Entries for TATOA's 2025 Government Programming Awards are now being accepted through Aug. 1, 2026.

There are no longer combined budget categories. If a category does not have enough entries, it will be combined into one budget tier come judging time.

WHICH BUDGET AM I IN?
Categories are broken into budget tiers. (Over 300K or Under 300K). If your Film and Audio production staff have combined salary and benefits over 300K, you are considered a larger city and will submit into "Over 300K" categories. Typically, a full-time production team of 3-4 or more is the cut-off for over 300K.
Not included are facility costs, utilities, etc. DO NOT INCLUDE PEG FUNDING.

Submissions need to have been produced and released between June 1, 2025 and July 1, 2026. The cost of each entry is $60 for members and $75 for non-member organizations. TATOA Members MUST USE CODE "TATOAMEMBER" to get your member discount applied at checkout.
You can renew your membership at Tatoatexas.org/Membership

Awards & Prizes

Each category will recognize 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries with a trophy. Those entries receiving an "Award of Merit" will receive a certificate.

An awards dinner will be held at our annual conference this year in San Antonio the first week of November.

Rules & Terms


How Many times can I enter in a video?
A video can be entered into 2 categories, and Best Overall.
A new submission or film-free way entry must be created for each category. Entering one video submission into several categories hinders accurate judging scores.

Entries MUST be received and paid for by Aug 2nd, 2026. The FilmFreeway platform does not accept checks , only credit card or PayPal. If you need to pay by check, you MUST contact us before July 18th.

The TATOA Government Programming Awards rely on peer review. The exception is for the "Best Overall" category, which is done outside of TATOA membership. If you enter the contest, you will be required to participate in judging. Failure to do so could result in disqualification of your entries. Judges will only be required to watch 10 minutes of any single entry.
We ask that you provide at least a few CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM COMMENTS to help contest entrants improve in their craft. These should be professionally prepared and delivered...think of how you would want someone to deliver the same feedback to you concerning your work.

Any collaboration where the actual entry was produced by an outside agency needs to be disclosed, while delineating what work was done by the entering organization and that by the "contractor."