Award Methodology

Our Nominee Methodology

The goal of the JEIFA Awards is to present the top 5 films/individuals in each category across a broad spectrum of opinions.  To accomplish this task, JEIFA’s Data Team tracks a potential nominee’s performance in: A broad spectrum of Critics/Association Awards, Professional/Guild Awards, Major/Historical Awards Programs, and Popular/Audience driven awards.  A metric for scoring nominations and victories in JEIFA’s list of target awards programs is used for all potential nominees in each category, resulting in a score applied to each potential nominee that reflects a positive assessment of performance of the nominees within Critic/Association opinion, the opinion of professional/guild experts, the view of voters in major/historical awards programs, and popular/audience opinion.  As such, the JEIFA Nominees in each category represent the most broadly acclaimed performance across the full spectrum of the film industry and the incorporated opinion of the widest, most diverse and most multi-faceted assessment of excellence in film achievement in any given year.  A result of this methodology and JEIFA’s metrics is the diminishment of the influence of political or economic drivers that may impact small and specific subsets within award granting institutions.

Our Winner Methodology

Our winner methodology follows the same philosophy and data-centered analysis found in the Nominee Methodology but adds to this rubric by including a small but important metric for audience/popular opinion through its own poll.  JEIFA seeks the opinion of film enthusiasts, scholars, and unassociated critics to add another unique perspective to its tabulations. While this is an important tradition and factor in the final tabulation of each winner, it is a minor contribution to the total point scoring system thus allowing for acclaim within critical, professional, and major awards programs to drive the overall metrics.

Our Best Picture Methodology

JEIFA’s philosophy of Best Picture is that a truly “best picture” must perform within Acting, Artistic, and Technical categories while also having exceptional contributions from its writers, directors, and other contributors that span the breadth of the film-making process.  Additionally, the film must be acclaimed within the same circles as each category was assessed.  This latter part also accounts for the reality that many Best Pictures are more than the sum of their parts, as they possess a quality and excellence that transcends the individual contributions of the film’s actors, artists, technicians, and more. 

The logic of the Honorary JEIFA Best Picture Award reflects the reality that politics and economics can permeate film awards programs each year.  JEIFA’s rubric for scoring Best Picture truncates this impact by heavily weighting nominations and victories in the other JEIFA Categories, but when two films have broad or near equal success the difference between the two can be statistically insignificant.  In this instance, other not-relevant factors become increasing influential and may become determinants in outcome.  Thus, if two films are so close in the race for Best Picture, the Institute recognizes the top scoring film with Best Picture for that year, but also recognizes the second placing film with an Honorary Best Picture award to record its important contributions to film that year. 

Award Rules

Eligibility

The JEIFA Institute does not establish eligibility conditions for films.  All films nominated for an award by any of the critic/associations, professional/guild awards, Major/Historical Awards Programs, and Popular/Audience Driven awards included in the JEIFA nominee and award rubrics are automatically eligible for a JEIFA as a result of this distinction.  

Films are eligible for a JEIFA in a year they are recognized by any award program included in the JEIFA award rubrics.  Due to the dynamics of eligibility of foreign films in other award programs it is possible for a film to be eligible in the Best Foreign Language film category in one year and in other categories in another year.  

Where there is disagreement in the industry on status or eligibility of a film or performance for a specific category and the film’s credits do not settle the matter, the determination of the professional association or guild shall be considered the most bearing.  Guild or professional association membership is not a requirement. No film or performance will be excluded if it is ineligible for relevant guild/professional awards. 

Exclusions 

JEIFA does not consider films submitted to JEIFA for consideration unless they have received the distinction of a nomination or win from an awards program included in the JEIFA rubric.  JEIFA does not accept copies of films for consideration, offers or gifts from any studio, agent, producer or other individual or organization offered on behalf of a potential nominee or winner. 

Rubric Non-Disclosure

JEIFA does not disclose the list of awards programs included in its rubrics nor does it release the statistics, scoring or other metrics used to determine nominees and winners according to our Award Rubric.  It may at its discretion disclose the names of some award programs that are part of its rubrics to illustrate the nominee/winner methodology.  JEIFA has no formal or informal relationship with any such award programs.  It does not have access to advanced knowledge, considerations or information on any awards programs nor does it seek this information out nor does it accept it.  Nominees and Winners are determined over time as the normal course of award season plays out.

Rules related to specific categories

Specific rules and eligibilities relevant to individual categories can be found on Official JEIFA Award Categories page.