Hi 

August is the month we spend trying to make sure we're as ready as possible for the busiest part of the year. 

By this time next month, we'll have closed submissions for #NZWF23 (yes, that was a hint!), be ready to announce our line-up of selections and be neck-deep in decisions about what titles to nominate for which awards, organising files for judges to access and getting the judging processes underway.

And, after all that's done, we'll be into October when the plate-spinning really starts. 

Right now, we're calling out for judges, and - if you can spare an evening from the comfort of our own sofa - we'd love you to throw your hat in the ring. If you're interested, please email [email protected] and let us know whether you'd prefer to judge for our podcast, series or shorts awards.

If you've got a submission in with us this year, that's OK. We won't create a conflict of interest and ask you to judge a category you might be nominated in.

We put together our juries so that people from NZ judge in our international award categories, and people from overseas judge NZ categories.  

We always invite previous year's winners to join our jury pool, and their generosity is legendary and loved. Buuuuut (you knew there was a but coming, didn't you!) that approach only works when there are winners from a previous year. 

This year, we've introduced short films into our programme, so we have no pool of previous winners. We are, therefore, especially keen to hear from people willing to join a jury in our shorts categories.  

We're certainly not the only people getting busy at the moment, and you can find news of what some other festivals are up to down below. 

Enjoy!

 
Team #NZWF23

We're still three months away from #NZWF23, but already we're doing some things for the last time. This is our final monthly announcement of early selections. 

The early selections below are chosen from all submissions received before our Late deadline on 31 July.  

Congratuwelldone to ...

Four podcasts

Actual play titles Another Bad Side Quest and Dark Dice ... serial fiction Uncle Walter's Year of Wonder, from Daniel Williams, creator of our 2022 Best Podcast winner Mission to the Grey Hole ... and standalone fiction Whistlebottom

Four shorts

MV Glitter VIP, directed by Lily Unsub ... doco Ultimately Lacks Polish, by Kathleen Winter, who's also behind one of earlier MV selections, Ingrid & The Ministers' Boofhead ... and a pair of narrative shorts, Kain Baigent & Stig Wemyss' A Piece of Work is Man from Australia, and Shelley Waddams' Hand in Hand (above), one of last year's Someday Stories titles.

Half a dozen web series titles

Pilots Abulivia from Italy's Michele Pinto, and Peter Feeney's local title Blind Bitter Happiness ... two factual series from north of the 49th, Canadiana and Drag Heals ... plus a pair of narrative series, The Hunted: NYCSS from the US and Australian selection It's A Cult.

Congrats to all the creators, casts and crews behind those podcasts, series and shorts. You can check out the full list of early selections right here. 

The Web Series World Cup published its latest rankings in late July. 

The current top three titles are:

1. Chateau Laurier (above)
2. W.
3. Streams Flow From A River and Tokens

With Illuminagents the next best-placed title, four of the top-ranked five titles are Canadian.

At #19, Ana remains the highest-placed factual show.

We've not yet seen any further updates to the Audio Fiction World Cup rankings, so the top three remains unchanged for now ... 

1. We're Alive: Descendants
2. The All Night Society
3. Savage Waking: Obliteration

With summer currently roasting and toasting much of the northern hemisphere, few festivals are running right now, but that doesn't mean they're taking a siesta. 

Plenty of announcements of line-ups of selections and award nominees are coming out, so congrats to everyone picking up good news from festivals including Apulia, Baltimore, New Jersey. and some of the category line-ups for Marseille.

A couple of local titles are in the mix, including Michelle Ang's Spinoff series Hair Now (above), which picked up a couple of awards last year from us and now heads to Apulia, and Elizabeth Koroivulano's Coconet series, Akanuanua, one of our 2022 selections and soon heading to Marseille.

Toronto has published its award nominees, which include Te Pāmu Kūmara, from the team at Kura who are also behind Ahikāroa, which has picked up awards from us at each of our last two editions.

We've got a couple of gems to enjoy this month. 

TransGenerations comes from Naashon Zalk, whose No Place Like Home was among our finalists last year.  

Little Apocalypse (above) comes from Elsie and Sally Bollinger, who back in the day were members of the Candle Wasters team which delivered many online gems including Happy Playland and TragiComic, which between them picked up four nominations at our 2017 and 2018 editions - and all of which are still available to be enjoyed on their YouTube channel.

For those who like joining the dots, Elsie and Sally's mum is Kathy McRae, whose doco Pacific Mother recently picked up four awards (including the Oscar-qualifying best film award) at this year's Doc Edge festival. 

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We love to give shout-outs to new content in these newsletters and on our socials, but we don't have much time to trawl for it every month. So, we've decided to make that your opportunity! 

If you're releasing something, be it brand new or (for series and podcasts) a new season, shamelessly self-promote by dropping us a line or adding [email protected] to your media list if you're really fancy and have one of those.

Tell us what, when and where your stuff's releasing, and we'll do the honours. We'll give preference to stuff that isn't geo-blocked or behind pay-walls, but all-comers are welcome :)

If we don't know, we can't spread the word, so do share. Help us to help you!

If you're looking for some festival love and laurels, including from us, here are some deadlines that'll slide on by before our next newsletter hits your inbox.

British Web Awards, regular deadline, 19 August
BUEIFF Web Series, regular deadline, 21 August
Melbourne WebFest, final deadline, 23 August
Hollywood Series, regular deadline, 31 August
Panama Series Festival, early deadline, 1 September
Rio Webfest, final deadline, 10 September

Events also open for submissions now, but with deadlines further away, include Italy's Digital Media Fest and Miami WebFest.

For more deadlines, check out the calendar page on our site, which includes deadlines and event dates for Web Series World Cup and Audio Fiction World Cup festivals, plus listings for other (mostly NZ) festival deadlines and event dates. 

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If you've submitted a series to us, don't forget that you can submit to our trailer category for free. One you've submitted a series to us (factual or fiction, live or animated, but not a pilot) drop us an email to [email protected] and we'll send you a fee waiver code for your trailer. 

Easy as!

If you enjoy our monthly newsletters, but want info more than once every few weeks, give our social channels a go (links are just below). 

We post a few times a week, mostly on facebook and instagram. Our twitter is a bit more podcast-focused than our other channels, and LinkedIn we only use occasionally. 

We also have a linktree, which you can find here or access via our instagram bio.