The festival is open to Nigerians aged 16–35 living in any of the 36 states and the FCT. You must submit under your own name and provide a working phone number and email address.

Staff of the festival (admins and state coordinators) cannot submit films.

Films must be between 3 and 5 minutes long (180–300 seconds), documenting a real maternal or newborn health story from your community.

Any camera is welcome, including phones. Films can be in any Nigerian language; if the primary language isn't English, please include English subtitles.

Each entry needs:

• Title, short synopsis, state and LGA of the story
• A public film link (YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive with view access)
• An optional poster image (JPG/PNG, under 5MB)
• A contact phone number we can reach you on

Selection happens in three stages:

• State selections — state coordinators shortlist entries from their state.
• Regional selections — regional judges select finalists across the six zones.
• National finalists — the national jury picks the films screened at the closing gala.

Exact dates for each stage are announced on the Draws page.

• Truthfulness and dignity of the story
• Clarity of the health issue and its community context
• Craft: sound, image, structure — within phone-first realities
• Potential to inform policy or community response

You keep the copyright of your film. By entering, you grant the festival a non-exclusive licence to screen, publish, and share your film for non-commercial festival and advocacy use.

You confirm you have permission from anyone identifiable in your film, and that you handled their story with care and consent.

Entries may be disqualified if they contain fabricated events, breach a subject's consent, incite harm, or plagiarise other work. The festival's decision on disqualification is final.