Celebrating The Art Of The Tease: 15th Annual Golden Trailer Awards

Posted on Friday, May 23, 2014

In a world where people determine what to watch by what they see at first glance, the movie trailer is king. For the past fourteen years, “The Golden Trailer Awards” have recognized the finest collection of work this world has to offer. Friday, May 30th, a new batch of trailers will receive this honor at the Fifteen Annual Golden Trailer Awards to be held at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.

When the awards first originated, only a handful of trailer companies were creating these mini works of art for features. Over the last several years the industry has blossomed with nearly 100 companies crafting trailers for film, television, online series and video games. To be considered for this year’s awards, trailers/teasers/TV spots/video game trailers had to be created between March 8th, 2013 and April 11th, 2014 with a running time under four minutes and thirty seconds. For submissions in the foreign trailer category, 50% of a film’s content and funding had to originate outside the United States.

The Golden Trailer Awards recognize technical aspects of production (editing, sound editing, soundtrack) and posters / standees used to promote movies in addition to the trailers themselves. Show categories include: Action, Animation/Family, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Horror, Independent Trailer, Music, Romance, Thriller, Video Game, Voice Over, Blockbuster, Trashiest Trailer, Most Original Trailer, and the Golden Fleece – which honors a great trailer for a “not so great film.” Due to popular demand, the category of Best Fantasy/Adventure will make its inaugural debut. A group of judges comprised of directors, writers, actors and producers select the winners.

“Many people overlook the art form of trailer creation. These talented artists are cutting a feature length movie into two minutes and thirty seconds and making people want to see more. They deserve recognition,” said Monica Brady, Executive Producer of The Golden Trailer Awards. “I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and I never get bored with it.”

Frequently, multiple trailers are cut for one film, resulting in a movie competing against itself in a category. This year there are two three-way competitions: “Godzilla” (Summer Blockbuster Poster) and “Sabotage” (Best Vine). Two way ties include “You’re Next” (Most Innovative Advertising for a Feature Film), “The Wind Rises” (Best Foreign TV Spot), “The Lego Movie” (Best Animation/Family TV Spot) and “Transcendence” (Best Motion/Title Graphics). In the Best Summer 2014 Blockbuster TV Spot, “Godzilla” and “Spiderman” each have a two way battle, joined by a single nomination for “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”

While over fifty categories receive recognition, the decision to highlight 15 categories was made during the first presentation to ensure the show remained entertaining and concise. Golden Trailer Awards Executive Director Evelyn Brady-Watters have focused on injecting comedy into the show and keeping a quick pace. This allows the festivities to embody the nature of the trailer business.

“The secret of success is heavy comedy and to keep the show short. We have a finite number of categories and provide an essence of the nominated trailers – 25 seconds – for people to know what is competing in a category,” said Brady-Watters. “From start to finish we are done in 90 minutes.”

This year’s event will feature a pre-show reception that begins at 7:00pm followed by the award show. While they expect the show to wrap in ninety minutes, they have been careful to indicate on their program that a post-party will begin at the conclusion of the awards

“They’re a very specific crowd. One year we wrote that the reception began at 9:30 and most of the people left the award show,” said Brady. “They didn’t want to miss the after party!”

To see a complete list of this year’s The Golden Trailer Awards nominees and learn more about the ceremony, please visit: http://goldentrailer.com/show.php