Please note: The following information has been updated to include the eligibility rules for the 2026 Cinema Eye Honors.
If you have questions, please contact Cinema Eye via email.
Films must be a minimum of 41 minutes long and become eligible by fulfilling one of four criteria:
NOTE: Films may only submit once for Cinema Eye Feature Honors. For example, if you submitted for 2025 because you were eligible via a festival screening, you cannot submit again this year even if you are eligible via theatrical release.
NOTE: Films that had a public screening prior to January 1, 2024 are not eligible, even if they had not previously submitted and meet the other eligibility requirements. If you are qualifying via a theatrical release, please contact us to request a waiver if you had a festival premiere prior to January 1, 2024 but your theatrical release couldn’t occur until the current eligibility period.
NOTE: In all categories where the award goes to a specific craftsperson, the film must have (an) individual(s) credited with that specific role. This includes a credited director in the categories of Direction, Debut, Spotlight or Audience Choice. A film without a credited director may be nominated for Outstanding Feature and the nominees would be the rest of the film team.
Films must be 40 minutes or less and become eligible by fulfilling one of the following three requirements:
NOTE: Films may only submit once for Cinema Eye Feature Honors. For example, if you submitted for the 2025 Honors because you were eligible via festival screenings, you cannot submit again this year even if you are eligible via theatrical release. If you premiered in 2024 but didn’t submit to Cinema Eye last year, you are eligible to submit for 2026.
Films that had a public screening prior to January 1, 2024 are not eligible, even if they had not previously submitted and meet the other eligibility requirements.
NOTE: Films must have a credited director in order to be eligible for this award.
Films are eligible if they fulfill all of the following criteria:
NOTE: Named nominees in this category will be the Director(s). The award will go to the Director(s). Films must have a credited director in order to be eligible. Co-Directors and Assistant or Second Unit Directors are not eligible for this award.
The Nonfiction Series Honor is for a one-off series or a single season of an ongoing series where the series has a contained narrative that spans multiple episodes (examples: The Jinx, Making a Murderer, America to Me).
NOTE: Named nominees in this category will be the Director(s). You must have a Directed by or Director credit on at least one of the episodes that was submitted for the committee to view. Co-Directors, Directors of non-submitted episodes or Assistant Directors are not eligible for this award.
The Anthology Series Honor is for a one-off series or a single season of an ongoing series where the series consists of individual thematic episodes that may be viewed individually or in any order (examples: Pretend It’s a City, The 1619 Project, How To with John Wilson).
Anthology Series are eligible if they fulfill all of the following criteria:
NOTE: Named nominees in this category will be the day-to-day Executive Producer(s)/Showrunner(s). Award will be presented to the Executive Producer(s)/Showrunner(s).
This award is intended to celebrate the creative and strategic minds behind Anthology Series. You should put forward Executive Producer(s)/Showrunner(s) who have an ongoing and day-to-day role in overseeing those aspects of the program. EP(s) who are primarily financial supporters should only be included if they also fulfill the creative oversight this award recognizes. Nominees per project are limited to six.
NOTE: While films may be submitted for both the Broadcast and Feature Film Honors, they not be nominated in corresponding craft categories (for example, a film cannot be nominated for Broadcast Editing and Nonfiction Feature Editing). In the case where a film receives votes that would make it a possible nominee in both, the film will be nominated in the category where it has the most possible nominations, with deference to the Nonfiction Feature categories.
A film may be nominated in the Broadcast Film category and nominated in a Feature Film category that doesn’t have a corresponding Broadcast Honor. For example, a film may be nominated for Broadcast Film and for Outstanding Production, Visual Design or Audience Choice.
NOTE: Recusal rules apply to all categories (i.e. Feature, Short, Broadcast, Heterodox)
If a member of the Cinema Eye Nominating Committees fulfills a key creative (Director, Producer, Executive Producer, Editor, Cinematographer, Composer, Graphic Designer) or distribution role on a film being submitted for a nomination, they must signal their conflict of interest in the corresponding categories (Feature, Short or Broadcast) and cannot have any role in overseeing or tabulating the voting process.
Films directed by a member of the Cinema Eye Core Team are not eligible for Cinema Eye Honors in categories where the Core Team member is the named nominee. Films and Series are eligible if a member of the Cinema Eye Core Team fulfills a different creative role (e.g. Producer, Executive Producer, Editor), however the Cinema Eye Core Team member shall not be eligible for any awards they may be considered for (for example, if a Cinema Eye Core Team member was the sole editor on a film, that film is eligible in all categories aside from editing; if a Cinema Eye Core Team member is one of several editors on a film, that film is eligible in the editing category, but the Core Team member may not be a named nominee).