The DVD Association has issued its Call for Entries in the 2007 DVDA Excellence Awards, one of the industry’s longest running events and the only DVD awards programme judged exclusively by peers, who recognize several titles in each category as best of class.

"The purpose of the DVDA Excellence Awards is to honor skill, creativity and craftsmanship in various aspects of DVD production and authoring. Overall quality of a finished DVD title is considered, but skills used in the production of each title determine which entries will win," says the announcement.

DVDA entries do not compete directly against each other, as in typical competitions. Using objective criteria, an independent panel of DVD practitioners assigns each entry a score of up to 100 points. There may be many, or few award recipients in each category. Only entries deemed "excellent" by the judges earn a DVDA Excellence award.

“This year, the DVD Association, in recognition of the growing importance of next-gen high-definition discs, has opened the DVDA Excellence Awards to all formats,” says Bernie Mitchell, President of DVDA. “In keeping with our history of rewarding the best of the best, this year, no matter what the format, our judges will be recognizing excellence. At this crucial time in our industry, it is important that we acknowledge the creative forces in all formats of present and next-gen DVD.”

There are a total of 18 categories. Seven categories are reserved for content owners, ten categories for developers and one category for the coveted Facility/ Individual Excellence Award. Importantly these categories include not only Hollywood and independent titles for entertainment, but also non-entertainment (kiosks, marketing, education), Government and Student Productions. Deadlline for entries: 30 April. For rules and entry forms, visit www.dvda.org.

DVDA-UK, the UK chapter of the DVD Association, was successfully launched at a club in central London, bringing together more than 50 professionals from authoring facilities, replicators, content publisher, producers, service providers and other industry luminaries.

The group aims to act as an information resource and a meeting point for all those involved in the DVD and related industries. Seminars, awards and social events are being planned. For pictures of the party

Story filed 08.04.07