1. The Hellenic Film Academy bestows awards for a wide variety of achievements annually:
1. Best Feature Film
2. Best Documentary Film
3. Best Animation Film
4. Best Short Film
5. Best Short Documentary Film
6. Best Short Animation Film
7.Best Short Student Film
8. Best Director
9. Best Newcomer
10.Best Screenplay
11. Best Adapted Screenplay
12. Best Actor
13. Best Actress
14. Best Supporting Actor
15. Best Supporting Actress
16. Best Cinematography
17. Best Film Editing
18. Best Original Score
19. Best Production Design
20. Best Costume Design
21. Best Sound (recognizing the Sound Recordist, Sound Engineer/Designer and/or the Sound Mixer)
22. Best Make-up, Hairstyling and Special Effects (for special effects make-up applied on the actors’ face and body – recognizing the Make-up Artist and/or Hairstylist and/or the Special Effects Make-up Artist)
23. Best Special & Visual Effects (for special effects that are not applied on the actors’ body & face – recognizing the Special Effects Designer and/or the Visual Effects Designer)
24. Best Greek Minority Co-production Film (recognizing the Greek Producer)
2. The awards in the above categories are not accompanied by a cash prize.
3. All regular and honorary members of the Hellenic Film Academy are entitled to vote for the categories above, regardless of their participation in any of the nominated films.
4. Each regular and honorary member is entitled to one vote per award category, during both the qualifying and the final rounds.
5. All films are eligible for Hellenic Film Academy Awards (Iris Awards) consideration – whether Greek productions or co-productions -as defined by national policy, as long as they have obtained the corresponding (Greek) certification and have originally been screened in one of the country’s movie theatres between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year preceding the awards. The HFA Board of Directors holds the right to determine an application fee for the films applying to the Iris Awards.
Each film’s producer is responsible for submitting the application issued by the Hellenic Film Academy secretariat, listing all the required information concerning the film and the nominees’ names per award category.
The entry form must be submitted for all award categories the film is to be considered for and must be accompanied by a consent form signed by the producer, stating that all cast & crew members have consented to partake in the award process. If a a cast & crew member does not wish to participate in the nomination round , a letter has to be addressed to to the Board of Directors, notifying all HFA members of this member’s exception from the process.
6. The voting process is conducted by secret ballot and is carried out in two (2) rounds:
ROUND 1 – Qualifying Round (Nomination):
In the Best Feature and Best Short Film categories a top of five movies are nominated by number of vote.
In the remaining categories, a top three (3) of nominated films arises by number of votes.
If more than twelve (12) entries are submitted in a category, five (5) films will be nominated.
In the event that two or more entries receive a tied vote for third or fifth (-by number of votes) place, they will be put to vote in the Final Selection Round (Round 2).
ROUND 2 – FINAL SELECTION ROUND- (Winners):
In each of the categories the winner is selected among the three (3) (-or more, depending on the qualifying round results-) nominees by the highest number of votes.
In the event of a split vote, all nominations sharing equal votes are awarded.
7. The secret ballot voting of nominees and awards is conducted online via digital ballots protected by a security code to ensure privacy. Polling is managed and supervised by a representative of the Hellenic Notary Association and the results of the votes are kept confidential.
8. A lifetime achievement award for outstanding contribution to cinema can be granted by the HFA Board of Directors annually.
9. The award ceremony takes place within two months after the films that have been nominated during the First Round are announced by the HFA. The location of the ceremony is subject to a decision by the Board of Directors and can be in a Greek city outside of Athens.
10. The HFA proposes the Best Feature Film winner to the Ministry of Culture as Greece’s official entry to the Foreign Language Film Category of the Academy Awards (Oscars). The HFA’s proposal for the Oscars ensues from its members’ voting which is conducted at a later date from the Iris Awards ceremony. Entitled to selection are exclusively the movies that meet the selection criteria which have been established by the American Film Academy. Subsequently, films from years preceding or following the annual Iris Awards ceremony are also eligible. The Board of Directors holds the right to determine, as appropriate, in what manner the movie(/s) to represent Greece in Film Academies outside of Greece are selected- upon their request. This article remains applicable irrespective of any changes in the name of the Ministry of Culture.
11. Best Documentary Film Award: All documentary films-independent of their duration- are entitled to nomination for the Best Documentary award. The crew members of feature-length documentaries (more than 60′ long, as defined by international policy-) reserve the right to participate in the following categories: Best Director, Best Newcomer Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound (Design/Mixing), Best Special and Visual Effects.
In the case of docufiction, essay or docudrama films a specific request has to be submitted to the Board of Directors by the film producer who are then to examine the case and reach an irreversible decision as to the film’s eligibility to participate in the Actors, Set, Costume, Make-up, Hairstyling and Special Effects Design categories.
On the occasion that three or more short documentary films are submitted, a “Short Documentary Film Award” is activated and awarded to the winning film.
12. Best Greek Minority Co-production Film Award:
The nomination application for this award is submitted by the Greek producer, as long as they are listed as Producer or Co-producer in the film’s credits. Only cast & crew members of Greek citizenship are entitled to be nominated in the remaining award categories. The annual Greek Minority Co-Production film award can be granted only when there are no less than three (3+) Greek Minority Co-production Film submissions in the category.
Greek Minority Co-production Films obtain the right to be nominated in the Best Feature, Documentary or Animation Film categories, provided that there are fewer than three (3) submissions in the Greek Minority Co-Production Film category.
13. The Iris Awards are the Annual Film Awards presented by the Hellenic Film Academy
14. Best Animation Film Award:
All animation films-independent of their duration- are entitled to nomination for the Best Animation Film award.
The cast & crew members of feature-length (no less than 60′ long-as defined by international policy) animation films reserve the right to be nominated in the following categories:
Director, Newcomer Director, Screenplay, Editing, Original Score and Sound.
In case of an intersection of live-action and animation video in a film (mixed media film) which also incorporates actors, live-action photography, set design, costume design, make-up, hairstyling and special effects, a specific request has to be submitted by the film producer to the Board of Directors who examine the case and reach a decision about which categories these films can be included in.
Application submissions regarding the voice acting or CGI parts in an animation film will be accepted only in special cases where the physical appearance and movement of the performing actors have been modified through the use of CGI or any other digital techniques that alter an actor’s body or voice. In such cases, the film producer has to submit an special application to the Board of Directors documenting his request by including accompanying proof materials as applicable. The Board of Directors is then to examine the case and reach an irreversible decision on whether the film is eligible for entering the acting performance categories.
The annual Best Animation Film award can be granted only when there are no less than three (3) animation film submissions in the animation category.
Animation films obtain the right to be nominated in the Feature or Short Film categories provided that there are fewer than three (3) submissions in the Animation category.
Α special “Best Short Animation Film Award” is activated,added to the awards list and bestowed upon the winning film provided that three or more short animation films have been submitted.
15. A special “Adapted Screenplay Award” is activated and added to the awards list provided that three or more films whose screenplaysare adapted from another literary work (e.g. a novel,a theatrical play etc.) have been submitted in the Screenplay category.
16. Best Student Film Award:
All film students coming from degree courses that are least three years long are entitled to submit their short films (fiction, documentary and animation) regardless if the film has been projected to the public in a Greek movie theatre between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year preceding the Iris Awards ceremony. Post-graduate students’ films are excluded overall.
The applications have to be submitted by the film school’s director (three-year degree schools are entitled to no more than 8 film submissions per year of study, while five-year degree schools are entitled to no more than twelve (12) submissions per year of study) or the students themselves in the case that they attend a film school abroad, provided that the film has been certified as Greek and is accompanied by a reference letter from their school. For the evaluation of the student film submissions, a jury of ten HFA members is annually established by the Board of Directors. The jury members(who are of different professional backgrounds) select twelve movies that are made available to all HFA members on the HFA streaming platform. Next, the members vote for the top five films and the winning film thereafter.
The annual Award is granted only when there are no less than five (5) Student Film submissions. In the case of fewer submissions, they obtain the right to be nominated for Best Short Film.
17. The Feature Film Award is granted to the crew members that have been credited as Producer(s) and/or Co-producer(s) and/or Executive Producer(s). The Student Film Award is granted to the director of the filmby the film producer’s decision.
18. The acting performances awards (Best Actor & Best Actress) can only be given to individual actors, therefore collective application submissions are not applicable and will not be taken into consideration in this case. A film is entitled to up to three individual submissions for each of the acting performance categories. A collective application can be submitted for the remaining award categories.
19. By submitting an application, the producer of the film grants compulsory licence for the film’s streaming on the HFA platform and for the use of the film’s extracts in the Iris Awards promotion campaign. Once a film has been nominated, the HFA reserves the right to arrange its screening -along with the screening of other nominated films- to the HFA members in order to promote the nominated movies and the Iris Awards. The HFA members have to be informed in case that a film’s producer wishes to arrange a special screening of the film for the HFA members with a view to further promoting its entry (this only applies to film screenings; it does NOT apply to the distribution of promotional material).