The Los Angeles Web Series Festival, more commonly known as the LA Web Fest, is a

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

festival based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It was founded in 2009 by Michael Okwudili Ajakwe Jr and was one of the first web series-based events; ''Filmmaker Magazine'' called it "the granddaddy of all webfests." The event has attracted controversy for its policies.

Background

The festival had its first official event in 2010. The venue has changed several times since its inception, with the 2015 festival being held at the Hilton Universal City Hotel in Universal City. When asked about the importance of web series as a creative medium by Carolyn Handler Miller for her book ''Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment'', founder Michael Ajakwe, Jr. said:

Before, filmmaking was a rich man's game. And if you couldn't afford to make a film, a great voice might be lost ... Web series offer freedom.

Since the festival's

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presentation in 2010, it has helped produce web series-based festivals in several major cities around the world, including in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

(Marseille Web Fest),

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

(Melbourne Web Fest),

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(Rio Web Fest) and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

(Seoul Web Fest).

Controversy

In 2015, after other LA-based web series festivals scheduled their events around the same time (including the HollyWeb Festival and

Indie Series Awards The Indie Series Awards (formerly the Indie Soap Awards) is an annual event hosted by ''We Love Soaps'', based in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best in independently produced, scripted entertainment created for the Internet. The ceremony ...

), Ajakwe came under fire for enforcing an 'exclusivity clause' stating that all entrants "must withdraw their shows from HollyWeb Fest and their award consideration at the ISAs, or be disqualified from LA WebFest." The clause has since been the subject of controversy and derision in the web series community, with many calling it "anticompetitive" and "unreasonable." Ajakwe spoke to ''Snobby Robot'' about the issue, claiming it stems from earlier conflicts in 2012 when the Hollywood Web Series Festival planned their festival on the same weekend as the LA Web Fest. ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometo ...

'' also published a story about the controversy, writing: "The battle lines are drawn in the emerging web fest world, as the venerable LA Web Fest has drawn an exclusivity line in the sand for its 2015 entrants."

Award categories

* Outstanding Comedy Series * Outstanding Writing (Comedy) * Outstanding Directing (Comedy) * Outstanding Female Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Male Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Drama Series * Outstanding Writing (Drama) * Outstanding Directing (Drama) * Outstanding Female Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Male Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Action Series * Outstanding Writing (Action) * Outstanding Directing (Action) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Action) * Outstanding Animated Series * Outstanding Music Video * Outstanding Documentary Series * Outstanding Variety Series * Outstanding Educational Series * Outstanding Directing (Non Fiction) * Outstanding Writing (Non Fiction) * Outstanding Cinematography * Outstanding Editing * Outstanding Costume Design * Outstanding Production Design * Outstanding Makeup * Outstanding Soundtrack * Outstanding Special FX * Outstanding Sound Editing

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.lawebfest.com/ Awards established in 2009 Web series awards 2009 establishments in California Festivals established in 2009

Background

Controversy

Award categories

See also

References

External links