Online Applications Launched for STVF\'s 2015 Magnolia Awards

Applications for the 21st Shanghai TV Festival\'s Magnolia Awards were launched on December 15. The online portal is now open for applications in four sections – TV drama, documentaries, animations, and variety shows.

The Magnolia Award is renowned internationally for its professionalism, fairness, and quest for excellence, making it a highly prestigious TV industry award.

The TV festival (STVF) started in 1986 and consists of a number of different TV sector activities, including awards, markets, Pitch & Catch, and forums.

In recent years, variety shows have emerged in large numbers in China as satellite TV stations innovate and introduce new programs to compete for ratings.

In line with this development trend, STVF will launch for the first time in 2015 the Magnolia Award for Chinese Variety Show.

The new award is intended to recognize a show\'s fine production values, audience popularity and sound social qualities. It is also intended to recognize this emerging trend in domestic variety shows and to encourage the production of more and better programs.

A new selection process will be adopted for the Magnolia Award in 2015. STVF will invite famous producers, scholars, representatives of broadcast platforms and other elites from various industries to become involved in selection and judging. The vote counting will be hosted by Deloitte, one of the four major international accounting firms.

STVF has worked in cooperation with Tokyo TV Festival and Seoul TV Festival since 2008 and established in the Magnolia program a “Special Award for Foreign TV Series.” STVF has also been promoting excellent domestic TV series into foreign markets for five years, many of which have received awards.

A variety of more than 1,000 shows from over 50 countries and regions applied for the Magnolia Award at the 20th STVF in 2014. The Golden Award and Silver Award in 2014 were respectively presented to Breaking Bad, the popular American TV Series, and My Love from the Star, the South Korean TV drama that swept the world. The major producers of these two series visited Shanghai to receive the awards.

In addition, over 80 TV series, documentaries and animations, including My Love from the Star, were broadcast over seven major channels during the Festival, providing a great viewing feast for audiences. Starting from next year, the fine programs chosen by STVF will not only be shown on traditional channels, but also be broadcast on new media video sites to expand their public exposure.

The 21st STVF will be held from June 8 to 12. The awards application deadline is March 10, 2015. Please visit www.stvf.com for more information. Applications for the two markets and Asian Animation Pitch & Catch are expected to start from January 2015.