The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Fourth Annual “Who Wrote Shakespeare?” Video Contest opened on March 20, 2020, and is still accepting submissions through July 20, 2020. Don’t miss out! First prize is $1,000! Second prize: $500. Third prize: $250. Read all about it here. You can see videos of past winners and finalists here.
The 2020 Video Contest has an expanded geographic scope. While originally restricted to U.S. residents, it’s now open to all residents of Canada (including Québec), the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, and Denmark, as well as the United States. The rules are posted in English, French, and German. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. There is no fee to enter and no purchase is necessary.
The mission of the “Who Wrote Shakespeare?” Video Contest is to explore evidence of reasonable doubts and promote discussion about the Shakespeare authorship question. Did Shakspere of Stratford really write the plays and poems published under the name “William Shakespeare”? Or was that a pseudonym used by a frontman to conceal the true identity of the author? Doubts and questions have been raised for more than 425 years, starting during Shakespeare’s own time. The issue has intrigued such brilliant thinkers and artists as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Helen Keller, Malcolm X, Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Rice, and U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, and Sandra Day O’Connor, just to name a few.
Videos by up to 16 finalists will be available for public voting, which in past contests has brought thousands of people to the SOF website. You can share this link with your friends by email and social media: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/sof-video-contest
Videos must be no more than 3 minutes long and predominantly in English. They should address the authorship question in an “entertaining, engaging, and witty” manner, says SOF Trustee Julie Sandys Bianchi, who chairs the Video Contest Committee. She notes that the contest “always arouses special interest. We get enthusiastic responses from all over the world.” Bianchi notes that SOF members “predominantly favor Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, as the true author. But we’re always open to discussion of other candidates in order to get to the truth.”
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: July 20, 2020. Finalists will be announced on August 10, 2020, and their videos will be available for public viewing and voting from August 10, 2020, to September 20, 2020. The winners will be announced and made public on the SOF website during the SOF annual conference, which is expected to be held online this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We still expect to announce the winners on October 4, 2020, as originally planned.
For complete contest rules, and to enter, click on the link below.
“Who Wrote Shakespeare?” Contest Rules
PLEASE NOTE: This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Instagram. By entering this contest, contestants agree to release Facebook and Instagram from any and all liability concerning this contest.
