The Ivy Film Festival has been around for seven years, but this year is the first where they’re accepting machinima submissions. Harrison Heller, long time supporter of Ivy, has worked hard to make this happen, and was able to get it done via a partner effort with Machinima.com. Entrants must be in high school, college, or graduate school. I see nothing to indicate that international participation is not encouraged. From their site:

The new Ivy Film Festival Machinima Competition, sponsored in partnership with Machinima.com, provides student machinima filmmakers the opportunity to compete against their peers for the Audience Choice Award, chosen by popular vote, and the Jury Prize, chosen by the votes of a panel of Machinima and New Media experts. The judging panel includes Hugh Hancock (machinima pioneer), Paul Marino (Director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences), Jason Choi (Mackie Award Winner 2007), Carl Goodman (Deputy Director of the Museum of the Moving Image), and Mark Tribe (Professor of Modern Culture & Media at Brown University). The two winning films will be screened at the Ivy Film Festival. This particular competition is accepting submissions from high school, college, and graduate students. International submissions are encouraged. Submission deadline is March 16, 2008.

More info available here: http://www.machinima.com/ivyfilmfestival