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

April 22 – Format Awards open for entries

July 26 – Format Awards entries close

September 6 – Finalists announced on C21Media.net

October 20 – The International Format Awards winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at MIPCOM

General Entry Criteria

  • The Awards are open to any show that first went to air between 1st June 2023 and 26th July 2024 and is being marketed to the international community as a format.
  • Best scripted format category: Please note the first episode of the remake should have aired in the new territory between 1st June 2023 and 26th July 2024
  • Entries will be accepted from the producers or distributors of a show. It is the entrant’s responsibility for submitting 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 C21Screenings, should the show become a finalist.
  • The judges will review submissions remotely via password protected AwardsForce accounts.

Entry fees

  • The fee to enter is £175 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 July 26; 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 assure you send in a clip that focuses on the nominee.)
  • One full-length episode – 16:9, landscape, mov or mp4, size 5GB max file size Show logo (landscape) – any size, png or jpg
  • Key art image (optional)

Pitch videos

In addition, we encourage entrants to provide a short video that reprises the way the show was originally pitched and tells the story of the journey the show has taken to the screen. This is not obligatory, but may be reviewed by the judges where provided; extracts of this video may also be used on C21 Media’s platforms, as part of the coverage of the Awards.


Full entry criteria by category

Best Brand-Driven Format
More than just a bit of product placement or brand integration, this category is about formats that owe their existence to a brand or advertiser that has played a crucial part in the format’s creation. 

Best Competition Reality Format
Competition reality can encompass everything from survival format Bear Grylls – Mission Survive to talent searches The X Factor and So You Think You Can Dance. At its core, there is a winner. Participants (celebrities or public) are playing to win – be that a job (The Apprentice), money or even a relationship (The Bachelorette). Even though some of the competition takes place in a studio, nowadays, nearly all have out-of-studio elements not least of which is public voting.

Best Comedy Format
This category is for unscripted comedies, not sitcoms. These are comedy formats in studio or the field that might involve comedy sketches, improv, panels or hidden cameras. These are often confused with quiz shows except in comedies the answers aren’t important; the laughs are the thing.

Best Factual Entertainment Format
In our awards, factual entertainment has a broader definition than used in Britain where factual and factual entertainment mean different things. For these awards, factual entertainment formats are formats, shot in the field or in studios where there is not competition but rather the exploration of a slice of life either for elucidation or for entertainment. The topics could be life or death (Deadliest Catch) or lifestyle (cooking).

Best Multi-platform Format
These are formats that at their core have some platform aside from television integral to the show’s narrative. A website or social network page that is merely a promotional vehicle for the show would not qualify. The other non-TV platforms have to interact with the casting, narrative or outcome of the show to make it a significant multi-platform format.

Best Scripted Format
This category is for scripted drama or comedy series that have been sold and produced as formats outside their country of origin. It is the new production in this second – or subsequent – territory that is eligible for entry. The first episode of this remake in the new territory (or territories) should have aired between 1 June 2023 and 26 July 2024.

Best Studio-Based Gameshow Format
Studio-based gameshows can cover everything from serious quizzes to physical studio games, from cooking to dating games. At their core, they must take place in a closed studio environment and some games must be played, almost always with competition and winners.

Best Returning Format
This category awards an existing format that aired a season (domestic or international) between 1 June 2023 and 26 July 2024.

On the occasion that more than one iteration of the show is eligible, entrants should either choose to enter one specific season from this period, or the show franchise as a whole.

Best Reality Format
Unlike competition reality formats, reality doesn’t require any element of competition. Shows entered in this category may be documentary-style, following central characters in their assumed ‘real’ lives, such as, The Only Way Is Essex. It also includes structured reality, where the circumstances surrounding the show are manipulated for the purpose of the show, like Wife Swap. This category may include self-improvement/makeover shows, hidden camera shows, survival or social experiments.

Best Host of a Television Format
This award is designed to recognise talent in front of the camera and will be given to the person the judges feel has played a key role in enhancing a format by the sheer strength of personality, flair and unique approach to fronting a television format.

The International Formats Business Gold Award 2024
This award will be chosen by the C21, EMC, FRAPA and MIPCOM Cannes boards for outstanding contribution to the formats business.


TERMS AND CONDITIONS

By submitting Entries to the International Formats Awards, all Applicants represent, warrant and accept that:

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

  1. a) 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;
  2. b) 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’s staged live and/or as a stream and for subsequent catch-up viewing by the general public after the announcement of the Award winners;
  3. c) When the International Formats is staged as a full live event 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;
  4. d) 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 YouTube channels of the Organiser) 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.