The Telly Awards, which aims to honour video and television content across all screens, has announced this year's winners.
This year’s edition received over 11,000 entries and saw an increase in global submissions from Australia, Mexico, across Europe (Germany, Spain, France) and Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan).
Founded in 1979 to honour commercials made for cable and local TV, The Telly Awards has continually refreshed its categories to honour the evolving, broad range of work being made — including branded content, social video and animation — working with industry experts to identify categories where new platforms play an increasingly important role in how stories are being told.
In recognition of the industry’s continuing evolution, The Telly Awards reinforced its commitment to showcasing the many outstanding ways video is being used in this ever-changing landscape by introducing a suite of new categories, including Workplace Culture, Hybrid Events, Education and Training, Recruitment and Sustainability.
“The workforce has changed so much. New companies have come out of this time, others have shifted their offerings and employees are also looking for new ways of working — and video is being utilized more than ever to address these shifts,” explains Tellys executive director Sabrina Dridje. “The culture of a company has never been so critical to attract and retain talent — whether it’s new ways of remote working, placing purpose at the centre of a business’s key values or providing Employee Resource Groups for communities to gather and support each internally. This year’s incredible group of winners perfectly exemplifies the many artful and unique ways video is being used to tackle these timely topics. By introducing our new categories, we’re continuing to deliver on our mission of constantly evolving with the changing industry and the world.”
Among the winners in the new categories, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Microsoft and The Walt Disney Company, Europe and Africa, won big in Workplace Culture.
In Hybrid Events, Left Field Labs and ViacomCBS Consumer Products took home the top honours, the latter for “ViacomCBS Consumer Products Virtual Partner Summit,” a recap of their virtual partner presentation utilising Unreal Engine to create a virtual stage for presenting updates on their shows.
PBS, Ctrl5, The Department of Veterans Affairs, American Documentary Inc, Setter Studios and Grounded brought home the gold in Sustainability, which highlights the many ways video and television are being used to centre stories around environmental issues — a powerful way to disseminate critical information about the current and future state of the planet.
In Education and Training and Recruitment, winners for the former category included work from the likes of Accenture Productions, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs and the American Theatre Wing, while Stanford University and Johns Hopkins Medicine took home the top honours in Recruitment.
The Telly Awards also announced Al Jazeera Media Network as Telly Company of the Year for the second year in a row. Al Jazeera Media Network’s work this season continues to embody what it means to create compelling, gold standard video journalism.
Finally, it was another standout year for the “People’s Telly Awards”, which are given to the most-loved pieces chosen by The Telly Awards’ audience. Winners include Al Jazeera: “Al Jazeera Investigations – All the Prime Minister’s Men”, the National Parks Conservation Association’s “One Park. One Story. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park,” and Operation Smile: “A Window to the World: The Anthony L. & Hideko S. Burgess Interactive Learning Center.”
More highlights from this year’s awards include:
Branded Content
- Freethink won for “Catalysts” in Campaign: Social Responsibility
- Fortune Brand Studio won for The Ecopreneurs Ep1: SeaTrees in Video/Cinematography
- Innocence Project won for “Happiest Moments” in Campaign: Not-for-profit
Non-Broadcast
- Mytonomy won for “Cochlear Implants” in Education & Training
- Sony Music Entertainment won for Janis Joplin Me and Bobby McGree (Official Music Video) in Use of Archival Footage
Commercials/Marketing
- Microsoft won for “Power On: The Story of Xbox” in Games
- Playstation won for Star Wars in Games
- Taxi Film Production won for Tourism and Events Queensland – Days Like This in Directing
Series/Shows/Segments
- Hearst Media Production Group won for “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation” in Museums and Galleries
- The Walt Disney Company, Europe & Asia won for Disney Jr. Xmas Multiproperty Spot in Fully Animated Piece
- WeTransfer won for Aline – The French Dispatch in Use of 2D Animation
Immersive and Mixed Reality
- Nice Shoes won for Audi: ”E-Tron Showroom” in Use of AR
Social Video
- PBS Digital Studios won for “Popular Words Invented by Authors” in Education and Training
- Sesame Workshop won for Dia de Los Muertos/Day of the Dead Song in Children
