16 October 2009 8:25 AM, PDT
Here’s a note from our Awards manager, Oliver, on the correct way to enter the ranking for an Awards submission:
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Ranking of Awards
A quite common misunderstanding related to awards data is that of the ranking to be submitted.
Quite frequently awards are submitted this way
Title: Forbach (2008)
Name: Burger, Claire
Event: Côté Court Festival
Award: Special Jury Award
Category: Best Short Film
Year: 2009
Rank: 2
Title: Tira Bakal (2009)
Name: Wurth, Scott (I)
Event: Rhode Island International Film Festival
Award: Second Prize
Category: Best Documentary Short
Year: 2009
Rank: 2
This is wrong since here the ‘2′ has been used to indicate the second best ranking at the overall event. However the ranking information we need relates to the “award”, not to the “event”.
Let’s put those two above examples into words:
Claire Burger’s film Forbach (2008) has won the second place Special Jury Award in the category Best Short Film at the 2009 Côté Court Festival…
very likely not what the submitter wanted to say.
Scott Wurth’s film Tira Bakal (2009) has won the second place Second Prize in the category Best Documentary Short at the 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival… again very likely not what the submitter wanted to say.
Both films have actually won their respective awards, they did not rank second place. The actual awards the films have won may or may not have the status of “second best” overall at those events, e.g. the Special Jury Award at the Côté Court Festival is the second best award which can be won overall at the event.
Nevertheless if the film wins the Special Jury Award, you should indicate that by putting a ‘1′ into the ranking field of the submission form.
Let’s look at another example:
Title: The Woman of Ahhs (2008)
Name: Paquette, B.P.
Event: Mexico International Film Festival
Award: Bronze Palm Award
Category: Feature
Year: 2009
Rank: 3
This submission has the same problem, just here it is the third best overall award since there also is a Silver Palm and a Golden Palm to be won.
The above would be correct only and only if the festival’s listing of winners would say:
Bronze Palm – Feature category
1. place: This Film
2. place: That Film
3. place: The Woman of Ahhs
However it says
Bronze Palm – Feature category
* This Film
* That Film
* The Woman of Ahhs
There is no ranking at all for the Bronze Palm.
Summary:
The ‘2′ and ‘3′ for the ranking of an award are somewhat rare exceptions. If a film or person actually has won an award, the ‘1′ should be used to indicate that.
The same goes for Special Mentions, Special Recognitions and the like as there are no rankings at all for those. ‘1′ should be used to indicate those were won.
If the award itself has no rankings, please always use ‘1′ to indicate a win.
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