Smartphone Short-film Competition: 40k USD worth of prizes up for grabs!

Gimbal pioneer announces the SM5 Challenge


Shenzhen, China, December 15 2021 - ZHIYUN, the world’s leading professional gimbal brand for filmmakers with smartphones to studio cameras, is excited to announce its new smartphone short-film competition that offers USD$40,000 pot of prizes including filmmaking gear and cash rewards.

The top prize, the filmmakers’ choice award, will receive USD$10,000 plus a selection of filmmaking products including ZHIYUN gimbals. Additional prizes of USD$3,000 plus filmmaking products will be awarded to winners in five additional categories. The judging panel includes: ZHIYUN, Insta360, Artlist, Artgrid, Motion Array, NANLITE, SmallRig and ESRgear.

Open to filmmakers all over the world, the competition is open now until 20th January 2022 – so grab a camera and get shooting! The winners will be announced on 27th January 2022.

Enter the Short Film “SM5” Challenge

Entrants must create a video that falls into one of the following categories:

  • Narrative: Tell a fictional or fictionalized story about an event. Move us to tears, leave us in anguish, keep us in suspense or enlighten us with a story from the heart.
  • Mini-Documentary: Inform, educate us and provoke us to think with a non-fictional mini-film dedicated to education, instruction or documenting a historical event.
  • Adventure: Lead us through the forest, go down into the water, or climb the mountain – the journey is what excites us.
  • Music & Dance: Show us how you perfectly combine music and dance with novel filmmaking techniques.
  • How-to: Get creative with the content and format: don’t hesitate to teach us how to do... just about anything!


Entry steps and requirements

  1. The Films must be captured and created between 90-240 seconds (1½ minutes to 4 minutes) long at 1080p or greater resolution. Additional drone and action-cam clips can also be used, but a minimum of 80% must be shot in a smartphone.
  2. Make an additional behind-the-scenes film to show us how you made your amazing short film, up to 120 seconds (2 minutes).
  3. Download our starter kit provided by Artlist, or open a free trial account on Artlist to use their music to edit your film. The film must include some music from Artlist. It must list the song credit, either in the text of the post, description box of YouTube, in the film, or in the email.
  4. Upload the entry and the behind the scenes films separately on YouTube or Instagram, add the category and the hashtag #zhiyunmobilefilmchallenge, then set it to public. For example: ‘Name of the film’ | Narrative #zhiyunmobilefilmchallenge
  5. Submit the film with the link to your YouTube or Instagram post, and the original file download link to [email protected] when you have finished.
  6. The film must be uploaded and submitted before 20th January 2022.
  7. Entrants may only submit one film per category.


Celebrating the launch of the SMOOTH 5 gimbal

ZHIYUN is committed to enriching filmmakers and pushing the boundaries of filmmaking through its products and community initiatives. Designed to celebrate the launch of its latest SMOOTH 5 gimbal for smartphones, this competition will spark the imaginations of creatives around the world. With its 3-axis design, smooth movement, a full-control panel, and the ZY Cami companion app, the SMOOTH 5 gimbal takes cinematic filming with your smartphone to the next level possible.

Learn More about the ZHIYUN SMOOTH 5

About ZHIYUN

ZHIYUN Tech is a pioneer and a world leader in gimbals and stabilizers for both professional filmmakers and personal video creators. ZHIYUN believes in innovation as the primary productive force, keeps making breakthroughs, and pushes forward technological and industrial development. Its product line ranges from professional to consumer gimbals. ZHIYUN is dedicated to arduous research and innovation for delivering a better experience for global filmmakers and video content creators. Learn more about ZHIYUN Tech at www.ZHIYUN-tech.com or check us out on Facebook: @ZHIYUNGlobal or follow us on Instagram: @ZHIYUN_Tech