Motion trumps detail - every time. In fact, super detail is only for stills, never motion.

Good point.  I do avoid "Best Antialias" for animated shots, and typically use "Fast AA" @ the standard 2 pixels.  But for those stills ... e.g. with a sailing ship's rigging, I use Best AA AND 0.5 pixel to get the rigging lines to not have gaps.  Throw in some Global Illumination and the 720x480 render time can blow the whole two day contest.  Happily, still images created before the contest starts are allowed, a big loophole ... uh, advantage for animations.