What are the Digital Media World Cups?
The Digital Media World Cups consists of both the Web Series World Cup (in its 11th season) and the Audio Fiction World Cup (in its 3rd season). Our core mission is fostering collaboration between festivals and creators to enhance artistic and professional opportunities for creators everywhere. The DMWC operates independently of festivals, and exists as an advocate from creators to festivals to help them grow, and conversely from festivals to creators to open doors for more opportunities.
All festivals who are partnered with us, either on the WSWC or the AFWC side, agree to our Festival Code of Ethics which ensures that we are making decisions that are creator-friendly and art-supporting by design. The code is more philosophical than prescriptive, but emphasizes our commitment to elevating projects, breaking down barriers, and examining ways of combating the financial realities inside independent art.
The goal with all of this is to bring together independent web-based video and audio creators to build a stronger, more interconnected community. Additionally we aim to increase promotional, networking, and discovery opportunities for artists and their projects. Over time we hope to help grow these festivals into the spaces where companies are looking for their next show, or for artists to staff onto new projects.
Both the Web Series World Cup and Audio Fiction World Cup are annual competitions covering participating festivals whose event falls between January 1 to December 31. Timing festival submissions can be crucial - if you split them between calendar years then your points will be divided across the two years, lowering your overall ranking. To maximize your chances in the competition, we recommend submitting to all participating festival editions within a single calendar year.
How Does Scoring Work on the Digital Media World Cups?
Projects earn points in three key areas:
Festival Acceptances
Festival Award Nominations
Festival Award Wins
Specific point values vary by festival, with each one contributing differently to a project's overall ranking. As festivals report their results throughout the year, both cup circuits have a spreadsheet which automatically calculates point totals throughout the year. The spreadsheet also automatically calculates the worldwide ranking. This list is what we use to announce ranking updates throughout the year.
Festival Acceptance Calculations
After a festival publishes their final list of acceptances, they send the DMWC the following information:
Total number of submissions (though not a list of all submissions — we remain unaware of which projects weren’t accepted)
List of accepted projects
Each project’s country of origin
All this information is logged in the spreadsheet, with each project on its own row. Projects receive a “1” in the “Accepted” column for their respective festival. New projects to the cup get a fresh row, while existing projects simply get another “1” added in the appropriate column. Rarely shows will be accepted under multiple mediums, in that scenario they will receive points for each acceptance.
Each festival’s acceptance points are calculated based on their exclusivity that calendar year — essentially, how difficult it was to get in. This is determined by comparing the total number of submissions a festival received against the total number of accepted projects. The more selective a festival is, the more points an acceptance is worth.
TLDR: If a festival accepts all submissions, those acceptances are worth the least amount of points. Conversely, if a festival is very exclusive and hard to get into, those acceptances are worth more points.
Festival Award Nomination Calculations
Most festivals announce nominees for specific awards during a nomination period. Once they finalize their nomination list, they send it to the DMWC. We add a “1” to the festival’s nomination column in the spreadsheet for each nomination a project receives. For example, if a project earns 5 nominations, they get a 5 in that cell.
Each festival’s nomination points are calculated based on the ratio of total nominations to accepted projects. This measures how difficult it is to earn a nomination once you’re accepted. Festivals that give out many nominations receive fewer points per nomination, while those with fewer nominations award more points since they’re statistically harder to receive. The formula uses a “Nominations per Project” ratio for these calculations, taking the total number of nominations given out and comparing it to the total number of accepted shows.
Some festivals skip the nomination period and move directly from acceptances to winners. In these cases, the algorithm treats them as having a 1:1 nomination-to-project ratio, and points are awarded to accepted projects automatically.
TLDR: If a festival gives out a ton of nominations, then each of those nominations is worth a proportionally smaller number towards their cup ranking. If a festival gives out very few nominations then those nominations are worth more.
Festival Award Win Calculations
After a festival concludes, they send the DMWC their final list of award winners by project. Each award receives a “1” in that festival’s column in the spreadsheet. For example, if a project wins three awards, they get a “3” in their cell.
Point values for award wins are calculated based on the ratio between total awards given and total number of accepted projects. This measures how likely an accepted project is to win an award. Festivals that give out many awards assign fewer points per win, while those with fewer awards assign more points since they’re harder to achieve. The formula uses an “Awards per Project” ratio for these calculations.
TLDR: If a festival gives out more awards, each award is worth proportionally less points. If a festival gives out very few awards, each award is worth proportionally more points.
Averaging a Festival's Total Point Output
To prevent any festival from having an outsized influence on World Cup rankings, the spreadsheet constantly balances each festival’s point totals. We do this by examining the average number of points awarded per accepted project at a festival. The formula ensures that no festival’s average points per project falls below 35% of the highest average. This creates a balanced system where projects have similar opportunities to score points towards the world cup rankings regardless of which festivals accept them. No single festival can guarantee a cup win, and no festival is mathematically required for a high ranking.
While festivals vary widely in their submission and acceptance numbers — and thus their potential total point contribution to the cup pool — averaging points per accepted project ensures that every project has a similar opportunity to score points in the final World Cup ranking regardless of what festival they are at.
Points Shift Dynamically Throughout the Year
A crucial aspect of the Audio Fiction World Cup’s calculation is that point totals remain dynamic until the final festival reports their award winners. Statistical probabilities that seemed likely in January may shift as more festivals report their results throughout the year. This means an early-year festival could receive more or fewer points per pillar than initially calculated. For this reason, neither the Web Series World Cup nor the Audio Fiction World Cup publish specific point totals alongside the rankings — a festival’s contributions may have changed between ranking announcements resulting in a decrease in point total for a project.
Each festival’s internal data remains theirs to publish or withhold. If a project notices their points decreased between rankings, explaining why would require us to disclose acceptance percentages or formula calculations that are proprietary to individual festivals. However, understanding how the spreadsheet calculates results can help explain final rankings.
Cost-Saving Opportunities for Creators
There are opportunities available to creators in either cup to help offset submission fees. We are working on a list of such opportunities that will be available on this website for creators to look through.
Some festivals offer Scholarship Programs to cover reduced fee or fee-free waivers for eligible creators.
Depending on where a project is from there may be grants available from government or non-profit programs
We recommend saving every WSWC and/or AFWC festival into your FilmFreeway "Watchlist." This will notify you by email when submissions open and when deadlines are approaching. Submitting earlier means lower fees. Projects can pay nearly half price by submitting during the cheapest fee period of all festivals compared to their final deadlines
Tip: FilmFreeway doesn't actually require your file at initial submission - only by the final submission date. This means you can lock in early-bird pricing even if your project isn't ready yet. Just ensure you upload your file before submissions close. If you do this, be sure to let the festival know so they're not worried that they're missing your file.
Looking to the Future of the Rankings
While no ranking system of this kind can be perfect, we constantly evolve and adapt the rankings year-over-year to ensure the system gets as fair as possible for each creator who submits their work to a participating festival. By using the average number of points per accepted show as our barometer, this allows small festivals and large festivals to have equal impact on the rankings for each participating project.
A change has been proposed in the past would be giving each festival an equal point pool to distribute proportionally among projects. We have rejected this idea because we believe it would unfairly penalize festival growth and discourage submission to larger festivals by giving smaller festival an outsized effect on the overall rankings.
To the DMWC, an increased submission total signals a better creator experience with a festival. When more creators submit, festivals can accept more submissions - a sign of positive word-of-mouth. We want to reward festivals for making creator-focused decisions that make creators and projects want to participate.
If a small festival with few submissions received the same total points as a large festival, their projects would have disproportionate influence on cup rankings. We believe our current per-project averaging system better achieves the Digital Media World Cup's goal of fair and equal evaluation across all projects and festivals.
We’ve also considered implementing an averaging metric that kicks in after a certain number of festival acceptances. This would let a show competing in just five festivals (an arbitrary example) compete equally with shows participating in all festivals. While this might help projects with limited financial resources, we suspect in practice it would overly gamify the submission process and actually reduce total festival submissions worldwide.
Both the Web Series World Cup and Audio Fiction World Cups saw increased submissions from 2023 to 2024. We believe that implementing a ceiling of some kind would work against our core mission of expanding awareness and opportunities for festivals and independent artists everywhere.
Questions?
We are here to help and try to respond to emails promptly at digitalmediaworldcups@gmail.com. You can also ping us on our social media platforms. We will try to respond quickly.
We hope this answers questions you might have, and we look forward to working alongside festivals and creators for years to come!
Digital Media World Cups Team
- Web Series World Cup: Dipu Bhattacharya & Tom Chamberlain
- Audio Fiction World Cup: Jeff Stormer & Ned Donovan