THE SCREENING PROCESS

A team of carefully selected pre-screeners review all submissions, checking for rule violations and rating for quality. (These ratings are consulted only during the screening process, not for award judging.)

After reviewing the semi-finalists from the pre-screening ratings, a three-person committee selects which films to exhibit at the festival. The director checks the content-questionable films against the City of Tyler's content guidelines for City-sponsored events. The highest-ranked of these submissions then moves forward to our official judging committee.

THE JUDGING PROCESS

After the screening committee has selected the exhibiting films, a separate three-person judging panel watches each film, and each judge assigns a rating (ties are broken by the film committee). After all films have been watched and rated, the ratings are averaged, and the highest-scoring films in each award category are selected as the winners.