Eligible directors

• Directors can be based anywhere in the world, be of any age and come from any background.

• Directors must have only worked with commercial budgets under £€$ 50k - this is for any commercial work. One of the intentions of Shiny is to give directors the visibility, connections and mark of confidence to access TV commercial/ large budget work. The under £€$ 50k budget requirement is intended to exclude directors who are already working in that sector.

• It's the entrant's responsibility to check eligibility, no refunds!

Eligible videos

• Any video under 5 minutes runtime, including: music video; fashion film; brand content; narrative; documentary; TikToks; game-based content.

• Videos must be under 5 minutes, minus credits.

• There are no genre or release date restrictions - videos can be spec work or self-commissioned. They can have been published at any time.

• You can submit trailers -  trailers are judged on their own merits as a standalone piece of work, according to the criteria below, rather than judging the film they promote.

• It's fine to submit unpublished, password-protected videos. They won’t be displayed on the website and if selected, we won’t link to the video until it’s publicly available.

• You can submit as many eligible videos as you like.

• It's the entrant's responsibility to check eligibility, no refunds!

• It's the entrant’s responsibility to make sure links and passwords work during the whole period the video is in review - please take care not to lock out judges by changing settings or submitting inaccurate details. No refunds!

Judging process

• All entries are initially scored by Shiny, according to the judging criteria below.

• The first consideration is whether the entry will be included in the Shiny List. This is our database of +400 recommended new directors, used exclusively by Industry members.

• Eligible entries are usually viewed and the entrant contacted about Shiny List status within 2 weeks of entry.

• All entries that make it onto the Shiny List are also considered for the next stage, which is a potential Showcase or Awards screening, see homepage for next event details.

• All Showcase screenings are considered for the next Shiny Awards after the Showcase screening.

• Entrants are contacted about screening status for any event after that event’s deadline and generally a few days before the event.

• Shiny Awards jury panels are made up of Shiny’s Industry members.

• Shiny Showcase jury panels are made up of previous Shiny winners.

Entering again

• Entries are only considered once for the Shiny List - if an entry doesn’t get into the Shiny List, there’s no point in submitting the same film again

• If an entry is accepted for the Shiny List but not for the next Showcase or Award, you can enter again and you might get a different answer as both the jury panel and other entries will be different. Though on the whole it’s probably better to get on with making another film .and submitting that, than trying again and again with the same entry.

Feedback

• We don’t give online feedback or advice about individual videos, individual career strategy or do meetings about any of these things, because it’s not practical for Shiny as a business. If you come to a Shiny event, Caroline is happy to talk about individual career plans or to give feedback on videos, at the event. Check out Shiny Insights for resources and see upcoming opportunities for learning & connection.

Judging criteria & selection

• Quotas - shortlists, ie work screened at events, always include at least 70% of work from self-declared, under-represented directors.

• Judging guidelines at all stages are:

Innovation - is this a fresh approach, is it a different kind of story
Storytelling - does it build, does it feel complete
Craft - does it have a clear & consistent aesthetic (note this doesn’t mean ‘technically brilliant’)
Engagement - do you want to recommend it to other people

• Every entry is considered on its own merits. For example, if your entry is one of a series, it’s judged on whether it works as a standalone piece. If it’s a trailer for a longer piece of work, it is considered based on how well it works as a standalone trailer.

Prizes, attending the awards & free tickets

• Winners are selected and announced at the Shiny Awards, by the Winner judges, variously made up of press, influencers and agency/ brand decision-makers.

• Prizes always include meetings with hard-to-reach and influential Advertising Industry leaders.

• Shortlisted directors plus 1 are invited to attend the Shiny Awards as guests of Shiny. Directors won’t know whether they’re shortlisted until after jury panels have met, so directors who want to attend the awards are advised to buy tickets asap to guarantee their place. If shortlisted, we will refund the cost of two tickets.

Promotion

• If a video is added to the Shiny List it’s promoted on the Industry member-only newsletter and in the member-only part of the website. Listings include directors’ email contact details (or their rep, if repped), instagram and website links (by consent).

• Shiny Awards winners are announced live at the Awards, and subsequently promoted to press (usually featured in Shots and Little Black Book) on Shiny’s main newsletter and across our socials.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy

• We're committed to practical ways to bring more people from under-represented groups into the industry, and so we support quotas.

• Any video scored highly by judges is longlisted for the Awards screening, regardless of the director's demographic group. We apply diversity filters in the longlist selection and for the Shiny Awards.

• The entry form asks if directors consider themselves under-represented in the industry, according to gender, ethnicity, childhood income, sexual orientation, disability, or any other socio-economic factor they feel is significant. White, male, middle class, able bodied, straight, young directors are included in the quotas.

• We also measure various diversities in our industry reviewers, judges and our own hiring practises.

• Our quotas and performance are published in ‘About’ on the website.

Shiny Membership

• Companies working in Advertising Production are welcome to become members of Shiny. Contact Caroline for details

• There isn’t a membership group for Directors - the best way to connect with us is to sign up to the newsletter, join the Shiny WhatsApp group and come to our events, where you’ll meet other directors, producers, reps and creatives.