act of voting, the voter has granted to SFMIFFF the irrevocable right to use the voter’s vote for the purposes of the OTT Cinema Awards per these Terms. Each voter hereby acknowledges and agrees that the relationship between the voter and SFMIFF and its/their affiliated companies is not a confidential, fiduciary, or other special relationship.
    


21. The voter acknowledges that if any portion/clause of these Voting Rules is deemed invalid, becomes unenforceable, or is prohibited by law, such portions shall be considered divisible and shall not be part of the consideration, and the remainder of these Voting Rules shall be valid and binding and of like effect as though such provision was not included herein.
    


22. The SFMIFF shall not be liable to any voter in the event SFMIFFF is unable to proceed with the OTT Voting Mechanism or adhere to any of the contents of the Terms stated herein for any reason whatsoever, including owing to acts of God, wars, blockades, hostilities, civil disturbances, riots, strikes, lockouts, epidemics, pandemics, or large-scale sanitary crises, fire, storm and flood, judgments or orders of any court of law, acts of terrorism, embargo, any force majeure events, and government orders or restrictions, transmission failure or damage reasonably beyond its control, or other causes reasonably beyond its control.
    


23. The OTT Cinema Awards, voting mechanism, and the Terms shall be governed and construed by the laws of India, and the competent courts in Surat shall have exclusive jurisdiction. By the act of voting, the voter(s) have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to abide by all the rules and regulations of voting as set out herein and agree to be unconditionally bound by the Terms and Conditions.