The contenders have been revealed for this year’s BIMA (that’s, British Interactive Media Association for those of you new to this blog) Awards, in association with Digital Arts.
The awards, which are now in their 13th year, recognize creativity in digital technology, and focus on all aspects of digital creativity. This year the awards have been refined to reflect the ever-changing digital media scene, with new sub-sections and categories being added.
Winners will be announced at a gala dinner at The Bloomsbury Club on November 27, 2008. Given that fewer trophys will be handed out on the night, we’ll just have to spend our time dancing into the early hours of the morning. Sigh.
The shortlist has been selected by a panel of expert judges, including Jon Sharpe, creative director and chief executive at Play; Richard Ogley, art director at BSkyB; and Tamara Gillan, managing director of spf15.
Shortlisted companies include AKQA, who secured a record 21 shortlists for work including Nike, Xbox and Unilever, and CHI & Partners, Poke and LBi – which are shortlisted for 5 awards each. Other companies up for awards include Agency Republic, Kempt, Avenue-A | Razorfish, MRM Worldwide UK, and GT.
Clare McDonald, Chair of the Awards Committee this year and Creative Director, Digital, at BSkyB said
This year, we refined the categories for entry. By introducing sub-sections like ‘Awesome Little Bit of Wickedness’ underneath nine core awards, the scope of submissions has become far wider. This refinement has resulted in a greater variety of entries from more areas of our industry. And, for the first time, the awards team was open to non-executives of which I’m proud to have been given the role as the first non-executive Chair. As such, on top of celebrating traditional creative, we have also short-listed a few more ‘unsung’ heroes.
The full 2008 shortlist can be found here.
I’d like to thank the awards committee and in particular, Clare and her team at BskyB, for the tremendous amount of creative work produced this year.
BIMA Awards 2008 shortlist announced