The Tribeca Film Festival is hoping to engage younger demographics and bring its storytelling process into the modern age with a contest inviting submissions of comedic content derived from Snapchat. 

Snapchat users will now be able to enter their videos for a chance to visit the film festival and have their work featured at the big event. The Tribeca Film Festival will feature ten 200-second funny stories from the contest picked by a panel of judges, in a campaign to expand its reach to younger demographics. 

?The Tribeca Film Festival is about storytelling,? said Genna Terranova, festival director at Tribeca Film Festival. ?Over the past 14 years, we have experimented with new ways of telling stories, from the first video ever shot on a cell phone to our #6SecsFilms contest dedicated to celebrating great storytelling on Vine. 

?Snapchat is a platform where people inherently tell their stories to an audience however big or small,? she said. ?It is a place to grow new voices.?

Users record and post their stories to Snapchat, but then must save the video to their camera roll or smartphone. Entries will be submitted through the film festival?s mobile and desktop submission form on its Web site. 

The videos must be funny, original and adhere to the PG guidelines, meaning no violence, profanity or disrespect. Users are encouraged to create the Snapchat films as if they were a short film, with a title sequence in the beginning of the film, which cannot exceed 20 seconds. 

The contest discourages recording horizontally, as vertical video is recognized as the Snapchat format. Tribeca Film Festival is hoping to embody the platform and the millennial consumer with the contest. 

Winning contests will be given a two-day trip to New York City and be able to attend the festival, as well as a special event for the Snapchat contest. The chosen stories will be featured in the Tribeca Snapchat Shorts segment at the film festival, as well as on a Discover channel on the app itself for all users to see. 

The winners will also receive a gift bag including a variety of giveaways such as posters, T-shirts and stuffed ghosts. Submissions will be accepted from February 27 to March 8, prior the festival occurring on April 13 and 14.

Retailer Lane Bryant also leveraged Snapchat by sponsoring Sports Illustrated?s Live Story to take advantage of the viral sensation following the announcement that a plus-size model had been chosen for the highly anticipated swimsuit edition (see more). 

Starbucks brought consumers out of their post-Valentine?s Day slumps by sharing a love-themed music playlist with Snapchat followers, highlighting how the brand keeps its Spotify partnership at the center of its mobile marketing efforts (see more).  

?Our collaboration with Snapchat offers the next generation of mobile storytellers the opportunity to share their creativity with the world,? Ms. Terranova said. ?We want people to believe in their own creativity and encourage ideas that are aspirational.?