Full Entry Criteria
Before entering please be sure to review the full entry criteria, which give tips on how to submit your entry in each category.
If you are unsure about anything, please email us at: [email protected].
Timeline
June 17 – Format Awards open for entries
Eligibility window – Formats with their first broadcast between 1 October 2025 and 9 November 2026
November 9 – Entries close
December 1– Finalists longlist announced (per category)
February 15 –Final shortlist announced
April 2027 – Awards Gala dinner at Content Europe
General Entry Criteria
- The Awards are open to any show that had its first broadcast between 1 October 2025 and 31 October 2026 and is being marketed to the international community as a format.
- Best Scripted Format: the first episode of the remake should have aired in the new territory between 1 October 2025 and 31 October 2026.
- Best Format Brand Extension: the brand-extension activity (for example a live event or tour, immersive or experiential activation, gaming title or licensed product line) should have launched, opened or been actively running within the same window.
- Entries will be accepted from the producers, distributors or broadcasters of a show. It is the entrant’s responsibility to submit the correct listings for each show.
- Ineligible entries can be disqualified at any stage of the competition without refund. Please check the criteria thoroughly before entering.
- Any trailers and show images obtained by C21 as supporting materials may be used on C21media.net and C21 publications on Substack, should the show become a finalist.
- All trailers must be in English or with English subtitles/dubbing.
- The judges will review submissions remotely via password-protected Awardforce accounts.
Entry fees
- The fee to enter is £195 per entry. If you enter a second show the fee for this will be £125; entry for three onwards will be priced at £100.
- Payment of the entry fee will be requested as part of the online entry process. We ask that payment is made by card.
- Entry fees must be received by 9 November 2026; entries left without payment will be discarded.
- We cannot offer refunds for incorrect submissions. Please read the entry criteria thoroughly before submitting.
*All trailers must be in English or with English subtitles/dubbing.
Supporting materials
To complete your entry, we require the following supporting materials:
- Production / Distribution / Channel / TX date details.
- A short show pitch.
- Show synopsis.
- One show trailer (up to three minutes long) – 16:9, landscape, mov or mp4, 1.5GB max file size. (If entering ‘Best Host’, please ensure you send a clip that focuses on the nominee.)
- All trailers must be in English or with English subtitles/dubbing.
- One full-length episode – 16:9, landscape, mov or mp4, 5GB max file size.
- Show logo (landscape) – any size, png or jpg.
- Key art image.
- Best Format Brand Extension – as this category recognises activity beyond the screen, entrants should supply evidence of the extension itself. This may include a short video of the live, immersive or experiential activation, examples of licensed products, gaming or other brand extensions, and any available commercial or audience-reach metrics (such as attendance, ticket or product sales, or engagement figures)
Editorial coverage: We will be featuring shortlisted formats in editorial on C21Media.net on C21 Screenings and in a new ‘For Your Consideration’ season -and in C21’s upcoming Substack publications.
For inclusion, we additionally require answers to a brief set of questions on what made your show a hit, and we encourage entrants to provide a short video that tells the story of the journey the show has taken to the screen. This video is not obligatory but may be reviewed by the judges where provided; extracts may also be used on C21Media’s platforms and Substack as part of the coverage of the Awards.
Full entry criteria by category
Eleven competitive categories are open for entry. You may enter a show for more than one category if it is eligible. Each is judged independently by an international panel of buyers, commissioners, distributors and format experts.
Best Brand-Driven Format
More than just product placement or brand integration, this category is for formats that owe their existence to a brand or advertiser that played a crucial part in their creation. Last year’s winner was The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds, made with E.ON Next for Channel 4.
Best Format Brand Extension
Recognising formats that have grown beyond the screen into a wider brand activation — immersive and experiential activations, live events and tours, location-based entertainment, gaming and consumer products — where the format’s IP has been successfully extended into new audience experiences and revenue streams.
Best Competition Reality Format
Competition reality spans everything from adventure formats like Race Across the World to talent searches like The Voice on location or in studio. At its core there is a winner — participants, celebrities or public, playing to win — and often public voting.
Best Comedy Format
This category is for unscripted comedy, not sitcoms — formats in studio or the field built to make an audience laugh through sketches, improv, panels, hidden cameras or pranks. Unlike a studio gameshow, the outcomes don’t matter much; the laughs are the point.
Best Factual Entertainment Format
Factual entertainment formats explore a subject, world or premise drawn from real life — to reveal, inform or entertain — with no contest or winner. The format is driven by the topic or situation itself, often presenter-guided, ranging from the high-stakes and observational (Deadliest Catch) to social and lifestyle subjects (Virgin Island).
Best Digital-First Format
This category celebrates formats that originate on, or are primarily designed for, digital-native platforms such as YouTube, TikTok or Twitch, rather than traditional broadcast or cable. Shaped by the dynamics of digital audiences and built for interactive participation, the strongest entries are rooted in the digital space but have grown or show clear potential to grow into multi-platform brands.
Best Scripted Format
This category is for scripted drama or comedy series sold and produced as formats outside their country of origin; it is the remake in the second — or subsequent — territory that is eligible. The first episode of that remake should have aired within the eligibility window.
Best Studio-Based Gameshow Format
Studio-based gameshows run from serious quizzes to physical studio games, from cooking to dating games. At their core they take place in a closed studio environment and involve games to be played, almost always with competition and winners.
Best Returning Format
This category rewards a format that has achieved continuing success. With a season — domestic or international — within the eligibility window. Where more than one iteration is eligible, entrants should enter either one specific season from this period or the franchise as a whole.
Best Reality Format
Reality formats are driven by people rather than a subject and involve no competition or winner. The engine is an ongoing cast and their personalities and relationships — whether simply observed (docusoap, such as The Only Way Is Essex) or placed in a manufactured situation (structured reality, such as Wife Swap) — including dating, relationship and makeover formats built around a personal journey.
Best Host of a Television Format
This award recognises outstanding talent in front of the camera. It goes to the person the judges feel has done most to enhance a format through sheer strength of personality, flair and a unique approach to fronting it.
The International Formats Business Gold Award
A discretionary award for an outstanding contribution to the formats business. The winner is chosen by the C21 and FRAPA boards.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
By submitting Entries to the International Formats Awards, all Applicants represent, warrant and accept that:
a) all necessary rights clearances, releases, permissions and consents from all contributors having contributed to the Entries and the Teasers have been acquired to enable the exploitation of the Entries and the participation thereof in the International Formats Awards.
b) the Entries and the Teasers do not infringe upon or violate any copyright, trademark, right of privacy or right of publicity or any other right of any kind or nature of any person or entity or legal norm under any applicable jurisdiction.
By submitting Entries for the International Formats Awards, all Applicants acknowledge and accept that:
a) All Decisions shall be at the discretion of the Organiser and of the Judges.
b) Entries and Teasers shall be made available on the International Formats Platform for the purposes of being viewed by the Jury members, the Organiser, other Entrants, delegates attending the International Formats Awards Ceremony, and specifically invited guests on the International Formats Platform prior to the announcement of the Award winners;
c) Teasers, entry Excerpts and supporting videos can be made publicly available on the International Formats Platform when the shortlist is published, when the nominees are announced and within the awards ceremony as it is staged live and/or as a stream and for subsequent catch-up viewing by the general public after the announcement of the Award winners, without a time limit on the availability of streamed material;
d) Entries can be listed in an International Formats Awards brochure, together with all corresponding information (such as contact details of the Entrant and of the broadcaster or platform having aired it, and a still from the Entry, etc.). Stills from the Entry or pictures to be included in the International Formats Awards brochure shall be chosen by the Organiser at its discretion.
e) It is expected that a representative of each finalist is present in person at the Awards Ceremony. If circumstances do not permit this, the entrant is required to provide an acceptance speech on video.
f) The Organiser shall have, without limitation in time, for the purposes of the International Format Awards and for promotion and publicity, a worldwide and royalty-free right to use, exhibit, distribute, transmit and publish the Teaser as well as any excerpts from the Entry up to a maximum of three minutes by any means and in any and all media, including but not limited to Internet transmission (including on the Organiser’s websites, on the official Substack, YouTube and social media channels of C21 Media) without the need to make any payment whatsoever;
The exercise of the rights granted hereunder shall not be subject to any copyright fees or any other payments or compensation of any kind or nature.