Congratulations to the winners of our Season 12 Independent Television Awards!
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Best Drama Pilot
WOODSTOCKERS
For establishing a clear sense of place, filled with memorable and authentic characters, and emotional resonance and a compelling story engine, the best pilot award goes to WOODSTOCKERS.
Best Director, Drama
Reentry
For its ambitious use of 16mm film, its remarkable verisimilitude, and its commitment to powerful characters and real-life issues, the best director award goes to Keenan O’Reilly of REENTRY.
Best Writer, Drama
Aptitude
For creating an imaginative and visually striking sci fi world, with a script that raises intriguing questions about ideas that are sometimes scarily relevant to our current world, the best writer award goes to APTITUDE.
Best Performance, Drama
In My Blood
For a nuanced lead performance that ranges from quiet emotional devastation to powerful range, much of it without dialogue, the best performance award goes to Daniel Diemer of IN MY BLOOD.
Honorable Mention, Drama
Neither Donkey Nor Horse
For creating dazzling period detail that felt completely immersive – we just can’t believe you shot this in the summer in LA.
Best Comedy Pilot
Seasoned
In totality, this intimate romantic comedy was the most exquisitely produced pilot in this category. For its performances, a sure direction, and impeccable writing, we celebrate and congratulate Seasoned.
Best Director, Comedy
FreeLance
A passion for excavating comedy in every frame is the life-force behind this ambitious, collaborative directing team. Their directing is relentless, inventive, and unforgettable.
Best Writer, Comedy
Batshit
The writing for this genre-specific pilot brings rhythmic perfection, tonal and structural mastery, and word-perfect joke construction. The result is an outrageous, laugh out loud comedy anchored in relatable humanity.
Best Performance, Comedy
Soft Boil
This actor’s singular voice serves as the foundation of her piece. We see in her a wild, unafraid, and truly genius comedic actor deserving to be seen and celebrated.
Honorable Mention, Comedy
DRAGGED
The jury would like to give an honorable mention to DRAGGED for its honesty, necessity, and joy in telling this queer story today.
Best Unscripted Pilot
Choir Games
For its moving depiction of the uplifting and healing power of music, and its engaging ensemble of children and their dedicated teachers who left us wanting more, this Unscripted Series award goes to CHOIR GAMES.
Best Director, Unscripted
Never Get Busted!
For its nuanced portrait of a complicated – and often hilarious – person who undergoes a life-changing epiphany, this award for Best Unscripted Series goes to NEVER GET BUSTED!’s Stephen Mccallum and David Anthony Ngo.
Best Pilot Digital Short Series
Banana
The pilot’s clear and articulate premise, strong characters, and complicated family dynamics creates many opportunities to follow the characters across multiple seasons. Its focus on self worth and identity in a world where it’s easy to get lost is not only relatable but topical.
Best Director, Digital Short Series
Giving Mom the Talk
For her bold visual storytelling and fearless ability to flip the narrative and explore female pleasure through the female gaze with honesty humor, and striking originality, this award goes to Vidhya Iyer.
Best Writer, Digital Short Series
The Human, Will
This is clear and thorough in unpacking a charming lead character whose micro, everyday decisions come to feel major, purposeful, and compelling.
Best Performance, Digital Short Series
Giving Mom the Talk
Effortlessly blends comedy and drama, anxiety and courage, as well as a curiosity that pulls the audience into her journey of sexual awakening. This award foes to Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier of Giving Mom the Talk.
Honorable Mention, Digital Short Series
Birth is For P*ssies
A rookie doula is thrust into her first birth with a mother she’s never met.
Best Late Night Pilot
HAINT
HAINT paints a clear vision for a tantalizing supernatural mystery. It’s filled with cohesive world building, innovative creature design, and told from a necessary cultural perspective.
Honorable Mention Late Night
Chihuahua
A darkly comedic criminal escapade. Splatty and Jerrycan are an unusual couple with an even more unusual job.
Audience Award, Drama
WOODSTOCKERS
Two friends who went to Woodstock in 1969 and never left must now face the consequences of a life shaped by peace, love, and questionable decisions.
Audience Award, Comedy
Soft Boil
Lulu takes a job as a nanny, only to discover that her new boss isn’t who she expected.
Audience Award, Unscripted
Choir Games
Two choirs, one from rural New Zealand, one from New York City, go on an inspiring, life changing journey to the World Choir Games.
Audience Award, Digital Short Series
Birth is For P*ssies
A rookie doula is thrust into her first birth with a mother she’s never met.
Audience Award, Late Night
HAINT
When gentrifiers begin to die, a Gullah Geechee handywoman who recently lost her home, must decide whether to help them or leave them to their fate.
Inclusive Creator Fund
Careless
Nothing, not even his Down Syndrome, can stop uptight Cian from ruling his assisted living facility with an iron fist-
Until his petty criminal sister Eimer moves in as a “volunteer”…
Outstanding Series Format Deck Award presented by Canva
Birth is For P*ssies
A rookie doula is thrust into her first birth with a mother she’s never met.
Caz Matthews Fund
Neither Donkey Nor Horse
During the 1910 plague in Manchuria, a young Chinese doctor battles societal prejudices to prove a radical theory and stop the outbreak.
Rural Intersectionality Fund
Bad Habits
Hoping to breeze through their incarcerations, two female convicts sign up for a new, “alternative sentencing” program only to end up in a place even worse than prison: a convent.
Created by Jill Bennett
Ronita Rambo
At a small-town diner in rural Missouri, a tough-talking waitress finds the courage to ask a pair of gay teens for help texting her new crush.
Rural Intersectionality Fund
POETIC JUSTICE
A story on the Poetic Justice writing program where incarcerated women find healing.
Pitch-A-Thon!
Golden Groves
Eighty-year-old Josette arrives at Golden Groves, ready to dive into her golden years with flair (and maybe a little mischief). Freshly widowed and on her own for the first time, she’s eager to reinvent herself — if only her skeptical daughter Rosemarie would stop worrying about her inheritance.
