The Vanity of Earthly Greatness - Six Days in August

[drumdude]

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... ation.html

The Telly Awards is a global award program that honors excellence in film, video and television across all media formats. They were established in 1979 and have evolved to recognize a wide range of content, including movies, documentaries, commercials, and social media.

The movie Six Days in August was awarded two Silver Tellys: one for Narrative Film, and another for Historical Film. The movie was also awarded a People’s Choice Bronze Telly. Out of thousands of entries, Six Days in August was one of only six recipients of the Silver Telly for Narrative Film.

This is the second Interpreter Foundation film production that has won a Telly Award. Their previous feature film, Witnesses,won a Bronze Telly in 2021.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Telly Awards for excellence in motion picture production,” said Russell Richins, one of the producers of Six Days in August. “We strongly believe that the stories of the Restored Church can—and should—be told by utilizing the highest levels of talent in all aspects of filmmaking. These awards are a testament to the skills and dedicated efforts of our actors and film crew.”

Congratulations to DCP and the rest of the Interpreter crew. They have surely received their reward.

[Doctor Scratch]

A hearty congratulations (as it were) to the 6DIA team! That said…only silver and bronze? No gold? And to think: these awards cost something like $300 dollars a pop! So Interpreter paid close to $1,000 (of donor funds, I assume?) for second and third place awards? Well, as some industry insiders sometimes say: the Tellys are “the best awards that money can buy!”

[drumdude]

Oops

[Moksha]

Was this the case of spending a thousand to buy some awards, hoping that it would net more in sales?

[I Have Questions]

It’s worth noting that the Telly Awards is a pay-to-enter scheme and they hand out hundreds if not thousands of “awards” each year. People can make multiple submissions across multiple categories, providing they have the funds. So it’s a numbers game. What a great money spinner for the people behind it! You even have to buy your own award certificate and statuette!

There isn’t a winner, or a runner up for each category, there are multiple gold award winners, and multiple silver award winners, and multiple bronze award winners - which I guess keeps the interest level and keeps the money rolling in each year. There’s no transparency about judging criteria etc and there’s been some suggesting that the more entries you make (the more money you give them) the more chance you have of a Gold Award. The Oscars, the Emmys, Cannes, this is not.

[Tom]

Oops

The Interpreter Foundation violated its contractual obligations for seven months? That’s remarkable.

Witnesses has been available for free viewing for at least the past eight months. Is that another “slip”?

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Oops

The Interpreter Foundation violated its contractual obligations for seven months? That’s remarkable.

Witnesses has been available for free viewing for at least the past eight months. Is that another “slip”?

I remember when Witnesses was available on YouTube to either watch free or to rent. Nobody was renting Witnesses when they could watch it on the same platform for free. This lasted about 5 months until it was finally pointed out by this board. Immediately after being notified by this board the Afore removed the free version.

What a complete crap show!

[Kishkumen]

Congratulations to the Interpreter crew! Wonderful news! I hope such successes lead to further movies.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Congratulations to the Interpreter crew! Wonderful news! I hope such successes lead to further movies.

I think I speak for everyone when I say we would all love to see further movies.

Six Days In August does a great job not showing any of Brigham's 20 polygamous wives that he had during the time period the film purports to represent. Brigham Young had four wives sealed to him during Smith's lifetime and sixteen after Smith's death but before the completion of the Nauvoo Temple.

It would have been awesome if the film accurately portrayed Brigham juggling his time between these 20 wives. The film represented Brigham as having only one wife.

[Doctor Scratch]

It would seem that the Executive Producer of the film is ill-informed:

has already insinuated that we bought the honors. His suggestion is false, of course. But the almost invariable falsehood of his accusations hasn't fazed him for the past fifteen or twenty years; it's unlikely to give him any pause in this latest case.

The "Fees" for the Telly Awards can be seen at the Telly's website:

Fees: Limited Grace Period fees are $205 for Single Entries and $295 for Campaign & Series Entries.

So, OK: maybe Interpreter only spent $615 dollars for the awards instead of $1,000? (But they collected an award for "Witnesses," too, and who knows how many categories they paid to enter into?)

It may be worth noting that Scripture Central--one of Interpreter's main competitors--also won a Silver Telly for their film "The Good Samaritan." I notice that that Afore did not bother to mention this.

Meanwhile, it would seem that 6DIA's Silver Award is not a solitary award, but, rather, it was one of several silver awards that were handed out, including one that was produced by Al Jazeera.

As to the question of the awards' respectability? Well, you are welcome to read through this Reddit thread, devoted to people who work as professional editors in the film industry. Here's just one sampling:

They’re relatively easy to win, but not everything wins. I know a marketing agency that loves them and submitted for 16 and “won” 10. It’s all a cash grab.

As someone who has been part of judging panel a few times over the years I have seen a lot of undeserving work making it through to the final selection. This was usually due to block votes or broadcasters forcing entries through.

My issue with many awards is that they require the production company to pay a fee to enter. So it becomes about who can pay not who deserves the recognition.

LOL!!

But like I said: a hearty congratulations to the Interpreter team. An award is still an award, even if you had to pay for it.