2020 has been trying, to say the least.  At Indie Shorts Mag, we wondered what could make this year better and came up with Short of the Year Awards as our way of giving back to the community we are so proud to be associated with.

We announced the event early December and send out emails to 264 filmmakers with the submission form.  Of the 264 contacted, 143 reverted with their submissions, so as you can imagine, deciding the nominees wasn’t an easy feat!

We had made announcements on the nominations last week, on the Short of the Year Awards 2020 website. Some of you might have already noticed this, but for those of you who missed out on the list, here it is: 

Short of the Year Awards 2020 Nominees

Best Documentary

• Brass
• High On Heels
• Misfit M.
• Unfinished Lives
• Gau Premi (For The Love Of Cow)

Best Music Video

Unseen Echo : The Cloud Forest

2020’s only Music Video submission gets its consolation prize as the sole contender in its category.

Best Direction

• Soyka
• Cagnolino
• Young, Young Men
• Hope
• The Five Minutes

Best Editing

• Keeper
• Leave Us Here
• Make Me A Sandwich
• Our Father’s Cabin
• Uninvited

Best Cinematography

• His Hands
• Lucy
• The Sleeping Life of Sofia
• A Little Place Off the Edgware Road
• Under The Flag

Best Music

• Ya Albi
• Under The Flag
• Harvey
• Farewell Waltz
• The Five Minutes

Best Screenplay

• White Feather
• Reading Gaol
• Getting a Scholarship
• Call The Shot
• Also Patrick

Best Short Film (Short of the Year)

• Two Little Boys
• Split Second
• Jack And Anna
• Haunt
• Cotton Wool

Audience Choice Awards – Most Voted Film

Top 5 most-voted films of 2020:

• The Wine Thief – 1823 votes
• A Little Place off the Edgware Road – 1718 votes
• Li’l Chit Chat – 294 votes
• Together – 228 votes
• Yes, Virginia – 154 votes

Audience Poll Update:

We received a couple of emails regarding the Audience Choice Awards polling system. Some of you liked the ease of voting while some of you were concerned. So, to clarify: we used StrawPoll for the voting, as they have multiple checks in place to prevent fake votes.

Following are some of the steps undertaken by StrawPoll to ensure transparency: 

• To avoid duplication in votes, checks are placed based on the IP-address.
• To avoid fake votes and ensure more reliable poll results, VPN users are not allowed to vote.
• To improve spam prevention and to minimize fake votes, reCAPTCHA is enabled for voting on this poll.

So if someone tries to cast fake votes they will have to jump multiple hurdles!

Short of the Year Awards 2020 live event update:

When we announced the awards earlier this month, we informed you that we will be hosting a live awards show to reveal the winners. We had great plans for the event but unfortunately, we will have to cancel the live event and announce the winners via a blog post. It was a tough decision to make but because of certain COVID-19 related restrictions, we had to stop the production. Hopefully, we will be able to bring this mega plan of ours to fruition in 2021.

We will be announcing the winners on 31st of December 2020 here on Indie Shorts Mag. So, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to get an update once we announce the winners. 

Originally Published on Indie Shorts Mag on 30th December 2020.