About the Festival
New This Year
Thanks to a special partnership with the Loreen Arbus Foundation:
The Loreen Arbus Focus on Disability Scholarship
A $10,000 scholarship created to recognize student filmmakers who:
• shed light on people with disabilities, the nation's largest minority group
• help emerging artists within this community gain recognition
• increase visibility for artists with disabilities
This award will be given to a writer, producer or director who is disabled, to a producer whose piece focuses on people disabilities, or to a piece that features a person with a disability as one of the main characters.
Entries are accepted in twelve categories:
• Animation (all forms)
• Children’s
• Comedy
• Commercial
• Documentary
• Drama
• Interactive Media
• Magazine
• Music (best composition)
• Music (best use of music)
• Newscast
• Series - Narrative (Comedy/Drama)
A Directing Award of $1,000 is presented for best direction of a Comedy, Drama or Documentary. In addition, the Kodak Worldwide Student Program gives 1st place winners in selected categories film stock worth $2,000 and software packages to the first place winners in the rest. Final Draft provides their scriptwriting software to all first place winners and subscriptions to Script magazine to all winners. The Seymour Bricker Family College Award of $4,000 goes to a 1st or 2nd place winner in any category whose work best represents a humanitarian concern.
All entries are judged online in preliminary panels composed of Television Academy members. Finalists in each category are judged by Academy Blue Ribbon Panels at the Television Academy Headquarters. Judging is open to all 15,000 + members of the Television Academy.
One aim of the competition is to give these outstanding students’ works exposure to the television and film industry and to other students and faculty nationwide. First and second place winners are matched up with Television industry mentors. Excerpts from the winners are screened at the ceremonies and at later Academy Foundation events. They are also screened at the Academy Foundation’s College Television Awards Screening the day after the Awards Gala. Past festival hosts include Charles Champlin, Warren Littlefield, Fred Silverman, Sam Haskell, Josh Schwartz, Martin Bruestle and George Pennachio. The high quality of entries has stimulated increasing interest from Los Angeles producers and commercial distribution organizations. Besides being a showcase for student productions, the College Television Awards is also a point of industry contact for students as they pursue career opportunities.
