The Awards

Every award winner will receive a free PDF of their Award Certificate.

There are two levels of awards:

1. Individual Achievement Awards are PDF Certificates which are included with the filmmaker's scoresheet and judges comments on the scoring notification day. These are non-competitive and are based on the scores of three judges who screen and score each film, as well as cast and crew individual achievements. Films must receive a minimum averaged score of 70 to receive an award and individuals must receive a minimum averaged score of 7. You will not receive laurels with these awards and are not authorized to use our laurels unless we have sent them to you.

2. Individual Achievement Awards are given to the cast and crew of every film who score an average of 7 or higher on the score sheet. The Individual Achievement Awards are an acknowledgment of each person's contribution to their film. These award certificates are independent of the festival awards, which are competitive. Nominees for the Best of Show are the top five highest scores over 8 within each category and you will receive a separate notification if any of your cast or crew have been nominated.

3. Festival Awards are competitive and are based on the judges scores. The top 3 award-winning films of each genre are then nominated as the best of that genre. This means your film must score at least 70 out of 100 points to be nominated. For example, in the Drama genre, the highest scoring film wins Best Drama of that season, the second highest wins Best Drama Award of Excellence, and the third the Best Drama Award of Merit. Every film screened at the festival will receive and is authorized to use our laurels as provided, without modification.

4. Laurels will ONLY be granted to those films which are actually screen at each festival. Even then, you must use the laurels as supplied without making your own modifications. You may only use laurels if we have supplied them to you, however, you may post your Individual Achievement Awards certificates freely.

All festival awards are given out at the Awards Presentation at the end of the screenings. This is a black-tie optional event with a host who will show shorts clips from each nominee, then open the envelope and announce the winners. Each winner present can come to the podium to receive their award and the entire event is videoed and available on our website the following week.

We also give Best Of Show trophies for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Cinematographer, Editor, Sound Design, Music, Production Design, Visual FX, Makeup FX and Costume Design.

COVID 19 UPDATE
In 2020, we moved to an online model using Zoom for our Awards Presentation. This will continue until further notice. Beginning with the Winter 2021 Season, we can no longer afford to give out free trophies and plaques to award winners. All award winners will be sent certificates free of charge, but trophies and plaques must be purchased from our store. We will provide a discount code to all filmmakers who participate in the live Awards Presentation.

U.S. NON-ATTENDING FILMMAKER AWARDS
If you cannot attend or send someone to accept your films' award during the festival, you may have your award sent to you after the festival by paying a fee. Shipping costs are as follows and are per award.: Certificate - $10, Plaque - $20, Trophy - $30.

FOREIGN NON-ATTENDING FILMMAKER AWARDS
If you cannot attend or send someone to accept your films' award during the festival, you may have your award sent to you after the festival by paying a fee. Foreign shipping fees vary, depending on destination, and are determined on a case-by-case basis.

ORDERING AWARDS
Whether you film is screened or not, you may order a copy of your film and individual awards as a Certificate, Plaque or Trophy at our store. Anyone who has ever received an award from our festival is also eligible to order our Award Winner pins.

Check out our Awards Store by clicking on the certificate below.

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