Entry Rules

Please see below all the conditions your film must meet to qualify for the FilmLight Colour Awards.

FilmLight is not responsible for incomplete or incorrect entries. By submitting an entry to the FilmLight Colour Awards, you give us authorisation to add you to our email database. Your personal information will not be shared with third parties.

Submission Deadline

Submissions will be accepted from 1 May 2024. The final deadline is 31 July 2024.

Note: Projects do not have to be released by the deadline – as long as a project is released between 1 September 2023 and 30 September 2024, it is eligible for submission.

Submission Categories

A colourist cannot submit more than ONE project in each of the six categories in the FilmLight Colour Awards.

The entrant cannot enter the same project in different categories with the following exceptions:

• Spotlight projects may also be submitted to the Theatrical Feature category. 
• Emerging Talent submissions may also be entered into the Commercial or Music Video category.

The FilmLight Colour Awards reserves the right to determine the eligibility of any project for the submission category.

See the Categories page for a description of the categories.

Submission Materials

Note: Trailers are not allowed to be submitted as the project excerpt.  Your excerpt must conform to the rules stated below.

To be eligible for consideration, the entrant must submit:

• Excerpts of the project with a total duration of 5 minutes maximum for the Theatrical Feature, TV Series/Episodic and Spotlight categories, and 10 minutes maximum for all other categories.
• Excerpts must contain scenes or parts of scenes no less than 1 minute. Complete scenes do not have to be shown, but excerpts must not be edited to alter the original sequence of shots within a scene.
• Video Format Requirements:
  
  • Preferred:
    Container: Quicktime .mov
    Codec: ProRes 422 HQ
    Colour Space: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.709 (mastered for dim surround)
    Resolution: 1920×1080
    Frame Rate: Native frame rate of the project (non-fractional preferred: e.g. 24 instead of 23.976)
  • Also Acceptable:
    Container: MP4
    Codec: H264 / H265
• Please label files as: NameOfProject_YourLastName
• DO NOT upload a file that has a slate, countdown, 2 pop or credits. Any of these will cause your file to be rejected during the QC process.
• For all categories, at least one piece of supporting material is strongly recommended to facilitate the judging process: Before/After or Case Study videos (ProRes or H264) and/or supporting material (PDF) can be uploaded by clicking the links in the ‘action’ column for each entry.

Submission Eligibility

A colourist cannot submit more than ONE project in each of the six categories in the FilmLight Colour Awards.

ALL COLOUR GRADING SYSTEMS FOR THE SUBMITTED PROJECTS ARE WELCOME.

• Projects released between 1 September 2023 and 30 September 2024 are eligible for submission to the FilmLight Colour Awards 2024.
• Note that projects released between the final submission date for entries (31 July 2024) and the final eligibility date of projects (30 September 2024) will be kept private.
• All projects will be watched solely by FilmLight staff and jury members. No announcements will be made about any project without the prior agreement of the applicant.
• If you have any concerns about your project and its eligibility, please contact us: [email protected].
• The application must be submitted by a colourist (or someone competent from the post facility on his/her behalf) who performed the grade of the project.
• Entrants can participate in the FilmLight Colour Awards if they have reached the age of majority.
• Entrants must have read and understood the general rules and regulations for the Colour Awards.
• Colourists can only submit one project per category.
• Exploitation and pornography genres are not eligible.

Judging Process

In all categories the jury will nominate four colourists, and award one winner.

Submissions are reviewed and selected under the following criteria:

• The aesthetic quality of the image in terms of colour.
• The continuity of the grade across the entire project in order to create a general mood.
• The originality of the grade.
• The collaborative effort between the cinematographer and the colourist.
• The technical quality of the grade.

The FilmLight Colour Awards endeavours to complete all selection procedures by October 2024 and inform all Submitting Parties, in writing, if their film has been successful or not at that time.

Successful submissions will receive correspondence that will include information on the FilmLight Colour Awards, press and publicity, and contact information.

The jury will judge the entries in several rounds over a seven-week period, from 19 August to 7 October 2024.

Jury Structure

Projects will be evaluated by recognised industry experts.

Juries will first nominate four colourists per category and then one winner in each of the categories.

Each jury is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the process:

• The general procedures ensure a fair judging process and must be adhered to at all times.
• Jury members can participate in the awards but cannot vote on the entries that they or their company have worked on. In  this case, the jury member can abstain from the vote.
• Each jury member has one equal vote.
• All proceedings and deliberations of each jury are conducted in confidence. Jurors cannot discuss any aspect of the entries, debates or decisions during the process and after the announcement of the results, with anyone other than a fellow juror other than a fellow juror.

Organisational Support

Once appointed, the jury works independently and FilmLight employees, directors, and partners have no influence on the outcome of the judging process.

Note: The FilmLight Colour Awards is under no obligation to provide to the applicant or any other representative of the project any comments or feedback regarding the submitted project, any information relating to the manner in which the project is, will be, or was reviewed; any views that the FilmLight Colour Awards or any reviewers of the project may hold concerning the project; or any other information relating to the consideration and/or selection process regarding the Project specifically or submissions generally beyond the information set forth in these Rules and Regulations. The FilmLight Colour Awards disavows any responsibility for, and will not be held responsible or liable for, the contents of any internal comments or feedback regarding any submitted project that are or may be obtained by the applicant or any other representative of the Project; any communications by any representative of the FilmLight Colour Awards relating to the project or the award selection process.

Publication

The FilmLight Colour Awards winners will be announced in November 2024.

Jury Prizes for Best Grade for a Theatrical Feature, Best Grade for a TV Series / Episodic, Best Grade for a Commercial, Best Grade for a Music Video, Best Grade in a Spotlight Project and Best Grade in a Emerging Talent project will be presented at EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2024 in Poland along with a panel discussion of the winners talking about their work.