Alliance for Community Media members and member stations receive 50% off. Contact your community media center for the discount code.

The Best of the Northwest Awards is a chance for you to showcase exceptional community media programming. This prestigious awards contest honors outstanding programs produced by community media/PEG (public, educational, government) access TV and other non-commercial media in the Northwest region of the Alliance for Community Media (Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming).

This contest is looking for programs that you take pride in! Programs that people watched and appreciated, that made a difference in your community and demonstrated all that community access has to offer.

For over 20 years, Best of the Northwest has supported television programs that are made on a local level. With your entry, you'll be joining a group of the Northwest's most successful community and local access producers. You'll also be supporting the Alliance for Community Media Northwest Region, an organization that works to preserve community access for future generations.

Entries will be judged at community media centers outside of the Northwest Region.

An awards presentation with clips from the winning entries will take place March 1, 2024 in Olympia, Washington!

Best of the Northwest grants awards in seven categories, as well as our highest award for Overall Excellence in P.E.G. Programming. Award winners are presented with a plaque for their outstanding program.

An awards presentation with clips from the winning entries will take place March 1, 2024 in Olympia, Washington!

1. By entering the Best of the Northwest Video Awards, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the following Rules for Entry, including eligibility and submission requirements. You also give permission to the Alliance for Community Media Northwest Region to present one or more clips from your video/audio to an audience on cable access channels, on the internet, and at the Awards Ceremony.

2. ENTRIES PRODUCED OUTSIDE OF THE NORTHWEST REGION ARE NOT ELIGIBLE. We only accept entries from residents of Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

3. Programs that are currently in any form of commercial distribution are not eligible for entry. All entries must be non-commercial programs.

4. Entries may be submitted in as many categories as apply to the content of the program. One award will be presented for each category.

5. For PEG Only Categories: Video/audio entries must have had their first broadcast showing on a community media/PEG channel, local origination channel, podcast, or audio broadcast in the Northwest Region of the Alliance for Community Media (U.S. States/Canadian Provinces of Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) produced between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023. For more information on the definition of PEG, see Wikipedia (wikipedia.org/wiki/Public,_educational,_and_government_access)

6. All entries must be submitted no later than December 31, 2023.

7. Entries for the Overall Excellence in Public, Educational, or Government Access Programming Award must be submitted by a public, educational and/or government (PEG) access center that manages a combination of PEG services and channels.

8. Overall Excellence entries must be a compilation reel including excerpts from at least 6 different programs. Titles may be added to identify clips. The total running time of the reel cannot exceed 20 minutes.

9. Entries will be disqualified if:
-Entry was produced outside of the Northwest Region of the Alliance for Community Media.
-Judges are unable to access entry link, or for any other technical reason.
-An entry clearly violates a specific requirement of the category in which it is entered.
-Any portion of the program was produced before January 1, 2019.
-Refunds may not automatically be made for any entry that is disqualified or if any other error is made by the producers or submitters of any entries. A decision by the judging panel or organizers to disqualify an entry is final.

10. By entering the Best of the Northwest Awards program, you agree to release, indemnify, and hold harmless the Alliance for Community Media and the Alliance for Community Media Northwest Region, as well as all of their employees, agents, representatives, successors, etc. from all losses, claims, theft, demands, liabilities, causes of action, or expenses, known or unknown, arising out of your participation in the Best of the Northwest Awards.

If any of these rules are not clear, please email acmnwr@gmail.com for more information.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • msawteach@hotmail.com Sawyer

    We were very happy with everything about the Best of the Northwest Awards, and were honored to be Selected as the Best Short Narrative Feature Film. Perhaps paramount were the friendly people and gracious hospitality at the Awards Event, and the excellent connections with creative folks to be made there.

    March 2024
  • It is very special to win Best of the Northwest for a series I have produced continually since 1986. I appreciated the timeliness of the results. To cancel the awards ceremony was unfortunate, it seems like something could be pulled together for that.....I suggest next year, have the ceremony and announce the winners in advance so they will know they have won and can make extra effort to attend the ceremony. It would be nice to be able to see the scorecards/evaluations that the judges filled out so we would have input about how to improve our future work. I didn't attend the conference, so my ratings for hospitality and networking don't apply. Overall, I am appreciative of this opportunity and very grateful to be a winner.

    April 2019
  • Mary Katzke

    What an honor to be acknowledged all the way from Alaska with our winning entry, I'm Still Inside.

    May 2018
  • Gene Bernofsky

    Thank you for a wonderful, fulfilling and lovely event and festival. I was able to attend from Missoula, Montana and enjoyed every minute. The presentation of the access film clips was beautiful and rewarding. For myself, films produced under the banner of Public Access are the most meaningful, healthy, democratic, creative and potent media. Love you all!

    April 2017