Video: 48 Hour Young Lions YouTube Contest and others you can join · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Young Lions YouTube Contest
First things first: tonight could be your chance to make it big. All it takes is 48 hours to make, upload and get as many votes on your video, and you could go to the Cannes Film Festival. If you can't make it on time, don't worry: following is a list of other contests open for participants all around the world.
If you make online videos, a good way to get inspiration and practice is to participate in video contests. By submitting entries to contests you can get experience in how to make videos that please audiences on topics you care about and in the process get your name out there. By winning, you may have the opportunity to travel or win cash prizes as well as recognition as a budding video journalist.  However, one of the challenges, besides the actual making of the video, for anyone outside the US is finding contests open to international  participants.  Read on to find out about a few contests you may want to join.
You Tube is also expanding their contests to include citizens of many different countries outside of the ones where they have a localized presence. Such is the example of the Young Lions International 48 hour contest shown. This contest is slightly different: contestants will only have 48 hours to fulfill the challenge of producing an ad for a selected charity that will be disclosed tonight at midnight.
The prize will be an all expense paid trip to the Cannes Festival in France and the opportunity to be a part of the Team YouTube for the Young Lions’ competition.
Full rules can be found on the YouTube website and on the Young Lion's Information page.
HOW IT WORKS
If working under looming deadlines is not your thing, here are a few other contests. On Online Video Contests, you can search by latest additions, date due, most liked or those that offer cash prizes. However, you will have to click on each contest to discover if it is available for people outside the US.  Some of the contests open for people outside the US are:
The Sparky Awards, with a prize of $1000 USD, due on December 26, 2009:
The SPARKY Awards challenges you to illustrate in a short video presentation what you see as the value of sharing information. Use your imagination to suggest what good comes from bringing down barriers to the free exchange of information.
The conditions can be found by following this link. The video should be no more than 2 minutes in length, has to have been produced during January 1st and December 6th 2009, should be narrated or subtitled in English and has to be posted online under a Creative Commons license.
The Most Promising New Media Creative Video Contest for Asia Pacific region with a $5000 USD prize for the winner, who will also be flown to a gala event in Singapur. The Due date is August 3rd, 2009, conditions can be found here:
Capture the essence, the soul, the energy, the psyche, the quintessence of “Fame“. You've got 30 seconds to convince the “creme de la creme” of the advertising industry that you should be a part of History, winning the “Most Promising New Media Creative In Asia Pacific” award! Your chance to embrace fame!
Sometimes, websites are interested in promoting their brand and getting more users: such is the case of the $1000 USD prize for the MeHype “Food and Beverage” Video Contest (conditions here).
To encourage you to “show us what you got”, MeHype will award $1000 to the Producer of the most watched (full views only) Food      & Beverage-themed video that highlights the level of capability and professionalism that our members posses to attract future Corporate Sponsors to MeHype.com, for more projects to work on…