An Oscar-Qualifying Festival Adds a Dedicated Vertical Film Award
Cash prize, studio access and global submissions. The festival circuit has gone 9:16.
An Academy Award-qualifying film festival now has a dedicated vertical film award.
The award comes with a cash prize, access to a production studio and a global submission window. For the first time, a festival with an Academy-qualifying designation has treated the vertical frame as a category of filmmaking rather than a distribution quirk.
Why it matters
Festival recognition is how the film industry decides what counts as film. A dedicated award at a qualifying festival says that a short made for a phone, in portrait, can be judged on the same terms as any other short: by its craft.
It also opens a door. Filmmakers who have built careers in vertical now have a festival credit to pursue, and festival programmers have a reason to watch the format with a critical eye.
The association’s view
The festival circuit has gone 9:16. The association’s own awards program, The Verticals, is designed for the industry side of the same recognition: performance, direction, writing and design across the format’s platforms. A festival award for vertical film and an industry award for vertical production are complementary, and both are overdue for a format with this much work and this little acknowledgment.
The association will publish submission details for The Verticals when they are finalized. In the meantime, the festival’s window is open.