New Award Announced for Best Unscripted Online Video

Entries for Best Unscripted Online Video Are Now Open

Today AACTA announced a new Award for Best Unscripted Online Video.  

Expanding on AACTA’s current award categories for short form productions, and following the successful introduction of the AACTA Award for Best Online Video in 2017, the inaugural AACTA Award for Best Unscripted Online Video will recognise the wealth of unscripted and factual entertainment being made by both established and emerging creatives for social video platforms.

Spanning How-To, Style, Wellness, Kids and Family entertainment, Education and Technology, News and Culture, the AACTA Award for Best Unscripted Online Video will celebrate the highly engaging original content being produced by Australia’s exciting emerging creatives on social platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Australia’s viewing habits have changed remarkably over the last five years with the rise of video on demand services transforming the already fast-moving video landscape; offering audiences more choice of content than ever before to watch anytime, anywhere and on any device. Social video platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, are commanding huge global audiences looking for new and innovative forms of entertainment with near ubiquitous reach among viewers under 35.

While online video may be considered an emerging sector of the Australian screen industry, an abundance of popular, high-quality, original content is being produced for a very receptive local and global audience. The Best Unscripted Online Video Award not only provides these online content producers industry recognition and promotion, but also provides an opportunity to be recognised and embraced by their peers at the nation’s most prestigious screen awards.

“We are incredibly proud to support Australia’s innovative online creators and to be an industry leader in acknowledging the role they play in shaping the Australian screen industry while creating audiences for themselves globally,” said AFI | AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella. “Social video platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are content rich environments, and are commanding a large and ever growing audience particularly among people under 35. In establishing this new Award category, we are shining a spotlight on a new generation of innovative Australian content creators.”

Entries for the AACTA Award for Best Unscripted Online Video are now open. Nominees for the AACTA Award for Best Unscripted Online Video will be announced in late October 2019 and the winner will be announced at the AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel.