Audience
Winning work can reach beyond the festival moment through audience discovery and online visibility where appropriate.
The Aurelia Awards
Recognition for exceptional screen stories—and a prize designed to help create a meaningful next step for the work, its makers and its future.
A trophy should be the beginning of the conversation.
EE Screen Festival celebrates work with artistic voice, commercial potential and cultural impact. The Aurelia Awards honour achievement while opening room for visibility, connection and opportunity.
Visibility
Editorial attention, winner profiles and campaign visibility can extend the life of exceptional work.
Industry
The festival takes place in a wider international screen-content environment built for meaningful professional connection.
Career
Recognition can strengthen the next conversation around a filmmaker, performer or creative team’s future work.
The Aurelia.
The Aurelia is the signature award of EE Screen Festival: a platinum figure with open wings, created to represent creative courage, elevation and the moment a story reaches beyond its maker.
It is an award for work that moves people, reflects excellence and deserves to stand visibly in the international screen conversation.
Recognition with a real next step.
Each winner receives the Aurelia Award, official recognition and a considered package of visibility and industry-facing opportunity.
The Aurelia Award
A platinum Aurelia trophy, official certificate and winner laurels recognising the achievement.
EE Magazine visibility
Winner feature, editorial profile, interview or campaign visibility where appropriate.
Industry presentation
Considered presentation to relevant distributors, platforms, broadcasters, producers or industry contacts.
EE Vault possibility
Selected work may be considered for an EE Vault showcase or distribution discussion.
Professional visibility
Inclusion in festival and winner communications, professional directory opportunities and relevant post-festival exposure.
Future consideration
Priority consideration for relevant EE creative work, projects, assignments and collaborations as opportunities arise.
Choose the path that protects the film’s next step.
A public festival win and a premiere-sensitive strategy are not the same thing. EE Screen Festival is designed to respect both.
EE Prize Route
For films ready to be seen, discussed and placed into the wider conversation around the festival.
- Festival screening and winner recognition
- Online ticketed release consideration
- EE Vault distribution or showcase consideration
- EE Magazine feature and winner visibility
- Relevant distributor and platform presentation
Cannes First Look Route
A confidential, premiere-protected route for work whose next strategic step requires careful handling before public screening or release.
- Cannes-ready positioning and market materials
- Festival and market strategy for the next exposure stage
- Relevant professional introductions
- No public festival screening, online availability or publicity
- A route created for premiere-sensitive work
Winners receive more than a trophy.
Grand Prize winners enter an active next-step conversation designed around their work, its momentum and its ambitions. The Aurelia Awards are built to help exceptional films and their creators reach the people who can move a career or a project forward.
That can mean introductions to the right distributors, sales agents, producers, platforms and potential partners; mentoring and practical guidance; strategic visibility; and opportunities that turn recognition into real momentum.
Special pathways for work ready for its next stage.
For exceptional winning work, the Aurelia Awards can open pathways toward major awards positioning, stronger market access and the next level of professional attention.
Short Film Awards Pathway
Selected Grand Prize winners in Live Action Short, Documentary Short and Animated Short can be considered for an EE-funded awards campaign toward Academy Awards eligibility, including a qualifying U.S. theatrical run.
Global Animation Pathway
Exceptional animation can receive market positioning, materials support and a strategy toward the most relevant next opportunities across festivals, industry and awards conversations.
BAFTA Campaign Pathway
Selected work can be considered for an EE-funded campaign toward BAFTA eligibility, bringing focused positioning and visibility to films ready for that next level.
Honouring the full range of screen storytelling.
The Aurelia Awards give genuine importance to established cinema, new forms, personal stories and work that can create impact beyond the screen.
Features
- Narrative Features
- Documentary Features
- Animation
- Ocean and Environmental Films
Short Form
- Narrative Shorts
- Documentary Shorts
- Microdrama and Mobile Storytelling
- Emerging Talent and Student Work
Screen Innovation
- AI and Emerging Screen Formats
- New forms of audience storytelling
- Creative work at the edge of format
Human Stories
- Human Stories and Social Impact
- Faith and Family
- Stories of hope, resilience and connection
- Work made for meaningful audiences
Ocean Impact
- Ocean and Environmental Films
- Ocean storytelling with purpose
- Environmental documentary and narrative work
- Stories that deepen public understanding
Creative Excellence
- Recognition across the official competition programme
- Exceptional artistic and technical contribution
- Performance, craft and creative achievement
- Final awards confirmed in the official rules
A prize with standards behind it.
The value of recognition depends on the care behind it. EE Screen Festival is building an awards process grounded in clear criteria, qualified perspective and respect for every submitted work.
- Considered evaluation by qualified jurors and industry voices
- Clear category criteria and responsible conflict disclosure
- Full-viewing expectations for work placed into jury consideration
- Recognition based on the work—not on marketing noise
- Winner pathways communicated with care, clarity and genuine ambition
Bring the work that deserves to be seen.
EE Screen Festival 2027 takes place on the Côte d’Azur from 13–16 October 2027, bringing together filmmakers, audiences and the wider international screen community for four days of stories, recognition and possibility.