Celebrating achievement in the world of stock and archival footage, the FOCAL International Awards are set to take place May 2, 2013 in London, UK.

New York – December 3, 2012 – Footage.net, the world’s premier online resource for stock footage search and discovery, has signed on as a Bronze Sponsor of this year’s FOCAL International Awards, celebrating the best use of footage in all variety of genres, across all media platforms. Over the last ten years, the FOCAL International Awards has risen to prominence in the world of stock and archival footage, as well as in the international production community at large. The 2013 FOCAL International Awards in association with AP Archive will be held on May 2, 2013 at the Lancaster London Hotel in London, UK.

“We’re very excited to take part in the FOCAL International Awards as a Bronze Sponsor,” said David Seevers, Footage.net Chief Marketing Officer. “FOCAL does a great deal of important work on behalf of the footage industry and we are happy to support their efforts in any way we can. The FOCAL International Awards are a great example of the sort of contribution FOCAL makes to both the footage industry and the global production community at large.”

“We are very happy to have Footage.net on as a sponsor for this year’s awards,” said Anne Johnson, FOCAL’s Commercial Manager. “Footage.net is one of FOCAL International’s worldwide member companies and we greatly appreciate their support of our efforts to promote the archive industry as a whole – these Awards are just one of many of our activities which help us to do this.”

The FOCAL International Awards will celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2013.

“We’ve come a long way and raised the profile of the footage industry so much since we began,” said organizer Julie Lewis, FOCAL’s General Manager. “Some of the highlights for me have been Rick Prelinger receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012; then there was the feature film SENNA winning awards in 3 categories last year; and best of all was Martin Scorsese coming to personally receive an award for the restoration of the RED SHOES in 2010.”

In addition to awards recognizing achievement in a wide variety of production categories, awards for restoration of the world’s film and video archive heritage are also up for grabs, as are commendations for the skilled researchers, archivists, libraries and as always a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Award categories are as follows:

•    Best Use of Footage in a History Production
•    Best Use of Footage in a Current Affairs Production
•    Best Use of Footage in a Factual Production
•    Best Use of Footage in an Entertainment
•    Best Use of Footage in an Arts Production
•    Best Use of Footage in a Production featuring Music
•    Best Use of Sports Footage
•    Best Use of Footage in an Advert or Short Production
•    Best Use of Wildlife and Natural History Footage
•    Best Use of Footage on Digital or Non-television Platforms
•    Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release
•    Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release
•    Best Archive Restoration / Preservation Project
•    Best Archive Restoration / Preservation Title
•    The Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award
•    Footage Employee of the Year
•    Footage Library of the Year
•    Lifetime Achievement

The qualifying period is productions premiered in 2012 and entry is via the FOCAL website until the closing date December 1, 2013.  Details of each category and advice for entrants can be found at www.focalint.org/focal-international-awards. All awards will be presented the evening of the May 2, 2013 at the glittering award ceremony at the Lancaster London Hotel.

An additional feature during the ceremony day of May 2, 2013 will be FOCAL International's What Is Restoration? Conference, supported by the British Film Institute (BFI). This will allow some submissions in the Best Restoration/Preservation categories, which have not necessarily been shortlisted, to be featured as case studies, and in some instances to receive separate commendation. The main awards in this, and other categories, will however be presented at the main awards ceremony.

For full details and the submissions entry form go to www.focalint.org/focal-international-awards.