Review for the Webby Awards
The Webby is the leading international award for online acheivement, as judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Webby reviewers work directly in internet-related fields, and use their professional expertise to provide preliminary evaluations of entries.
Categories
Website Categories
Feature Categories
Interactive Advertising Categories
Online Film and Video Categories
Website Category Descriptions
Activism
Sites facilitating political change, social movement, human rights, public education and reform, or revolution.
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Art
Sites primarily to display or promote art of any medium, art galleries, art auctions or content focused on art criticism or the art world.
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Associations
Sites for industry or trade associations or groups.
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Automotive
Sites providing information or commerce for the automotive industry, including sites for auto makers, current car models, auto dealers (new or used), new cars for sale, used cars, car parts or accessories, car culture or car customizing.
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Banking/Bill Paying
Sites providing online consumer banking and bill paying services or other consumer related saving and lending services.
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Beauty and Cosmetics
Sites promoting beauty and cosmetic-related products, health and beauty aids, hair and makeup products, skincare, and commentary or content related to any of the above.
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Blog - Business
Sites that serve as weblogs or online journals for professional and business related topics.
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Blog - Culture/Personal
Sites created by individuals or groups that serve as weblogs or online journals for cultural or personal topics.
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Blog - Political
Sites that serve as weblogs or online journals for political and civic oriented topics.
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Broadband
Sites fully integrating bandwidth-intensive interactive content. This content may include video, animation, and like dynamic elements that bring the computer, television, radio and film one step closer to convergence.
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Celebrity/Fan
Sites focused on celebrating, promoting or honoring celebrities, personalities, bands, athletes, movie actors, or other people of note.
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Charitable Organizations / Non-Profit
Sites for charities and charitable organizations whose primary purpose is helping people or other worthy causes.
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Community
Sites creating and facilitating online community, connectedness and/or communication around shared interests. These sites can target either a broad-based or niche audience.
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Consumer Electronics
Sites marketing or promoting items and services that would be classified as consumer electronics such as handheld devices, PDAs, personal computers, televisions, stereos, home audio/video equipment, home theater systems, video game platforms and consoles and other related electronic products.
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Corporate Communications
Sites that serve as online identities for corporations, organizations, businesses or professional individuals. These sites may promote, market or provide information and a point of contact for products, services, corporate individuals or companies involved in on or offline commerce.
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Cultural Institutions
Sites for museums, parks, zoos, gardens, aquariums, theatres, arenas and any other institutions of cultural significance.
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Education
Sites that are educational, promote education, or provide online curriculum or education services. This category includes educational content for children or adults, resources for educators, and "distance learning" courses. Does not include school sites, see School.
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Employment
Sites featuring job and employment listings, job and career search services, recruiting services, career advice, headhunting or other career or job related information.
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Events
Sites promoting specific events including concerts, fairs, festivals, sporting events, tours, or other events.
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Family/Parenting
Sites providing content related to family issues, child rearing, family activities, pregnancy, parenting tips and other information.
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Fashion
Sites promoting personal style, clothing, design, and accessories. These include sites selling fashion items or promoting designers, and editorial sites with fashion news and information.
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Financial Services
Sites providing financial services and/or information. These include online stock trading, financial news, mortgage information, credit cards, or investor relations and services. Does not include online banking sites. See Banking/Bill Paying.
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Food and Beverage
Sites promoting food and beverage products including snack foods, candy, confections, chewing gum, fresh and frozen food, soft drinks, juices, energy drinks and water. Also sites featuring content about food or beverages, including recipes or recommendations.
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Games
Sites featuring direct online gaming for individuals or multi-player. Includes games of any type including action, sports, fantasy, skill, or logic.
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Games-related
Sites devoted to the world and culture of computer gaming. This includes gaming news, gaming magazines, and gaming resources.
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Government
Sites providing information and services pertaining to government matters. These include sites that enable online citizen action, offer self-help information, publish government documents and forms, and provide access to services provided by government agencies.
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Guides/Ratings/Reviews
Sites that provide reviews of products or services for either consumer or business audiences. These include restaurant reviews, travel reviews, business product or service reviews, buying guides, best-of resources, product and price comparison sites.
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Health
Sites providing information and resources to improve personal health and well-being. These may include medical news sites, health information, and online diagnosis. Health includes not only medicine but also includes alternative and mental health and fitness Web sites.
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Humor
Sites dedicated to comedy or the art of laughter.
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Insurance
Sites providing information, commerce or other services featuring insurance products and services for home, auto, liability, business or any other purposes.
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IT Hardware/Software
Sites providing information or commerce for information technology, hardware and software, including computers, servers, networking equipment, business or consumer software products and services, and all other technology and information services related to hardware or software.
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Law
Web sites for law firms, legal service providers, pro-bono legal services, litigation support, and self-help legal information. Sites that feature content on legal issues, trials, law and business issues, court decisions or legal advocacy.
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Lifestyle
Sites featuring commentary, commerce and advice on lifestyle and living topics such as gardening, home improvement, interior design, architecture, and like subjects. Sites touching on the personal side of life by providing information and resources that allow people to live on their own terms.
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Magazine
Sites that are online editions or companions to offline business or consumer magazines, or sites published only online ('zines).
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Movie and Film
Sites dedicated to promotion, celebration and presentation of films, movies and film culture. These include movie promotional sites, film news, film resources, film magazines and film archives. This does not include fan sites - See Celebrity/Fan.
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Music
Sites dedicated to the distribution and/or presentation of music or musical information. These sites may provide a direct listening experience, commerce, or promote musical awareness including musicians' or record labels' sites, sites that promote musical events, or those that teach music or about music.
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NetArt
Projects that integrate art and technology, exploring and expanding the distinctive capacity of the medium. Projects must include a Web-based component and may include an offline element.
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News
Sites developed for the distribution of recent happenings. These may be offshoots of established broadcast or other existing news operations, or developed specifically for online news.
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Newspaper
Sites that are online editions or companions to offline newspapers.
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Personal Web Site
Sites about individuals. These personal sites are created by you about you, by you about someone else, or by someone else about you.
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Pharmaceuticals
Sites promoting or marketing prescription or non-prescription drugs and medical treatment or sites providing information on pharmaceutical products.
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Podcasts
Sites dedicated to the distribution and/or presentation of podcasts or podcast information. These sites may provide a direct listening experience, commerce, or promote podcasting awareness, including individuals' or portals' podcast sites, those that teach podcast practices, or are generally about podcasts.
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Politics
Sites providing political information. These may include campaign or candidate sites, political resources, or political news sites promoting a political cause or action.
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Professional Services
Sites for professional service firms including consultants of any type, accountants and other business service providers.
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Radio
Sites with ties to a radio network, station, or program, either on the air or on the Web. This category includes sites that relate to a specific musical or talk-radio show, segment, or station.
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Real Estate
Sites marketing or promoting the sale or rental of residential or commercial real estate, including real estate listings, brokers and brokerage services, real estate agents, and sites for developments, buildings or other real estate holdings.
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Religion and Spirituality
Sites focusing on the spirit or the soul, evangelizing spiritual practice, celebrating God(s) or any other divine power - traditional or otherwise. These include sites which provide information about the ritual, history and practice of all forms of spirituality, church and temple sites, online confessions, virtual prayer groups, and astrology sites as well as sites that provide a platform for direct online spiritual experience.
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Restaurant
Sites for restaurants, bars, restaurant chains, and other food and drink establishments. Does not include Review sites. See Guides/ Ratings/Reviews.
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Retail
Sites providing consumers online commerce and retail sales of any products or services.
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School/University
Sites for schools (high school, secondary school, elementary school), specialty school, technical school, colleges, universities and other schools.
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Science
Sites distributing information related to scientific exploration. These include science exhibits, science museums, science organizations, science laboratories, and academic institutions.
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Self-Promotion/Portfolio
An individual's creative work or collection of examples of prior projects, used to promote experience, qualifications, and skills. An online resume and demonstration of professional abilities on an individual basis. For companies, see Professional Services.
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Services
Sites allowing real world activities to be done online. These include agent or bot sites as well as sites that help people find jobs, houses, dates, or which otherwise facilitate typically offline activities from a keyboard.
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Social/Networking
Sites that facilitate the process of connecting individuals through the Internet. Their purpose may be business or pleasure. They may use friend-of-friend connections to form a social network or use technology to make the connection. Includes dating and matchmaking sites.
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Sports
Sites for sports news, sporting culture, sports teams, sports statistics, sports data, sporting events, and sports history. Includes fantasy sports sites.
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Student
For students who have designed web sites for academic purposes or as part of developing a portfolio. Category limited to works of students.
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Telecommunications
Sites for cellular or mobile phones, accessories, voice over IP, phone service, long distance service, ring tones, or any other mobile or land-line phone or phone service.
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Television
Sites which are online counterparts of television programs, promote television programs, television networks, or cable networks.
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Tourism
Sites that promote travel and tourism destinations, specific travel activities or promotional and informational tourism websites. Includes city, country or regional sites, tourist attractions, and chamber of commerce sites.
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Travel
Sites that provide travel services and information. These include online agents for purchasing tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and other travel services. Includes online travel guides, travel writing, and travel tools.
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Weird
Sites that just seem strange, offbeat or odd. This category includes sites that reflect a fresh perspective in thought and action strong enough to start a revolution, change a behavior pattern, or advance old thinking lodged in bad habits, or that are just plain weird.
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Youth
Sites for those under 18: kids, youth, adolescents, teens and young adults.
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Feature Category Descriptions
Best Copy/Writing
Only copy and writing judged.
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Best Home/Welcome Page
Only home or welcome page judged.
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Best Navigation/Structure
Only information architecture judged.
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Best Practices
Best Practices sites serve as an industry benchmark for the most current, innovative, and advanced practices in Web development. Sites demonstrating unparalleled excellence across The Academy's six criteria: content, structure & navigation, visual design, interactivity, functionality, and overall experience.
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Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics
Only animation and motion graphics judged.
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Best Use of Photography
Only photography as it's used throughout the site is judged. Geared toward sites that rely heavily on photographic imagery as a critical part of the user experience.
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Best Use of Typography
Only the typographical elements of the site, as they work together, are judged. Geared towards sites focused heavily on type design as a means of informing the user experience.
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Best Use of Video or Moving Image
Only video or moving image judged.
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Best Visual Design - Aesthetic
Only visual design judged. Geared toward sites and experiences where visual design is intended to be beautiful, emotional, and appeal to the senses.
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Best Visual Design - Function
Only visual design judged. Geared toward sites that rely on visual design as a critical part of a functional user experience.
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Interactive Advertising Category Descriptions
Banner Campaigns
Includes banners, buttons, pop-ups/unders, etc. Does not include rich media. Campaigns must include at least 3 banners.
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Banner Singles
Includes banners, buttons, pop-ups/unders, etc. Does not include rich media. Must be only 1 banner.
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Branded Content
Short films, commercials and video that premiered on the Internet and promote brands, products or services for commercial purposes ie. advertising.
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Email Marketing
A form of direct marketing utilziing electronic mail as a means of communicating to an audience.
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Environmental & Experience Marketing
The use of interactive or online components to create real-world brand immersion. This can consist of interactive kiosks, outdoor interactive signage and other environmental marketing that prompts the user to interact with the Web via computer or mobile device.
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Game or Application
A Web-based or downloadable game or application made on behalf of a client to specifically market a good, service or event.
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Integrated Campaigns (web, outdoor, TV, print etc..)
Integrated Campaigns must include at least 3 different media types, one of which must be online. In addition to online, other media types can include print, outdoor, TV, guerilla or radio.
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Mobile Advertising
Interactive advertising on mobile devices such as cell phones and PDA's. This includes banners, text messages/SMS advertising, and mobile Website advertising.
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Online Campaigns (email, banner, website, etc...)
Online campaigns must consist of at least 3 different components, all of which must have been done online. This includes email, banners, Websites, online guerilla marketing, online commercials, and mobile advertising.
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Online Commercials
Original Web commercials premiering online to advertise a product or service, adapting the traditional television format for the Web.
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Online Guerilla Marketing
Consists of un-conventional online promotional techniques, done with a small marketing budget. By nature, guerilla marketing is subtle, often deceptive; sometimes called "stealth" marketing. All components of the entry must be online.
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Rich Media Single: B to B
Includes rich media created for communications or commerce between companies (as distinguished from dealings between a company and a consumer).
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Rich Media Single: B to C
Includes rich media created as a communications and marketing tool between businesses and consumers.
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Rich Media Single: Non-Profit/ Educational
Includes rich media created on behalf of a non-profit, governmental, educational or political body. Includes foundations, museums, NGOs, universities, etc.
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Rich Media Single: Promotional
Includes rich media created to promote special sales, new products, seasonal goods or to increase sales of a specific product or service.
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Viral Marketing
An advertising and marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message. Can be graphic, text or video-based advertising.
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Online Film and Video Category Descriptions
Animation
Original cartoons, moton graphics, illustrations or digitally animated images premiered on the Internet. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Best Editing
Best Editing
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Best Individual Performance
Best individual performance by a person or thing (puppet, animal, flying lawnmower, etc.) in a video series or episode. Can consist of a particularly poignant dramatic performance, a breathtaking stunt, a painstakingly executed dance routine, or any performance that captures viewers’ attention and cannot be easily replicated
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Best Reality/Variety Host
Best performance by a male or female host of any reality or variety series or episode.
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Best Sound Design
Best Sound Design
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Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics
Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics
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Best Use of Interactive Video
Only the interactive components of a video will be judged. Geared toward narrative and graphical elements that include selectable plotlines, choose-your-own-adventure type stories, and puts the action squarely in the hands of the user.
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Best Use of Special FX/Motion Graphics
Only Special FX, motion graphics, illustrations or digitally animated images utilized within the overall context of the film/video will be considered. Please enter animation shorts in the Animation category.
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Best Writing
Best Writing
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Comedy: Individual Short or Episode
Content under five minutes running time, created as a single short or one-time episode, and dedicated to comedy or the art of laughter.
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Comedy: Long Form or Series
Serial content dedicated to comedy or the art of laughter premiered on the Internet. Entries must consist of more than one or more episodes over 5 minutes in total to qualify for this category (or see Comedy: Individual Short or Episode for shorter episodes).
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Documentary: Individual Episode
Single, one-time documentary films (of any length) should be entered, which premiered only online.
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Documentary: Series
Series or shows of documentary content that premiered only online.
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Drama: Individual Episode
Original content, in single episode form, of a dramatic, turbulent or highly emotional nature that premiered on the Internet.
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Drama: Series
Original content, as a series or show, of a dramatic, turbulent or highly emotional nature that premiered on the Internet.
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Events and Live Broadcasts
Original content promoting specific events including concerts, fairs, festivals, sporting events, tours, or other events premiered on the Internet. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Experimental
Online film & video that shuns narrative, incorporates groundbreaking technology, reflects a fresh perspective and basically avoids conventional description. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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How-To and DIY
Individual episodes, and/or series/shows of original content may be entered, focused on how-to instructional topics, or do-it-yourself programming in all subject areas--home and lifestyle, family and parenting, fashion and beauty etc...
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Music
Original online film and video dedicated to the presentation or documentation of music content: including music videos, performances, etc... Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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News & Politics: Individual Episode
Original online content, as an individual episode, documenting informational news topics, political happenings and recent updates and headlines.
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News & Politics: Series
Original online content, as a serial or show, documenting informational news topics, political happenings and recent updates and headlines.
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Public Service and Activism
Original online content documenting public service issues, activism and societal concerns. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Reality
Original online programming of a generally unscripted nature, documenting actual events over fiction, and featuring "ordinary" people over professional actors. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Sports
Original online content for sports news, sporting culture, sports teams, sporting events, and sports history. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Student
For students who have created online film & video for academic purposes or as part of developing a portfolio. Category limited to works of students.
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Technology
Original online content for technology reviews, information, learning, news, and updates. Including computers, hardware and software, telecommunications, networking equipment, business or consumer products and services, and all other technology information. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Travel
Original online content that providing travel information. This includes travel agent content, hotel and airline promotional videos, travel reviews, video travel guides, and travel tools. Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Variety
Original online film and video dedicated to the presentation or documentation of variety show content: including online talk shows, interviews, special editions, etc... Individual episodes or entire series may be entered.
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Video Remixes/Mashups
Repurposed or re-imagined use of previously created video content. Can include unauthorized music videos, re-edited film trailers, and other creatively produced material that incorporates pre-existing footage.
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Viral
Low-budget, home-made or accidental Web phenomenon premiered on the Internet. These must be unpaid, non-commercial content.
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