By: Brett Weisenauer

The 5th Annual Eclipse Awards will be hosted on Thursday, April 28, 2016 at the City Flats Hotel ballroom, starting at 7pm.  Tickets are $10 for everyone but the nominees. While the glamour, excitement, and beautiful statuettes return, the details behind the scenes changed dramatically this year, starting with the selection process of this year’s winners. The Eclipse Awards Board of Governors elected to invite past nominees and winners of the Eclipse Award to become judges.

Previous nominees and/or winners in the competition know personally what it takes to produce the kind of quality that makes West Michigan’s regional Film, Television and Crafts awards program continue to grow. Previous nominees and winners received official invitations to become voting members at the end of 2015. Becoming a voting member did not disqualify former nominees and winners from entering their work in the current awards year, because judges did not judge entries in categories they may have entered.

The Board of Governors also decided to publicize the national and international judges who participate in evaluate Eclipse Award winners. The judging participants give their time and expertise to the process of defining and recognizing the best examples of production achievement in West Michigan.

Eclipse Awards nominees become winners after their entries go through a two-step process starting with judges who are past nominees and winners for each particular category and craft. The first round of voting decides the 2016 nominees for all given categories and crafts. After nominees are announced on April 4th, voting proceeds onto the second round where national and international judges in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Australia, and others participate in the selection of Eclipse Award winners. The results are kept secret until the night of the awards ceremony.

After the announcement of nominees, all nominated works will be posted on the Eclipse Award Face Book site and made eligible for the People’s Choice Eclipse Award. The People’s Choice Eclipse Award has one winner. There is no student category or craft consideration though students are encouraged to compete.

For a complete list of national and international judges, visit the Eclipse Awards website at www.TheEclipseAward.com.

And be sure to attend, the future of West Michigan film-making might just depend on it.