The C21Media International Format Awards in association with FRAPA go live this month, with an online event that will see up to 30,000 C21 readers vote for the best shows in the business.
You can enter and vote online at www.c21screenings.net with extensive marketing packages on C21 to be won.
Entries are invited for formats first broadcast between January 1, 2006, and July 30, 2007 in the following categories: Best studio-based gameshow; Best competition reality show; Best observational documentary/factual entertainment reality show; Best one-off entertainment special; Best sketch comedy; Best scripted format; Best multi-screen format. An IFA Gold Medal will also be awarded following a decision made by a joint C21/FRAPA committee.
C21Media editor-in-chief and managing director David Jenkinson said: "The C21 International Format Awards in association with FRAPA are the first to see television programming judged by the entertainment community at large, not a 'small panel of experts.' This is true peer recognition, and the only way to find and reward the best. These awards usher in a fresh spirit of democracy in the international entertainment business."
Commenting on the Awards Fox Reality president and FRAPA co-founder David Lyle added: "By joining with C21 for the 2007 International Format awards we have literally taken the awards to the people. There are a tremendous number of individuals connected to the business of format creation, distribution and production who read C21 daily. Now those people can become the voters. Truly these are awards voted by the industry. No more is there a tiny, elite group in a back room deciding the winners. These awards are decided by a huge jury of peers from around the world. The method of voting is exciting, egalitarian and truly global…..just like the format industry. And it is totally contemporary.
"The categories of these international format awards are, in themselves, exciting. Ten years ago formats were largely restricted to studio game shows (Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right etc). Now we have competition, factual, scripted and other sub genres within the format world. We even have a multi screen award that reflects the way some formats embrace the TV and the net at the same time.
"When C21 readers decide which formats are the best in their category they are not looking at the lavishness of the set or the size of the production budget but at the ingenuity, originality and sheer brilliance of the underlying creative blueprint of the show – the format. I hope people vote early and vote often."