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Awards data

Contents

1. Overview of the submission format
2. Detailed explanation of the submission format
3. Submission examples
4. Most common faults adding data to the awards list
5. Awards list submitter's check list
6. Useful Links
7. Tracking your contribution

Overview of the submission format of the awards list

(Jump to examples with real world data)

[Event]: <event's name>
[Award]: <award's name>
[Category]: <award's category> if any
[Year]: <year of award/event>
[Rank]: <1, 2, 3 or nom>
[Data Source]: <web site, book, ...>
[(Additional) Title]: <IMDb movie title>
[Recipient]: <person's name> [<(attribute)>] if award is given to a person
[Company]: <company's name> [<(attribute)>] if award is given to a whole company
[Comment]: - <additional comment>

Detailed explanation of the submission format

[Event]: <event's name>

  • Enter the event's name as known in the All Events list.

    • i.e.:

    [Event]: Academy Awards, USA
    [Event]: Emmy Awards
    [Event]: Sundance Film Festival
    [Event]: Rouen Nordic Film Festival
    [Event]: Cinema magazine, Germany

  • If you are going to add a new event, please use the event's common/English name whenever possible. Also, for film festivals, please put the festival's town in front, no matter where it is placed in the official festival name.
  • If necessary, please add the country for distinction.

    [Award]: <award's name>

  • Enter the name of the award.
  • If you are going to add a new award, please use the award's common/English name.

    • i.e.:

    [Award]: Oscar
    [Award]: Golden Lion
    [Award]: Emmy
    [Award]: Special Prize of the Jury
    [Award]: FIPRESCI Award
    [Award]: FIPRESCI Award - Honorable Mention
    [Award]: Audience Award

    [Category]: <award's category>

  • Enter the category of the award if any. Please note that some awards do not have a category. This is especially true for film festivals.
  • Please submit this information uppercasing all significant words.

    • i.e.:

    [Category]: Best Direction
    [Category]: Best Actress
    [Category]: Best Supporting Actor
    [Category]: Worst Film Ever
    [Category]: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Series
    [Category]: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
    [Category]: Best Short Film

    [Year]: <year of award/event>

  • Enter the year the award was given in. Please don't be confused when submitting for example Academy Awards. The 1994 Academy Awards were given in spring 1995 and you would enter 1995.

    • i.e.:

    [Year]: 1973
    [Year]: 1996
    [Year]: 1930-2

  • On rare occasions an event may have multiple instances in the same year, i.e. the Academy Awards in 1930. For those special cases - and only for those -, please append a counter with a dash to the year to indicate the event count within that year as in the last example above. Please note, the first instance of an event in a given year should use no suffix, whereas subsequent instances should use -2 and beyond.

    Please be aware, that for awards/events without a year instance, or with a year instance of 1, the submission interface will display no year suffix.


    [Rank]: <1, 2, 3 or nom>

  • Enter the rank of the award given or specify a nominee here.
  • The following fits here: 1, 2, 3 or nom.
  • Note: If a movie is an official festival contribution on festivals with a competition but without any pre-nomination it can be considered a nominee. However only a festival's official selection films, i.e. the movies which compete for the festival's grand prize are acceptable as nominees. Please don't enter movies as being nominated which compete for minor awards in other festival sections. Some festivals have up to seven or eight sections with minor awards given and we have to draw the line somewhere.

    • i.e.:

    [Rank]: 1
    [Rank]: 2
    [Rank]: nom

    [Data Source]: <web site, book, ...>

  • Please state the source where the information you are about to enter is coming from. Is it a book, a newspaper or a web site?
  • The data you enter here should enable any other person to find this information too, so please be as explicit as needed. For a web site or a book, please enter the according page the information can be found on, do not just enter the book's title or the WWW site's entry page.
  • Please note that the information you enter here will not appear online at IMDb and is absolutely mandatory for more recent awards.

    • i.e.:

    [Data Source]: https://www.vkn.com/kilmer/awards/
    [Data Source]: Gebert, Michel. The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards. 1996. p. 331

    [(Additional) Title]: <movie title>

  • (Please note that this data field is hidden under the [This award is for multiple movies] checkbox, if you are submitting data via a movie's title page.)
  • Enter the movie title as known to IMDb or enter nothing if it is a personal award with no relationship to any movie, i.e. a lifetime or a technical award.
  • Sometimes an award is given for performances in several movies. If you are submitting such an award, please enter additional titles by choosing the number of titles involved from the listbox in the awards form. If the listbox is not visible to you, please click on the [This award is for multiple movies] checkbox to reveal it.

    • i.e.:

    [Title]: The Panama Deception (1992)
    [Title]: "Star Trek" (1965)

    [Recipient]: <person's name> [Attribute]: <(attribute)>

  • Enter the person's name as known to IMDb if the award is related to a person, (i.e. Best Direction, Best Actor etc.)
  • If a Best Picture award is presented to the movie's producer please don't forget to give their name here.
  • The format is <last name(s)>, <first name(s)>. Please note the comma behind the person's surname.
  • There is one exception to the usual IMDb names format and that is if fictitious characters like i.e. 'Godzilla' or groups like i.e. 'The Beatles' are awarded. In such a case please put the name in the [Comment]: field indicating the data as the award's recipient.
  • In order to achieve the goal to keep complete track of awards and due to the fact that information may be hard to gather especially for older awards you may also use 'Unknown' if the name of the recipient is unknown, but all other necessary data is known. In such a case and like above, please enter something like 'recipient unknown' in the [Comment]: field. You should not use this placeholder format for recent awards.
  • You may enter several names for one award, if the award is given to more than one person. Enter a new line and field for every name given. You may mix this field with the [Company]: field for companies.

    • i.e.:

    [Recipient]: Foster, Jody
    [Recipient]: Kurasawa, Akira
    [Recipient]: John, Elton [Attribute]: (music)
    [Recipient]: Rice, Tim [Attribute]: (lyrics)
    [Recipient]: MacKenzie, Michael [Attribute]: (ILM)
    [Recipient]: Kennel, Glenn [Attribute]: (Eastman Kodak)

  • Attributes should be entered i.e. as company information for technical awards where the award's recipient might not be widely known.
  • Attributes should also be entered where people are awarded together for different achievements as in the example above (music)/(lyrics).
  • In all other cases, it is important not to enter attributes - in particular, job titles like director/producer/writer should never be entered as attributes.


    [Company]: <company's name> [Attribute]: <(attribute)>

  • Enter the company's name here if the award is given to a company, i.e. Best Picture, Technical Award etc.
  • You may enter several companies for one award, if the award is given to more than one company. Enter a new line and field for every company given. You may mix this field with the [Recipient]: field for real persons.

    • i.e.:

    [Company]: Industrial Light & Magic [Attribute]: (computer graphics department)
    [Company]: Toulouse U Genie Des Systemes
    [Company]: Kodak Pathe CTP CINE
    [Company]: Eclair Laboratories [Attribute]: (Paris, France)

    [Comment]: - <additional comment>

  • Put here whatever does not fit into the above fields, i.e. scandals, the title of the episode of an awarded TV series, song titles of songs awarded or any other useful additional information. Please put a dash in front of every different item.
  • You must give a comment line whenever the award deals with something which cannot be directly identified by a movie title or a person's name and the according category. This includes i.e. song titles for Best Song Academy Awards or episode titles for TV series at the Emmy Awards as well as any official reasons for Honorary Awards or Special Mentions.

    • i.e.:

    [Comment]: - The decision led to an nation-wide scandal
    in the US, because...
    [Comment]: - For the optical design, mechanical design,
    engineering and development of the Primo 3:1 zoom lens.
    [Comment]: - For the song: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life".
    [Comment]: - For episode "The Innkeepers".
    [Comment]: - Tied with [link=nm0000137] in
    [link=tt0083170].
    [Comment]: - Also for their performances in
    [link=tt0110763] and
    [link=tt0110989].
    [Comment]: - For outstanding service and dedication
    in upholding the high standards of the
    Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

    Submission examples

    • Please look through all the following examples.
    • There are some 'special cases' shown. These are preceded by a comment line (#) indicating why these are special.

      • As a reminder, the title data field will be hidden, if you submit data via a movie's title page, because the first title is automatically set and almost all awards are given for achievements in one movie anyway.

      [Event]:Academy Awards, USA
      [Award]:Gordon E. Sawyer Award
      [Year]:1989
      [Rank]:1
      [Recipient #1]:Kurosawa, Akira

      # Special case: One and the same award is given for achievements in more than one movie:

      [Event]:Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
      [Award]:LAFCA Award
      [Category]:Best Director
      [Year]:2000
      [Rank]:1
      [Title #1]:Erin Brockovich (2000)
      [Title #2]:Traffic (2000)
      [Recipient #1]:Soderbergh, Steven

      # Special case: Please note the song's title, the episode title and the miscellaneous contribution comments behind the names:

      [Event]:Emmy Awards
      [Award]:Emmy
      [Category]:Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics
      [Year]:1996
      [Rank]:nom
      [Title #1]:"The Simpsons" (1989)
      [Recipient #1]:Clausen, Alf [Attribute]: (composer)
      [Recipient #2]:Oakley, Bill [Attribute]: (lyricist)
      [Recipient #3]:Weinstein, Josh (I) [Attribute]: (lyricist)
      [Comment]:- For the song "Senor Burns".
      - For the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns".

      # Special case: Award is tied and the other movie's recipients are referenced in IMDb syntax:

      [Event]:Razzie Awards
      [Award]:Razzie Award
      [Category]:Worst Screen Couple
      [Year]:1995
      [Rank]:1
      [Title #1]:Interview with the Vampire (1994)
      [Recipient #1]:Cruise, Tom
      [Recipient #2]:Pitt, Brad
      [Comment]:- Tied with [link=nm0000230] and [link=nm0000232]
      in [link=tt0111255].

      [Event]:European Film Awards
      [Award]:European Film Award
      [Category]:Best Direction
      [Year]:1989
      [Rank]:1
      [Title #1]:Eldorado (1988)
      [Recipient #1]:Beremenyi, Geza

      # Special case: Reader poll of a magazine, i.e. no recipient:

      [Event]:Zitty Magazine, Berlin, Germany
      [Award]:Reader Poll: 100 Years Of Cinema - Best Movie Ever
      [Year]:1995
      [Rank]:2
      [Title #1]:Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)

      # Special case: Award is split for different achievements. Have a look at the comment:

      [Event]:Academy Awards, USA
      [Award]:Scientific and Engineering Award
      [Year]:1985
      [Rank]:1
      [Recipient #1]:Stultz, Barry M. [Attribute]: (Film Processing Corp.)
      [Recipient #2]:Avila, Ruben [Attribute]: (Film Processing Corp.)
      [Recipient #3]:Kennedy, Wes [Attribute]: (Film Processing Corp.)
      [Recipient #4]:Mosely, John
      [Comment]:- For the formulation and application of an improved
      sound track stripe to 70mm motion picture film
      (Stultz/Avila/Kennedy) and for the engineering research
      involved therein (Mosely).


    Most common faults adding data to the awards list

    • Submitting awards not movie-related.
      Please don't submit awards which cannot be considered movie-related. i.e. we regularly receive additions containing Tony Awards. The Tony Awards are a stage acting award and are by no means movie-related. Awards for movie-related achievements only please.

    • Submitting the wrong year
      Please make sure you are submitting the year the award was actually given in. Quite a few organizations handing out awards refer to their awards as of the year the awards are given for, i.e. the year of eligibility. i.e. the DGA handed out their 1992 awards in spring 1993. Thus you would refer to these particular awards as 1993, not 1992.

    • Getting the "ranking" of an award wrong
      Please note that "ranking" is just an arbitrary term to refer to the fact that some awards may have the placing(s) listed. However this is not the rule. In almost all cases you either should enter "1" for winning the award or special mention or "nom" to indicate a nomination.
      Quite a few submitters i.e. enter '2' as the award's ranking, because the according award is the "second best" award at the according event, the silver award or special jury prize or whatever it may be called. This is wrong, please only enter '2' for any award, if that award actually was not won, no matter whether it is the Grand Prize, the Special Jury Award, the Silver Award or even a Honorable Mention.
      In other words, if a Silver Award was won, enter '1' to indicate the win even though the Gold Award was not won. Enter '2' only for cases where to indicate a "second place Silver Award". The same goes for every other award listed in the IMDb awards section.

    • "Inventing" data to fit the submission scheme
      Some submitters tend to invent data to fit the awards list's data scheme. Please only submit an award category if there was one. Don't invent one.

    • Using superfluous comment fields
      You only need to give comments for names where it's necessary, i.e. if a group of persons is awarded for different achievements or if the achievement differs more or less from the award's category.

    • Submitting data for an unknown event
      Please make sure you are submitting data for an award event which is already known to IMDb. If you are submitting data for an event not already known chances are that your data will not be processed, because your submission cannot be verified.
      You can check for all the events already known on our events overview page or you can use the small icon next to the textbox in the awards form.

    • Making too much work for yourself
      Please don't make yourself too much work with the awards list. Especially with regular errors, i.e. all years of an event are wrong or all winners of an particular year are wrong we recommend reaching out via out contact form and our staff will do their best to help you out. 

    • Submitting data without year
      Please make sure your submission contains a year at all. Otherwise your data cannot be added and will probably be dropped.
    • Submitting data without a name
      Please make sure your submission contains the recipient's name in the proper location, i.e. the [Recipient]: field.

      [Event]: Emmy Awards
      [Award]: Emmy
      [Category]: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics
      [Recipient #1]: Clausen, Alf [Attribute]: (composer)
      [Recipient #2]: Oakley, Bill [Attribute]: (lyricist)
      [Recipient #3]: Weinstein, Josh (I) [Attribute]: (lyricist)

      There is no need i.e. to specify (actor) for an award with an acting category. Such information is pretty evident.

      Please use IMDb full text hyperlink syntax only in the comment field [Comment]: of the awards list. The [Title]: field is automatically linked into the database and does not need that syntax.

      Awards list submitter's check list

      1. Does your submission have a movie title? ([Title]:)
        (Please note that this data field is hidden under the [This award is for multiple movies] checkbox, if you are submitting data via a movie's title page.)

      2. Does your submission have a recipient's name? ([Recipient]:)

      3. Does your submission have a known event name? ([Event]:)
        If not please submit the new event request to the Event Creation Request form.

      4. Does your submission have a known award name? ([Award]:)
        If not please submit the new award.

      5. Does your submission have the year the award was given in? ([Year]:)
        (A common fault is to submit the year the awards are given for.)


      Useful Links

      Jump to:
      Other documents:

      Please note: If you are using IMDb Pro, you can also look up any event by typing a substring into the main search. This search will find native language names for events too.

    Tracking your contribution


    You can now track the status of your Biographical submission and if it has not been approved, we'll tell you the reason why.

    If you are using the mobile apps, mobile website or desktop website you can access this feature via the 'Track your contribution' button, which has been added to the submission email receipt. Additionally, if you are using the desktop website, you can also use the 'Track Contribution' button now found in your contribution history page.

    Clicking this button will take you to IMDb Contributor, our new contribution specific site where you will be shown the status of your request.



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