NEW YORK — Following its 40th anniversary as the world's largest honor for video and television content across all screens, the Telly Awards (https://www.tellyawards.com) opened its annual call for entries, offering several exciting new categories that signal the continued growth in creative approaches to the rising digital video production, storytelling, and distribution landscape.
Entries for the 41st Annual Telly Awards will be evaluated by members of the Award Judging Council drawn from a diverse mix of advertising, media, tech, and video industry leaders. As part of the Telly Silver Council, media personality and technology maven Shefik (https://shefik.info) returns as an official judge for this year's competition, where he will serve alongside a panel of esteemed judges for the second consecutive year. Among this year's first-time judges are Annie Granatstein from The Washington Post, Joanna Popper from HP, Andrew Wareham from TAXI, and David Weinstein from Complex Networks.
"As an ongoing working professional in the television industry, I am excited to once again explore the exciting creative and ground-breaking work of my peers," says Shefik.
Shefik is a Professional Member at the New York Chapter of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NY Emmys), as well as a National Associate Member at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Primetime Emmy Awards). The organizations are dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational, and technical achievements within the television industry. They recognize excellence in television with the coveted Emmy Award.
Shefik is celebrating over 20 years in the professional workforce. He began his career as an entertainment publicist, working with companies such as Motown Music Publishing, Island Black Music (Island Records), and Double XXposure, as well as high-profile recording artists, such as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee The Isley Brothers, 5-time Grammy Award winner Dionne Warwick, and Tony Award winner and 4-time Grammy Award nominee Melba Moore.
Shefik later expanded his skillset to technology, where he worked as Technical Producer at TIME magazine. Afterwards, he worked as Web Developer and Engineer at Condé Nast Digital (Vanity Fair, GQ, Wired), Vimeo, Columbia Law School (Columbia University), Publicis Modem (LG, Sanofi Pasteur), HUGE, and Penton Media, among others. Additionally, he has held senior-level positions at many celebrated brands, including IBM, NBCUniversal (CNBC, Syfy, Chiller), MTV World, Merck, Merriam-Webster, and Wolters Kluwer. Shefik currently serves as a Technical Lead at NBC Sports.
This year, the 41st edition of the Telly Awards is rolling out an all-new campaign dubbed "Telly Award Winners Tell Great Stories", which celebrates the award's origins in local and regional commercials, as well as their inclusive, platform-agnostic theme and message. Ever-changing and adapting to the evolution of the industry, the Telly Awards have taken that very message and gone global, recognizing the democratization of who is able to make work.
"For this season, due to the explosion of work made for all screens all around the world, we want to ensure that entrants all over the globe understand that we are eagerly inviting entries from all territories, whether English speaking or English-subtitled work. We're making a concentrated effort to look for work beyond the United States," says Sabrina Dridje, Managing Director at Telly Awards. "We also want to highlight that all types of creators, from editors and directors to animators, and those producing content on new platforms, are vital parts of the storytelling process. They can all tell great stories and so all have the potential to win."
"Telly Award Winners Tell Great Stories" will be anchored and amplified by the second installment of the Telly Awards' video and film screening series. Reflecting the global message of the award, the screenings will not only take place in major United States markets, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, but also in prime international capitals, including Toronto, Berlin, London, and Amsterdam.
With Storyhunter as its media partner once again, the Telly Awards' 45-minute "Film and Video Night" screening program will feature a range of content across branded, animation, and short-form documentaries from notable companies including RadicalMedia, Droga5, Great Big Story, Stash Magazine, WeTransfer, Passion Pictures, CultureLabel, Hickies, and Square. This includes a piece directed by Academy Award nominee Mike Mills and a Telly Award winning piece narrated by Academy, Emmy, and Tony Award winning actress Emma Thompson.
Founded in 1979 to honor commercials made for cable and local television, the Telly Awards has continually refreshed its categories to honor the evolving, broad range of work being made — including branded content, social video, and animation — working with industry experts to identify categories where new platforms play an increasingly important role in the ways stories are being told.
As a result, last year, the Telly Awards received over 12,000 entries — a 10% increase from the previous year — from top video content producers including Viacom, Google, Condé Nast, CBS Interactive, and Verizon.
It is apparent that Shefik is on the cutting edge of multimedia, as he also serves as Executive Producer and Host of the nationally syndicated radio show and internationally syndicated video series, "Shefik presents Invocation" (https://invocation.co). He uses this media platform to amplify the voices and acknowledge the thought patterns of people across a variety of ages, ethnicities, occupations, creeds, and belief systems. The radio show is oftentimes aligned with Shefik's various philanthropic endeavors and alliances with non-profit organizations. As of this writing, "Shefik presents Invocation" has won over 40 industry awards (for audio, video, and website), many of which were awarded at the highest level. The radio show is currently broadcast on 21 terrestrial radio stations and frequencies throughout the United States.
Through various distribution agreements, Shefik also produces accompanying video content (similarly titled "Shefik presents Invocation"), which can be viewed internationally on Amazon, in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, as well as via other notable outlets worldwide. The video content can also be viewed throughout the United States via a variety of outlets, inclusive of storefronts, medical offices, car dealerships, restaurants, salons, urgent care centers, pharmacies, malls, sports arenas, and more. Particularly, Shefik's video content can be viewed at heavily trafficked locations, such as the 10,000 seat Webster Bank Arena (Bridgeport, CT), the casino Mohegan Sun (Uncasville, CT), as well as select locations of Dunkin' Donuts.
As an award-winning videographer and producer, Shefik's work has been featured in television broadcasts and video productions for TIME magazine, The Washington Center, "Unsung" (TV One), Broadway World, and a major news station in New York City. Additionally, his photography has been featured in print and online publications, such as Daily Mail, Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Playbill, and China Press.
To enter work in the 41st Annual Telly Awards, the final entry deadline is February 28, 2020. Winners will be announced on May 20, 2020.
Last Updated: October 13, 2022
