Worcester Film Festival Awards

Films are submitted to us by filmmakers through FilmFreeway. These are then passed to our Selection Committee who review them and choose whether or not they are taken through for screening. The festival is constantly on the lookout for fresh storytelling and unique ways of portraying topical themes. This is factored into the criteria of the committee to ensure what is curated every year at the festival is an eclectic mix of genres, subjects and styles.

Once the films have been chosen, the filmmakers are notified that they are Officially Selected at the festival. They receive a laurel to display on any of their marketing acknowledging their film is a part of the upcoming programme. The films are then put into a schedule with short films being blocked together in 1 hour segments. Each short block is designed to give the audience a real rollercoaster. Whilst the festival programmes the films, they are also assigned to a panel of jury members. They go through every selected film and score it on a list of criteria. There is a broad range for them to consider from pacing and originality to craft categories like sound design and costume etc. Once the festival receives their data, it shortlists certain films to be notified of nomination in particular fields.

The nominees then have clips of their work added to a presentation that will be shown at the Awards Ceremony. The festival uses the data from the jury members to see which films have the highest score in each category and go through the jury’s comments for special commendations. This is how the winners of each category are chosen. In some cases, the festival task Guest Jury members to lend their expertise on a specific category, adding their thoughts to that of the other Jury members. They usually either present the award on the night or provide a video revealing the winner if attendance is not possible.