An audience award is typically an award at a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

(or some other type of cultural festival or similar competition) which is selected by the

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), o ...

attending the festival, rather than by the festival jury or a group of critics.

Examples

A well-known example of audience awards are those given out at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

, which is one of the leading

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

festivals in the world. Sundance first awarded audience awards in 1989, and now has separate audience awards for dramatic, documentary, and world cinema. These awards have become among the most important awards granted at the festival.Benjamin Craig and Lee Tatham, ''Sundance a Festival Virgin's Guide: Surviving And Thriving at America's Most Important Film Festival'' (Cinemagine Media Publishing, 2003), , p. 7
(excerpt available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

). The first Sundance Audience Award winner was

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direct ...

's ''

Sex, Lies, and Videotape ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (often written in all lowercase as ''sex, lies, and videotape'') is a 1989 American independent drama film written and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The plot tells the story of a troubled man who videotapes women dis ...

'', whose success at Sundance produced a studio bidding war, and which then became the first hit film to come out of the Sundance festival.Caryn James
"Hollywood Breathes In The Spirit of Sundance"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Sunday, February 2, 1997. The Audience Award came to be seen as a better indicator of potential commercial success than the juried awards. A different example is the ''

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence H ...

'' Audience Award, in which the television viewing audience is invited to rate each episode of the PBS independent film series (through online voting), and an award is given to each season's best rated episode.''Independent Lens'' - About the Audience Award
(retrieved June 3, 2009).

Judging

Some popular awards shows, such as the

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (also known as the KCAs or Kids' Choice) is an annual American children's awards ceremony show that is produced by Nickelodeon. Usually held on a Saturday night in late March or early April, the show honors ...

and

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

use polling or online voting by a viewing audience to make selections, although these awards are typically not limited to an audience that has attended a specific festival or viewed a specific set of film or television programs.

References

{{reflist

Examples

Judging

See also

References