Eligibility

Your content is eligible for the 2027 Rockie Awards program competition if the entry’s first release was between January 1st – December 31st, 2026 across any linear, streaming, digital, or social media platform. Content duration requirements are as follows:
- Program Categories (Arts & Entertainment, Documentary & Factual, Scripted, Talent): Submissions must have a minimum content running length of 20 minutes per episode. View the individual category definitions for requirements on category lengths.
- Children & Youth Categories: Flexible duration (no minimum or maximum length restrictions apply).
- Digital & Creator Media: Short Form & Digital-First Series submissions must be under 20 minutes in content length per episode (and stitched to meet minimum micro-content guidelines). Podcasts can be of any length to enter.
Entries must represent professionally produced content with full music and IP rights clearance. Short promotional clips, fan edits, compilation reels, or unedited livestreams are ineligible.

Emerging Talent Prize is awarded to the jury’s highest-scoring short fiction series, non-fiction series or short film video submission that was not funded by a streamer or network. Short video submissions that meet the required criteria (identified on the Categories page) contend for this award, in addition to the category in which they are submitted. Each project’s first-round score is entered into the Rockies Emerging Talent contender’s pool and the Rockies team will take those scores into consideration to determine the winner.

Podcast and vodcast entries must have been produced and available publicly for the first time on radio, podcast platform or on the internet between January 1st - December 31st, 2026.

All components (entry form, videos, audio, images, music clip and payment in full) must be submitted by Friday, January 15th, 2027 at 11:59 PM EST. Entries will not be accepted after this deadline. Incomplete entries are considered ineligible and will not be refunded.

The entrant assumes full responsibility for notifying production partners of a submission. Fees from duplicate entries in the same category will not be refunded.

Correct entry information is the responsibility of the entrant. The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) and Rockie Awards are not liable for incorrect listings that are the result of incorrect information on the entry form. Please ensure entries are submitted EXACTLY as they should appear in any media, publication, website and promotional material, including UPPER/lower case, strand and/or episode title if applicable, and all producing partners. For example if a company submits a show title in ALL CAPS, that is how it will appear in all forms of print and awards show presentational materials.

It is the entrant’s responsibility to choose the correct category for each entry. While BANFF reserves the right to move submissions into categories deemed more suitable, this may not always occur and entries submitted and/or judged in incorrect categories will not be refunded.

Do not re-submit entries or episodes from previous years. Only new episodes from new seasons of previously submitted series are eligible. Resubmitted entries from previous years will not be refunded.

All programs that are originally produced in a language other than English must be subtitled in English. It is highly recommended, though not required, that in consideration of our international jurors, all English-language submissions also include English subtitles.

The minimum number of entries each category must have is five (5) in order to move forward. The minimum number of finalists a category may have is three (3) in order to move forward.

Where the minimum number of entries in any category is not reached, BANFF and the Rockie Awards at their discretion may choose not to present said awards at the Rockie Awards ceremony. BANFF and the Rockie Awards are the arbiters of all eligibility and reserve the right to move any entry into any category deemed suitable.

Decisions on winning and nominated entries are final. BANFF will not correspond with companies or individuals as to the reasons behind the juries’ decisions.

We ask that submitting entrants or their representative are present at the Rockie Awards ceremony in Banff, Canada in the event you are nominated for a Rockie Award.

Limited festival or theatrical release does not constitute airing via terrestrial, cable, satellite/digital, SVOD, PVOD or AVOD service/platform that commissions original content and a submission is therefore considered ineligible if that is its only public screening.

BE ADVISED: Any entry or entrant that is in violation of the terms of eligibility, the Submission Guidelines or BANFF’s Code of Conduct may be disqualified at any stage. In the event of such disqualification, the decision is irrevocable and there is no refund of entry fees.

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