Directors Choice Awards – Fan Film Factor

Announcing the WINNERS of the 3rd annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2023!

There are currently two annual contests open to any fan filmmaker where their production(s) can be judged exclusively by a group of their peers. One of these is the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, which is dedicated exclusively to Star Trek fan films and judged by a panel of fan film showrunners. And the other is the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, where the judges are the directors of the submitted films. Unlike the Showrunner Awards (which begin taking submissions later on this month), The Directors Choice Awards are open to fan films in any genre, not just Star Trek.

Created and administered by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas, the showrunners behind THE FEDERATION FILES “fanthology” series, the cost to enter was $10 per film, which included consideration in up to six categories (chosen by the submitter at the time they filled out the entry form). Each director of a submitted film was required to cast a ballot in order for that director’s film(s) not to be disqualified. Also, a director was not allowed to vote for their own fan film(s).

As happened last year, this year’s winner for “Best in Fest”—determined by which fan film received the most total votes across all categories—received a $250 grand prize.

Glen Wolfe was very pleased with the depth and variety of applicants for the awards that covered fan film releases in calendar year 2023…

This year we had entries from 25 different film franchises and 12 different countries. Each year we have also had more entries than the previous year. We are happy to see the growth of the only film festival open to all fan films. The diversity of winners also is a testament to the process of having numerous judges (we had over 50 judges this year) from all backgrounds.

In total, 29 separate films either won or were runner up. We had our first tie vote this year, as well. Overall, I feel that the growth of the fest combined with the wide variety of winners is proving to be a successful formula. We added several categories this year, and they were well-received. And because this festival is for the directors and by the directors, we are always open to suggestions for even more categories. We had a lot of great films this year and hope to see even more next year.

The idea behind contests like these, in addition to honoring the fan filmmakers and their work, is to provide more exposure for these productions. So hopefully, you’ll check out at least a few of these fan films to see something you might like a lot. I did and was pleasantly surprised by more than a few of them.

For a list of all the fan films that were entered, all of the nominees in each category, and all the winners, you can watch their presentation video. Below is a list of the winners and runners up in all the categories, along with YouTube links to those specific fan films.

DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARD SHOW submission deadline is THIS MONDAY!

While you all were having a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (I hope!), GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS were continuing to accept submissions from year three of the annual Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards. If you’re a fan filmmaker from any genre or franchise—NOT only Star Trek!—you have until midnight Central Time on January 15 to submit up to three films released during calendar year 2023. The cost is $10 per entry, and you can submit using the form on this web page…

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

The DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are one of two annual fan film competitions (the other being the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS) where the judging panel is made up of actual fan filmmakers. As the name implies, the judges for the Directors Choice show will be the directors of the submitted fan films, who will each have until March 15 to submit their ballots. Each submission can be entered into a maximum of six of the following categories…

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Original Costuming
Best Make-up/Hairstyling
Best Cinematography
Best Original Music
Best Audio Mixing
Best Lighting
Best FX Make-Up
Best CGI FX
Best Green Screen
Best Composite Shot
Best Screenplay
Best Parody/Comedy
Best Portrayal of an Existing Character
Best Animated Fan Film
Best Editing
Most Canon Award
Best Ensemble
Best On-Location Scene
Best Plot Twist
Best Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography

And just like last year, there will be a “Best in Fest” $250 cash award for the fan film which receives the greatest number of votes across all categories. Of the above two dozen categories, the last four were newly added as of this year.

Glen Wolfe reports healthy participation again this year…

We’re near the same number of submissions as we had last year. We have entries from 10 different countries and in 21 different franchises. And in my opinion, we have a couple really good new franchises involved that I don’t think anyone would have expected…and I personally didn’t even know fan films were being made on these topics!

The clock is ticking, folks! The submission deadline is this coming Monday. So once again, here’s the link to enter…

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Good luck!

The Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are back for a THIRD year…with new categories! (interview with GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS)

The future of fan film award shows remains in good hands! And right now, those hands belong to GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. For the third straight year, submissions are being accepted for the annual Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards. The call for entries begins today and continues through January 15, 2024. Fan filmmakers can submit their film(s)—a maximum of three fan films per director—for a cost of $10 per film entered. Here’s the entry form link:

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

This third running of the Fan Film Directors Choice Awards is open to any fan film of any genre (not just Star Trek) released during calendar year 2023. So it’s possible that some fan films that haven’t premiered yet could still make it in. The judges for the show will be the directors of the submitted fan films, who will each have until March 15 to submit their ballots. Each submission can be entered into a maximum of six of the following categories…

Just like last year, there will be a “Best in Fest” $250 cash award for the fan film which receives the greatest number of votes across all categories. Of the above two dozen categories, the last four were newly added as of this year. Dan Reynolds explains…

“We originally started this awards outlet so that those producing fan films could get the recognition they deserve. Going into our third year, we came up with some new categories that focus more on the unseen work and put a spotlight on more specific categories that are always overlooked in many awards offerings. It’s a way to spotlight the many great moments in fan films that are more based on recognizing their accomplishments rather than making it a competition.”

While Best On-Location Scene and Best Plot Twist seem fairly straightforward, I was curious to learn more about Best Use of Improvised Sets and Best Choreography. Dan tackled the former…

Announcing the WINNERS of the 2nd annual 2022 DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards!

Beginning last year, there are now multiple annual awards shows open exclusively to fan films. Some are specific to just Star Trek fan films, but the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS are open to fan films from any franchise or genre that were released in the previous calendar year (in the case of the current awards, the year was 2022).

Created and administered by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas, the showrunners behind THE FEDERATION FILES “fanthology” series, the cost to enter was $10 per film, which included consideration in up to six categories (chosen by the submitter at the time they filled out the entry form). The judges were the directors of those submitted films, and casting a ballot was required in order for a director’s film(s) not to be disqualified. Also, a director was not allowed to vote for their own fan film (lest the final tallies wound up with each film getting one vote each!).

This year, Dan and Glen sweetened the pot a little (okay, a lot) by adding a $250 grand prize for “Best in Fest,” determined by which fan film received the most total votes across all categories.

Glen Wolfe concurred…

My goal was to bring some publicity to all of the fan filmmakers out there, and it looks like this is helping with that. I have received several comments from fans and fan filmmakers that, because of this award show, they viewed films that they would otherwise have been unaware of. From my perspective, I am very happy with the diversity of the films entered into the contest this year, as well as the diversity of the winning films. So hopefully that continues, and we will have a even more diverse field next year.

For a list of all 53 fan films that were entered, all of the nominees in each category, and all the winners, you can watch their presentation video. Below is a list of the winners and runners up in all the categories, along with YouTube links to those specific fan films. There’s also a list of MVPs (most valuable producers) supplied by the entrants themselves to acknowledge someone in their cast and/or crew whose contribution to the project was significant enough to merit special recognition.

And finally, at the bottom on this blog page, there’s a list of fan films voted the best for each franchise, the winners for best foreign and domestic fan films, and at the very bottom, the $250 winner for Best in Fest…

One week left to enter THE 2022 DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS…deadline is JANUARY 15!

Have you directed, produced, or otherwise been involved with the creation of a fan film that was released in 2022? If doesn’t even have to be a Star Trek fan film. THE 2022 DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS is open to fan films from any genre or franchise as long as they were released onto YouTube or Vimeo between January 1 and December 31 of 2022.

Organized and presented by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas—the two showrunners behind THE FEDERATION FILES “fanthology” series—the Directors Choice Awards are now in their second year, with a few new things added since the 2021 contest. First of all, there’s two new intriguing categories: “Best Portrayal of an Existing Character” and “Most Valuable Crew Member” (that would be production crew, not starship crew). There is also now a $250 grand prize for the “Best in Fest,” a fan film that receives the most total votes across all categories in which it competes (each submitter can choose up to six categories for their fan film to be considered). And finally, a digital certificate will be awarded for the best fan film within each franchise.

Currently, fan films have been submitted representing the following popular sci-fi/action/horror franchises: Indiana Jones, Halloween, Batman, Jurassic Park/World, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Spiderman, Transformers, Star Wars and of course, Star Trek.

Entry into the contest costs $10 for up to six categories (not counting the “Best in Fest”), and the judges are the directors of the submitted films. There is a maximum of three film submissions by the same director. A judge is not allowed to vote for their own film, and failure to cast a ballot before the deadline is grounds for disqualification of that director’s fan film(s). If the same person has directed more than one submitted fan film, that director will be sent a ballot for each of their submitted films (up to a total of three ballots).

Glen Wolfe reports that about 35 fan films have already been submitted, with winners scheduled to be announced on April 5, 2023 (forty years before First Contact Day!). There’s still just over one week left to enter, as the submission deadline is January 15. If you’ve got a fan film from 2022 that hasn’t been submitted yet, click here to access the entry form.

And if you are entered or entering, best of luck to you!

2022 FAN FILM DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS now accepting submissions (deadline to enter is JANUARY 15) with a “Best in Fest” prize of $250!!!

Earlier this year, GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas introduced the first new annual fan film awards show since the creation of the BJO AWARDS (originally called the Independent Star Trek Fan Film Awards) back in 2015. Glen and Dan decided to call theirs THE FAN FILM DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS because the judges are all fan film directors.

Last year, the Directors Choice Award winners were presented with a digital certificate, which is still the case this year. However, this year also introduces a new prize: the fan film voted “Best In Fest” (determined by which film receives the most total votes across all categories) will also be awarded a whopping $250! (Well, “whopping” to some people, at least!)

The competition is open to fan films of any genre (not just Star Trek!) that have been released publicly onto YouTube or other social media during the 2022 calendar year. The cost to enter is $10 per film, which includes consideration in up to SIX of the following categories (chosen by the submitter at the time they fill out the entry form):

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Original Costuming
Best Make-up/Hairstyling
Best Cinematography
Best Original Music
Best Audio Mixing
Best Lighting
Best FX Make-Up
Best CGI FX
Best Green Screen
Best Screenplay
Best Parody/Comedy
Best Portrayal of an Existing Character
Best Animated Fan Film
Best Editing
Most Canon Award
Best Ensemble
Most Valuable Crew Member

Up to three fan films by the same director are permitted entry. Once entered, the director of that fan film becomes a judge and will be sent a ballot. If the same person has directed more than one submitted fan film, that director will be sent a ballot for each of their submitted films (up to a total of three ballots). A director cannot vote for any film that nominated them as a director.

The call for entries began on November 15, 2022 and continues through to January 15, 2023. After that, ballots will be sent to all judges with a return deadline of February 28, 2023. Failure to vote will disqualify that director’s film(s). Hey, tough love, right?

Like last year, winners will be announced on First Contact Day, April 5 of 2023. Here’s a link to the entry form:

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

There were some really amazing fan films released this past year (Star Trek and other genres), so I can’t wait to see who enters and who wins! And if you are entering a film of your own, the best of luck to you…

Let’s look inside the SHOWRUNNER Awards and other fan film competitions (Part 2)

In Part 1, we took a look “under the hood” at the engines running three of the most significant and well-known of the annual awards competitions for Star Trek fan films: the BJO AWARDS, the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, and the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS. Of course, only one of these three is technically “annual” at this point, as the latter two competitions only got their start in January of this year while the Bjos have been running each year since 2015.

Why this deep-dive into the inner workings of three different awards shows? Why not? Most fans see only the end results of these competitions…who were the finalists, who were the runners up, and which films and filmmakers ultimately won. But what happens behind the scenes?

Last time, we looked first at the challenge of finding judges, and how ERIC L. WATTS of the Bjo Awards sets himself the Herculean task each year of finding people “…who have a professional credit in the Star Trek franchise or are Star Trek fans working in the television and film industry, are not in any way personally associated with any past or present Star Trek fan film.” Add to that these people must be willing to watch hours and hours of Star Trek fan films for no money and little more than a thank you for their efforts.

DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN WOLFE went in a different direction for the Directors Choice Awards, opting to require the directors of the films entered to cast ballots for the winners in all categories in order for their own films to quality (and of course, a director could not vote for their own fan film). And finally, I assembled a panel of twelve Star Trek fan film and fan series showrunners (including myself) to judge the Showrunner Awards.

In all three cases, the judging panel was made up up ten or more judges, all publicly identified for the contest. This is, of course, by no means a requirement when holding a fan film contest, although it does inspire more confidence in the results knowing the the people judging the entries have a practical and experiential knowledge of the categories they are judging.

The next thing we looked at was the method each awards show used to gather and organize information on the entries. Eric would determine the submissions based on the Star Trek fan films released in a calendar year that met the eligibility requirements and then type in all of the names of the nominees himself.

Dan and Glen and I, instead, allowed the filmmakers themselves to fill out online forms, changing a nominal $10 entry fee for each fan film entered. The Showrunners then tacked on an extra $1 per each category entered, while the Directors Choice simply limited the number of categories per entry to no more than five. And in the end, all three contests rely heavily on Excel spreadsheets to record the immense amount of submission information.

So what’s left…?

Let’s look inside the SHOWRUNNER Awards and other fan film competitions (Part 1)

So you say you want to create a fan film awards competition! Actually, unless you want to work really, really hard, you probably DON’T want to create one…at least, if you want to do it right. And when I say “do it right,” there isn’t only one correct way to organize and run a film contest. In fact, there’s several different approaches, all of them totally valid.

The challenge is to set everything up so that the process runs smoothly and inspires confidence in both the process and the results. That’s what I mean by “do it right,” and it takes a surprisingly sizable amount of work. DAN REYNOLDS, who along with GLEN WOLFE, ran the recently-completed DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, said, “The sheer enormity of organizing was difficult. There was a lot of checking, double checking and triple checking. I don’t think we knew just how much work it really would be to pull something like this off.” Glen said that he mostly concentrated on “…getting ballots returned in a timely manner, getting the presenters to turn their videos in in a timely manner, and then getting the whole award ceremony edited while juggling real life.”

ERIC L. WATTS lists off an even longer “to do” list for the annual BJO AWARDS, including…

Recruiting top-level, high-calibre judges;
Finding eligible fan films for consideration (filmmakers don’t actively enter the Bjo Awars—Eric includes all qualifying Star Trek fan films released in a calendar year);
Researching release dates, runtimes, cast and crew credits, and creating a spreadsheet that sorts and organizes that data; and
Spending hours and hours and hours creating the actual ballot.

And of course, none of this includes marketing the awards show and announcing its winners, answering questions from the fan community, and of course, nagging the judges to get their ballots in on time! Plus, there’s a whole host of other efforts involved.

One of the biggest challenges is logistics. And like the duck gliding gently across the smooth surface of the lake, most fans never get to see all of the intense paddling that goes on just beneath the surface to make these fan film competitions run like well-oiled machines.

So if you’re interested in “peeking under the hood,” today’s blog is for YOU…

Why I am officially WITHDRAWING my name from consideration in The 2022 TREKZONE Fan Film Awards…

You know me. I love Star Trek fan films and I LOVE the fact that there are now SO many Star Trek fan film award competitions, including the annual BJO AWARDS, the recently-concluded DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, and the brand new SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, which is currently accepting submissions of fan films released between January 2017 and December 2021. If you haven’t entered yet, the deadline is May 31, and the application form can be accessed here:

https://www.cognitoforms.com/JonathanLane1/_2022StarTrekFanFilmSHOWRUNNERAWARDS

Shortly after I published my blog announcing the launch of the Showrunner Awards on April 11, a small number of detractors rushed to criticize those awards for charging a $10 entrance fee. Fair enough—to each his own. GLEN WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS charged $10, as well (although we’re charging an extra $1 per additional category like Best Music or Best Cinematographer). It’s actually pretty common with independent film award shows, although ERIC L. WATTS doesn’t charge anything to enter the Bjo Awards. Different strokes for different folks, right? No one’s forcing anyone to enter anything.

Within less than a week, MATTHEW MILLER of the TREKZONE Podcast in Australia quickly announced the launch of his own fan film awards show that would be FREE to all fan filmmakers. Hooray…FOUR award shows! I was getting ready to cover it once Matthew announced how fan filmmakers could enter, but apparently Matthew wasn’t planning to do it that way.

Setting a window of eligibility for fan films released between April 15 of last year and April 15 of this year, Matthew and his co-judge MTM (that’s a pseudonym) decided all by themselves who would be entered and who wouldn;t be…and then announced the finalists this past Tuesday on YouTube.

My fan film INTERLUDE had 10 nominations, which is great, of course….huge honor. And yes, I had a great team (although two of our nominations were for “Best Space Villain”—the Klingons—and “Best Hero Ship”—the U.S.S. Ares…neither of them able to give an acceptance speech).

Surprisingly, though, some fan films that I thought would be shoo-ins were almost completely excluded. While Interlude had an impressive 10 nominations in ten categories, the AVALON UNIVERSE’s COSMIC STREAM received only one nomination (TYLER DUNNIVAN for “Best Actor”) and shockingly AGENT OF NEW WORLDS got zero nominations, not even for best directing or editing .

Two other highly regarded and long-running Star Trek fan series also had their latest episodes passed over with no nominations in any category: DREADNOUGHT DOMINION‘s “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE” and STARSHIP FARRAGUT‘s series final “HOMECOMING.” It didn’t see fair that Interlude would be hogging so many of the nomination slots, but hey, not my contest.

However, there’s been something else that’s really been bothering me forr the past two weeks…

Announcing the WINNERS of the first annual 2021 DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards!

Up until now, fan films (specifically Star Trek fan films) had only one annual awards competition devoted exclusively to their sub-genre, and those were the BJO AWARDS. Now there are three. The SHOWRUNNER AWARDS will begin taking submissions next week for Star Trek fan films, with winners announced on September 8, 2022. But yesterday, the Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS announced their winners and honorable mentions.

Launched by fan filmmakers DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN L. WOLFE of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas, creators of the fan series THE FEDERATION FILES, the Directors Choice Awards were open to fan films of any genre (not just Star Trek) released during calendar year 2021. The judges were the directors of those submitted films. In order to take part, a director had to cast votes in each category for a fan film other than their own or be disqualified from winning.

Submissions were accepted during the month of February, and Dan Reynolds had this to say about their early trepidations: “We weren’t really sure how the initial response to our inaugural launch of the Fan Film Directors Choice Awards was going to turn out, but we soon realized that we struck a nerve with the fan film community. We knew we were on the right track, and within a few short weeks after our announcement, we received over 30 entries.”

Glen Wolfe echoed Dan’s sentiments: “From its inception, we wanted to fairly honor those hardworking fan film producers with recognition directly from their peers. This experience has been extremely positive, and I think that the films entered and those winning awards should show that the Fan Film Directors Choice Awards was a success and has encouraged us to continue it indefinitely.”

Dan concluded: “I’m very happy with the diversity of fan films that were included this year. We had Star Trek, Star Wars, James Bond, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones fan films entered this year, and we hope that expands in the coming years. I was also very happy that the winners were from all the represented genres.”

And speaking of winners, that’s the perfect segue into presenting the results of the very first annual Fan Film Directors Choice Awards…