NEW YORK — Telly Awards (https://www.tellyawards.com), the world's largest honor for video and television content across all screens, has announced this year's winners, including Jennifer Garner's "Pretend Cooking Show" series, RadicalMedia's "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel" documentary series, Partizan's "Fantastic Voyage" campaign, and much more. Under this year's "Your Stories Defy The Limits" theme, standouts encompass the artistic and technical innovations that have surfaced in direct response to the challenges presented by 2020 and 2021. Additional winners range from Netflix, Microsoft, Condé Nast, HBO Latin America, and Nickelodeon to BET Digital, Adobe, PlayStation, BBC Global News, and PAPER.
Founded in 1979, Telly Awards honors excellence in video and television across all screens and is judged by the Telly Award Judging Council, a group of leading video and television experts from some of the most prestigious companies in entertainment, publishing, advertising, and emerging technology, such as WarnerMedia, NBC News, Framestore NY, and Vimeo to name a few. 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 served alongside a panel of esteemed judges for the third consecutive year.
View all of the winners of the 42nd Telly Awards at https://www.tellyawards.com/winners.
"As an ongoing working professional in the television and technology industries, 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 (New York 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.
The 42nd annual Telly Awards received a 15% increase in entries from the previous year. The growth was driven by a significant rise in remote and virtual productions, with many brands taking to animation for the first time. Telly Awards is also proud to name Al Jazeera Media Network as this year's "Telly Company of the Year". A trailblazer in bringing to life limit-defying content, Al Jazeera's breadth of work, particularly its "A Day in Wuhan" and "Stricken Beirut" along with "About Cinema" series, perfectly embodies the creativity and storytelling efforts the Telly Awards have long shined a spotlight on.
"In the face of a year like no other, the visual storytelling community has continued to defy the limitations of our new world. Achievements have been both societal, such as embracing social media platforms to raise awareness about injustices and promote solidarity for movements, as well as geographical, like developing fully remote pipelines for dispersed teams," says Telly Awards Executive Director Sabrina Dridje. "This year's submissions doubled down on what we already know about the industry. Creativity cannot be stopped. Collaboration will always prevail. New ideas and stories will always find a way to break through to an audience."
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 23 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, such as FUBU TV. 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'.
As an award-wining videographer and producer, Shefik's work has been featured in television broadcasts and video productions for NBC's "3rd Hour of TODAY", TIME magazine, The Washington Center, "Unsung" (TV One), Broadway World, a major news station in New York City, as well as around 100 television and radio outlets owned by Cox Media Group. Additionally, his photography has been featured in print and online publications, such as Daily Mail, Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Playbill, and China Press.
Last Updated: October 11, 2022
