The Stranger

The Stranger is proud to announce HUMP! 5, the Pacific Northwest’s biggest, best, and only amateur (and locally produced) porn festival. HUMP! 5 goes down October 9–10 at On the Boards. The deadline for HUMP! 5 submissions is September 21. Tickets for HUMP! 5 go on sale September 15.

BIG NEWS: The maximum length for HUMP! submissions is five minutes. Now we don’t want to be total assholes about this, so… if you feel your film is brilliant at 6:15 and seriously harmed at 5:00, you are welcome to submit two versions of your film, i.e., a five-minute cut and a longer cut. But you must submit both cuts. If the HUMP! jury agrees that the longer version of your film is superior, it may make an exception for your film.

CASH PRIZES: HUMP! isn’t just about love and sex and laughs. HUMP! is also about cash prizes. There are two award categories in HUMP!—Humor and Hot—and a $2,000 first-place prize is awarded in both categories. (The winners are determined by audience vote.) We will also award a $500 second-place prize and a $250 third-place prize in both categories.

EXTRA CREDIT! We ask HUMP! filmmakers to use certain props and to shoot at certain locations so that audiences will know when they’re watching something made just for HUMP! This year’s extra-credit props: a pink slip (layoff or undergarment), Mormon undergarments, motorcycle boots, e-stim unit, Aplets & Cotlets. This year’s extra-credit locations: the SLUT, the P-I globe, the Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach, the giant mitt outside Safeco Field. Filmmakers are not required to use extra-credit props or locations, and not using them doesn’t count against you with the HUMP! jury.

STUFF THE HUMP! JURY WOULD LIKE TO SEE: Fem-domme action, CFNM, pegging. Including these themes won’t get your film into HUMP! automatically, but it will give you a serious leg up. There have been lots of films featuring tied up and/or submissive women over the last couple of years—not that there’s anything wrong with that—but turnabout is fair play, and the HUMP! jury is interested in seeing some women on top this year.

NEW TO HUMP!? HUMP! is safe, fun, and anonymous. People make films and give them to us; we make only two screening copies and return the originals. Our only copies are destroyed live onstage after the final screening. We’ve hosted DOZENS and DOZENS of HUMP! screenings over the last four years, with ZERO leaks! HUMP! lets you be a porn star for a weekend—not for life! And HUMP! films do not have to be hardcore. Animation, instructional videos, mechanical dogs, and sexy, nonexplicit shorts have all been featured in HUMP!

GET GOING! Last year we heard from several people who didn’t start shooting their films until a few days before the submission deadline, and wanted to know if they could submit their late entries. We weren’t able to include their films in the festival. Don’t procrastinate! There’s no reason you can’t start making your films now. It’s going to be a lovely weekend for making porn!