AWARDS AT THE EDINBURGH FRINGE
We've compiled a list of the awards available at the Edinburgh Fringe. They change slightly from year to year but we will keep them updated as much as possible. The list is ever changing, but here's the main body of them - let us know if we've missed anything at [email protected].
Allen Wright Award
Award for journalists under 30 covering the Fringe. Winner and Runner up chosen in two sections: Reviews and Features (winner gets a cash prize)
Entries close 20th of August (2013)
Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award
If your show is a theatre piece dealing with issues surrounding human rights, this one is for you!
Category: Theatre
Entry: Free, via Amnesty website
www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10535#award
Amused Moose Laughter Awards (supported by 2entertain)
This award is a sizeable cash prize (£5000) for comedians who are “almost DVD ready.” If that sounds like you and you have some good quality video content, off you go to navigate the very colourful, fonty Amused Moose website.
Category: Comedy
Other eligibility criteria: must be performing at least 18 dates at the Fringe; entrants cannot have a pre-existing contract or association with a DVD publisher or producer
Entry: by 23:59 August 4 upload video content and fill out a form via website
www.amusedmoose.com/awards
The Arches Brick Award
Are you an emerging talent? Have you created a new work or a “radical re-staging” of an existing text? Look into the Arches Bricks awards, which offers you funding towards a run of your show this Glasgow venue plus non-financial support.
Category: Experimental theatre, dance, physical theatreOther eligibility criteria: You must not have staged more than three previous shows as a company/artist; you have to be able to restage the work before July the following year.
Entries close mid-July before Edinburgh (you can submit later but the earlier the better) via www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/arches-brick-award-2013-call-for-submissions
The Bobby Award
These are Broadway Baby’s awards, chosen by the editors of the publication from the five star reviewed shows. These are the Sixth Star Bobby - for outstanding shows, and the Technical Bobby, recognising backstage crafts. There is no application process.
www.broadwaybaby.com/
Brighton Fringe Emerging Talent Award
Are you an emerging company or artist? Fancy putting your show on in Brighton during May? This show gives a show support towards the cost of doing a run at the Brighton Fringe Festival in the festival’s most exciting venues.
Categories: All
Entry: To register your interest, send a press release to [email protected]. There is no other application process.
www.brightonfringe.org/participants/awards-2013
Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award
If you are a theatre production lucky enough to get a four or five star review from the Scotsman, you might get extra lucky with an expenses paid junket to New York under the auspices of philanthropist Carol Tambor. Nice.
Entry: Automatic
Categories: Theatre
www.bestofedinburgh.org
Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Award
If your show uses sustainable practice, get in touch with these guys until August 18. The recipient gets a lovely plaque and a feature article in the CSPA Quarterly.
Entry: Complete a questionnaire
Categories: All
www.sustainablepractice.org/programs/fringe
The Chortle Student Award
£2000 is a lot for a student, and many of the recipients of this award have gone on to have impressive careers. Heats take place from February and March, semis in May, and finals happen at the Fringe.
Category: Comedy
Other eligibility criteria: you have to be a student in the UK
www.chortle.co.uk
Dave’s funniest joke of the Fringe
This award will get you a bit of press at the end of the festival and a whole lot of people dissing your joke. There’s no entry process, you’ll just find out on the day if you’re one of the top ten selected.
Dupliquick Printing Zebra Awards
This award, sponsored by a local printer, recognises excellence in poster design - and these people have really seen a lot of Fringe posters. The judging criteria (which are also just good notes for designing a good Fringe poster), are thus:
· Eye-Catching
· Informative
· Marketable
The winner will receive £250 cash and £250 worth of printing.
Category: All, you just need to have a poster.
Entry: Deadline for entries is 19 July.
www.dqprint.co.uk
The Evening News Drama Awards
If you are coming to Edinburgh from Edinburgh and are an amateur company, this is the award for you.
Categories: Theatre, Musicals
Entry: Email Liam Rudden at [email protected] for more details and to enter.
Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards
For comedians, this set of awards is the ultimate achievement of the Edinburgh Fringe. Success in this field generally leads to great things, and even a nomination is something to write home about - you’re almost certain to sell out the rest of your run.
Category: Comedy and Cabaret
Best Comedy Show - you should know what this means.
Best Newcomer - A “newcomer” is considered anyone debuting a 50 minute+ show (meaning you can do 45 minute shows for years if you want, and launch as a newcomer when you’re ready).
Panel Prize - Awarded at the discretion of the judging panel - anyone is eligible.
Other eligibility criteria: They're quite extensive, so check the website
Entry: Automatic
www.comedyawards.co.uk
Foster’s So You Think You’re Funny Awards
For newbie stand-ups working around the country, entry to SYTYF opens in January, and heats take place from May through to July across the UK. The award is fiercely contested, with hundreds of hopefuls taking part each year. The finals take place at the Gilded Balloon during the Fringe and stand to win £2000 and a place in the Best of British Show at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Category: Stand-up comedy
Other entry requirements: You mustn’t have been performing regularly since September of the previous year (paid or not), you must have eight minutes of original material, and this must be your first SYTYF entry.
Entry: via www.soyouthinkyourefunny.co.uk
FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Awards
Chosen by the Editors of FringeReview. The prize (an engraved teapot and a certificate) will be announced towards the end of the Fringe, with a press release and photoshoot - there is no application process.
Categories: Theatre
www.fringereview.co.uk
Herald Angel Awards
Awarded by the Herald newspaper each week of the Festival, this award recognises the best performers, venues and crew. There are several categories of award, including the Archangel, the most prestigious, followed by the Angel and the Little Devil, which recognises productions that have overcome adversity. There is no open entry process, but if your show has experienced and overcome a major challenge, be sure to mention that in a press release to the Herald.
Holden Street Theatre Award
After conquering the Edinburgh Fringe, why not cruise into a spot at the world’s second largest Fringe festival, Adelaide? Winners of the award receive financial and administrative support towards flights, accommodation, venue hire, production costs, Fringe registration, visas and sponsorship and marketing.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: Send an application form available at www.holdenstreettheatres.com/edinburgh/award.php to [email protected]
www.holdenstreettheatres.com
Impatto Totale Award
This award, new in 2013, is offered by the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, and the winner has the chance to perform at La MaMa Festival in Spoleto, Italy
Entry: a longlist is selected by artists of Impatto Totale (the umbrella group of the Italian companies taking part in the Fringe). For more information,
Other entry criteria: the award is open to European companies taking place in the Fringe Festival
Contact [email protected]
www.impattototale.wix.com
Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award
This award memorialises Jack Tinker, a Daily Mail theatre critic and longtime supporter of the Fringe. There are no criteria or applications.
The Malcolm Hardee Award
To remember the legacy of anarchic comedian Malcolm Hardee, there are three awards: The Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, the The Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award and The Malcolm Hardee Pound of Flesh Award. Known in the industry as being for weird and alternative Fringe work. There are no criteria for the award, but more information is available on the website by emailing [email protected]
www.malcolmhardee.co.uk/award
The Mervyn Stutter Spirit of the Fringe Awards
Both a variety show and an award, both have been running since 1992 as “Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe”. The show takes place daily to help audience make their choices, and on the final performance, Stutter himself presents an award. Needless to say, there is no entry process as it’s Mervyn’s call, but you can find out a bit more on his website.
Categories: comedy, theatre, cabaret, music, dance
www.mervynstutter.com/site/Fringe.html
Musical Theatre Network Awards
For new pieces of musical theatre writing by professional companies, this award (formerly MTM Awards), offers awards for Best Book, Best Lyrics, Best Music and Best New Musical, as well as an Innovation award and the potential for discretionary awards. The show must be available to be judged on certain dates (in the middle of the festival).
Category: Musical Theatre
Entry: contact [email protected]
http://www.musicaltheatrenetwork.com/what-we-do/awards/
NSDF Edinburgh Emerging Artists Competition
The National Student Drama Festival sponsors this substantial award, with IdeasTap, The Martin Bowley Charitable Trust and Pleasance. All entries will be seen by a panel, with a list 15 shows released at the end of each of the first three weeks of the festival - each will receive notes and feedback from a NSDF professional and a review in IdeasTap.
A commended shortlist and the winner will be announced at the end of the Fringe, with the winner receiving a transfer to the Pleasance Islington (with a share from box office sales), £500, artistic development support during the Pleasance run and free tickets to the NSDF Festival for the following year.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: via the website
Other eligibility criteria: You must be a student production presenting new writing, new devised theatre, a new adaptation or innovative reworking of a film or a play.
www.nsdf.org.uk/edinburgh
The Primary Times Children’s Choice Award
A publication offering families a guide to what’s on in Edinburgh, this new award recognises excellence in Fringe shows for kids. There is no formal entry process, but kids’ shows should get in touch and request a review via [email protected].
The Scottish Arts Club/Edinburgh Guide Award for Best Scottish Play
Outstanding drama that can boast a Scottish director, writer, cast, or a Scottish based theatre company will be eligible. While there’s no application process, the selection come from the best reviewed shows in The Edinburgh Guide, so if you’re doing theatre and you fit the Scottish criteria, make sure you get your press release off to them quicksmart.
www.edinburghguide.com/
The Scotsman Fringe First Awards
Established to encourage work to be taken to Edinburgh. Formerly, the award was only open to text-based productions, but it has now been opened to include dance and physical theatre, however there must be a strong element of character development and/or narrative. Re-staging and re-interpreting of existing work is ineligible. Different rules apply for companies within the UK and abroad.
International productions: Work can have had its premiere before reaching Edinburgh, as long as the premiere was within the last two years.
Categories: theatre, dance & physical theatre, musicals & opera or the children's shows
Entry: There is no formal entry process, however you can state your eligibility on your Fringe Registration form.
Other eligibility criteria: Adaptations of existing work will not be considered unless there is evidence of a “creative transformation” of the source material. UK productions: Work must premiere in Edinburgh. You can have performed no more than six previews and the production cannot have been reviewed.
www.edinburgh-festivals.com/blog/2013/08/03/scotsman-fringe-first-awards
The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence
Four prizes - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Ensemble and Best Solo Performance - are offered by The Stage newspaper for outstanding performances. As there is no formal application process, make sure you send a great press release to Cyrila Pereira: [email protected]
Three Weeks Editors’ Awards
The editors of this popular Fringe publication recognises 10 events or happenings that made the Fringe. The announcement is made at the end of the Fringe and there is no formal entry requirement
Time Out & Soho Theatre Cabaret Awards (TO&ST)
The only award specifically for Cabaret, open to shows listed in the Cabaret section of the Fringe programme. The winner will receive a two-week run at the Soho Theatre, with feature in Time Out London magazine.
Categories: Cabaret
Other eligibility criteria: The show must be performing its first Edinburgh Fringe, with a run of more than 5 performances. The show be at least 50 minutes long and cannot have performed in venues with a capacity of over 500. Shows produced or presented at the Fringe by Soho Theatre or Time Out Live are ineligible, as are shows that are programmed after the start of the Fringe.
Entry: contact [email protected] for more information
www.sohotheatre.com/about-us/toastaward
Total Theatre Awards
Total Theatre magazine recognises innovation in theatre, live art, visual performance, mime, experimental theatre, clown, circus, street arts, mask, cabaret and new variety, site-specific, dance-theatre, puppet- theatre and beyond. Shows from the UK and abroad will be considered for the award, and the work does not have to be new to the Fringe to be eligible. Five awards are offered across three categories, Five awards across three categories will be awarded, including one award for an Emerging Artist or Company, which offers £500 with support from Farnham Maltings.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: Before the end of July, application available at www.totaltheatre.org.uk/total-theatre-awards/
Other eligibility criteria: student works are not considered
Work registered for an award can be new to this year's Fringe or previously presented/toured work of artists/companies.
www.totaltheatre.org.uk/total-theatre-awards
We've compiled a list of the awards available at the Edinburgh Fringe. They change slightly from year to year but we will keep them updated as much as possible. The list is ever changing, but here's the main body of them - let us know if we've missed anything at [email protected].
Allen Wright Award
Award for journalists under 30 covering the Fringe. Winner and Runner up chosen in two sections: Reviews and Features (winner gets a cash prize)
Entries close 20th of August (2013)
Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award
If your show is a theatre piece dealing with issues surrounding human rights, this one is for you!
Category: Theatre
Entry: Free, via Amnesty website
www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10535#award
Amused Moose Laughter Awards (supported by 2entertain)
This award is a sizeable cash prize (£5000) for comedians who are “almost DVD ready.” If that sounds like you and you have some good quality video content, off you go to navigate the very colourful, fonty Amused Moose website.
Category: Comedy
Other eligibility criteria: must be performing at least 18 dates at the Fringe; entrants cannot have a pre-existing contract or association with a DVD publisher or producer
Entry: by 23:59 August 4 upload video content and fill out a form via website
www.amusedmoose.com/awards
The Arches Brick Award
Are you an emerging talent? Have you created a new work or a “radical re-staging” of an existing text? Look into the Arches Bricks awards, which offers you funding towards a run of your show this Glasgow venue plus non-financial support.
Category: Experimental theatre, dance, physical theatreOther eligibility criteria: You must not have staged more than three previous shows as a company/artist; you have to be able to restage the work before July the following year.
Entries close mid-July before Edinburgh (you can submit later but the earlier the better) via www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/arches-brick-award-2013-call-for-submissions
The Bobby Award
These are Broadway Baby’s awards, chosen by the editors of the publication from the five star reviewed shows. These are the Sixth Star Bobby - for outstanding shows, and the Technical Bobby, recognising backstage crafts. There is no application process.
www.broadwaybaby.com/
Brighton Fringe Emerging Talent Award
Are you an emerging company or artist? Fancy putting your show on in Brighton during May? This show gives a show support towards the cost of doing a run at the Brighton Fringe Festival in the festival’s most exciting venues.
Categories: All
Entry: To register your interest, send a press release to [email protected]. There is no other application process.
www.brightonfringe.org/participants/awards-2013
Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award
If you are a theatre production lucky enough to get a four or five star review from the Scotsman, you might get extra lucky with an expenses paid junket to New York under the auspices of philanthropist Carol Tambor. Nice.
Entry: Automatic
Categories: Theatre
www.bestofedinburgh.org
Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Award
If your show uses sustainable practice, get in touch with these guys until August 18. The recipient gets a lovely plaque and a feature article in the CSPA Quarterly.
Entry: Complete a questionnaire
Categories: All
www.sustainablepractice.org/programs/fringe
The Chortle Student Award
£2000 is a lot for a student, and many of the recipients of this award have gone on to have impressive careers. Heats take place from February and March, semis in May, and finals happen at the Fringe.
Category: Comedy
Other eligibility criteria: you have to be a student in the UK
www.chortle.co.uk
Dave’s funniest joke of the Fringe
This award will get you a bit of press at the end of the festival and a whole lot of people dissing your joke. There’s no entry process, you’ll just find out on the day if you’re one of the top ten selected.
Dupliquick Printing Zebra Awards
This award, sponsored by a local printer, recognises excellence in poster design - and these people have really seen a lot of Fringe posters. The judging criteria (which are also just good notes for designing a good Fringe poster), are thus:
· Eye-Catching
· Informative
· Marketable
The winner will receive £250 cash and £250 worth of printing.
Category: All, you just need to have a poster.
Entry: Deadline for entries is 19 July.
www.dqprint.co.uk
The Evening News Drama Awards
If you are coming to Edinburgh from Edinburgh and are an amateur company, this is the award for you.
Categories: Theatre, Musicals
Entry: Email Liam Rudden at [email protected] for more details and to enter.
Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards
For comedians, this set of awards is the ultimate achievement of the Edinburgh Fringe. Success in this field generally leads to great things, and even a nomination is something to write home about - you’re almost certain to sell out the rest of your run.
Category: Comedy and Cabaret
Best Comedy Show - you should know what this means.
Best Newcomer - A “newcomer” is considered anyone debuting a 50 minute+ show (meaning you can do 45 minute shows for years if you want, and launch as a newcomer when you’re ready).
Panel Prize - Awarded at the discretion of the judging panel - anyone is eligible.
Other eligibility criteria: They're quite extensive, so check the website
Entry: Automatic
www.comedyawards.co.uk
Foster’s So You Think You’re Funny Awards
For newbie stand-ups working around the country, entry to SYTYF opens in January, and heats take place from May through to July across the UK. The award is fiercely contested, with hundreds of hopefuls taking part each year. The finals take place at the Gilded Balloon during the Fringe and stand to win £2000 and a place in the Best of British Show at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Category: Stand-up comedy
Other entry requirements: You mustn’t have been performing regularly since September of the previous year (paid or not), you must have eight minutes of original material, and this must be your first SYTYF entry.
Entry: via www.soyouthinkyourefunny.co.uk
FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Awards
Chosen by the Editors of FringeReview. The prize (an engraved teapot and a certificate) will be announced towards the end of the Fringe, with a press release and photoshoot - there is no application process.
Categories: Theatre
www.fringereview.co.uk
Herald Angel Awards
Awarded by the Herald newspaper each week of the Festival, this award recognises the best performers, venues and crew. There are several categories of award, including the Archangel, the most prestigious, followed by the Angel and the Little Devil, which recognises productions that have overcome adversity. There is no open entry process, but if your show has experienced and overcome a major challenge, be sure to mention that in a press release to the Herald.
Holden Street Theatre Award
After conquering the Edinburgh Fringe, why not cruise into a spot at the world’s second largest Fringe festival, Adelaide? Winners of the award receive financial and administrative support towards flights, accommodation, venue hire, production costs, Fringe registration, visas and sponsorship and marketing.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: Send an application form available at www.holdenstreettheatres.com/edinburgh/award.php to [email protected]
www.holdenstreettheatres.com
Impatto Totale Award
This award, new in 2013, is offered by the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, and the winner has the chance to perform at La MaMa Festival in Spoleto, Italy
Entry: a longlist is selected by artists of Impatto Totale (the umbrella group of the Italian companies taking part in the Fringe). For more information,
Other entry criteria: the award is open to European companies taking place in the Fringe Festival
Contact [email protected]
www.impattototale.wix.com
Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award
This award memorialises Jack Tinker, a Daily Mail theatre critic and longtime supporter of the Fringe. There are no criteria or applications.
The Malcolm Hardee Award
To remember the legacy of anarchic comedian Malcolm Hardee, there are three awards: The Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, the The Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award and The Malcolm Hardee Pound of Flesh Award. Known in the industry as being for weird and alternative Fringe work. There are no criteria for the award, but more information is available on the website by emailing [email protected]
www.malcolmhardee.co.uk/award
The Mervyn Stutter Spirit of the Fringe Awards
Both a variety show and an award, both have been running since 1992 as “Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe”. The show takes place daily to help audience make their choices, and on the final performance, Stutter himself presents an award. Needless to say, there is no entry process as it’s Mervyn’s call, but you can find out a bit more on his website.
Categories: comedy, theatre, cabaret, music, dance
www.mervynstutter.com/site/Fringe.html
Musical Theatre Network Awards
For new pieces of musical theatre writing by professional companies, this award (formerly MTM Awards), offers awards for Best Book, Best Lyrics, Best Music and Best New Musical, as well as an Innovation award and the potential for discretionary awards. The show must be available to be judged on certain dates (in the middle of the festival).
Category: Musical Theatre
Entry: contact [email protected]
http://www.musicaltheatrenetwork.com/what-we-do/awards/
NSDF Edinburgh Emerging Artists Competition
The National Student Drama Festival sponsors this substantial award, with IdeasTap, The Martin Bowley Charitable Trust and Pleasance. All entries will be seen by a panel, with a list 15 shows released at the end of each of the first three weeks of the festival - each will receive notes and feedback from a NSDF professional and a review in IdeasTap.
A commended shortlist and the winner will be announced at the end of the Fringe, with the winner receiving a transfer to the Pleasance Islington (with a share from box office sales), £500, artistic development support during the Pleasance run and free tickets to the NSDF Festival for the following year.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: via the website
Other eligibility criteria: You must be a student production presenting new writing, new devised theatre, a new adaptation or innovative reworking of a film or a play.
www.nsdf.org.uk/edinburgh
The Primary Times Children’s Choice Award
A publication offering families a guide to what’s on in Edinburgh, this new award recognises excellence in Fringe shows for kids. There is no formal entry process, but kids’ shows should get in touch and request a review via [email protected].
The Scottish Arts Club/Edinburgh Guide Award for Best Scottish Play
Outstanding drama that can boast a Scottish director, writer, cast, or a Scottish based theatre company will be eligible. While there’s no application process, the selection come from the best reviewed shows in The Edinburgh Guide, so if you’re doing theatre and you fit the Scottish criteria, make sure you get your press release off to them quicksmart.
www.edinburghguide.com/
The Scotsman Fringe First Awards
Established to encourage work to be taken to Edinburgh. Formerly, the award was only open to text-based productions, but it has now been opened to include dance and physical theatre, however there must be a strong element of character development and/or narrative. Re-staging and re-interpreting of existing work is ineligible. Different rules apply for companies within the UK and abroad.
International productions: Work can have had its premiere before reaching Edinburgh, as long as the premiere was within the last two years.
Categories: theatre, dance & physical theatre, musicals & opera or the children's shows
Entry: There is no formal entry process, however you can state your eligibility on your Fringe Registration form.
Other eligibility criteria: Adaptations of existing work will not be considered unless there is evidence of a “creative transformation” of the source material. UK productions: Work must premiere in Edinburgh. You can have performed no more than six previews and the production cannot have been reviewed.
www.edinburgh-festivals.com/blog/2013/08/03/scotsman-fringe-first-awards
The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence
Four prizes - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Ensemble and Best Solo Performance - are offered by The Stage newspaper for outstanding performances. As there is no formal application process, make sure you send a great press release to Cyrila Pereira: [email protected]
Three Weeks Editors’ Awards
The editors of this popular Fringe publication recognises 10 events or happenings that made the Fringe. The announcement is made at the end of the Fringe and there is no formal entry requirement
Time Out & Soho Theatre Cabaret Awards (TO&ST)
The only award specifically for Cabaret, open to shows listed in the Cabaret section of the Fringe programme. The winner will receive a two-week run at the Soho Theatre, with feature in Time Out London magazine.
Categories: Cabaret
Other eligibility criteria: The show must be performing its first Edinburgh Fringe, with a run of more than 5 performances. The show be at least 50 minutes long and cannot have performed in venues with a capacity of over 500. Shows produced or presented at the Fringe by Soho Theatre or Time Out Live are ineligible, as are shows that are programmed after the start of the Fringe.
Entry: contact [email protected] for more information
www.sohotheatre.com/about-us/toastaward
Total Theatre Awards
Total Theatre magazine recognises innovation in theatre, live art, visual performance, mime, experimental theatre, clown, circus, street arts, mask, cabaret and new variety, site-specific, dance-theatre, puppet- theatre and beyond. Shows from the UK and abroad will be considered for the award, and the work does not have to be new to the Fringe to be eligible. Five awards are offered across three categories, Five awards across three categories will be awarded, including one award for an Emerging Artist or Company, which offers £500 with support from Farnham Maltings.
Categories: Theatre
Entry: Before the end of July, application available at www.totaltheatre.org.uk/total-theatre-awards/
Other eligibility criteria: student works are not considered
Work registered for an award can be new to this year's Fringe or previously presented/toured work of artists/companies.
www.totaltheatre.org.uk/total-theatre-awards
