The 2020 Funny Women Awards will go ahead but this year the awards will go ahead online for the first time.
Now in their 17th year, previous winners and finalists of the Funny Women Awards include Katherine Ryan, Zoe Lyons, Jayde Adams, Desiree Burch, Harriet Braine, Sara Pascoe, Sarah Millican, Susan Calman, Rachel Parris, Bridget Christie, Kerry Goldliman, Roisin Conaty and last year's winner Laura Smyth.
The first round entry process for the Stage Award was switched to five-minute video submissions last year so, in accordance with Government guidelines and restrictions on public events, this will also be extended into the semi-final rounds.
The semi-finals will involve industry panels viewing selected videos in virtual screening rooms. As ever, there will be the same emphasis on having the highest calibre of regional, national and culturally diverse industry judges to make up these new virtual panels.
The live final is scheduled to go ahead at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Thursday 24th September.
The Comedy Shorts and The Comedy Writing Awards will all be administrated online and the winners will be decided by industry experts taking part in a virtual judging process.
Funny Women founder and chief executive Lynne Parker says: “Any project of this nature is especially difficult for the comedy industry which is so reliant on live events. Fortunately, a good 70% of the Awards administrative process is already conducted virtually so it makes sense to extend this as far into the judging process as possible. Hopefully we’ll be able to deliver the live final as planned later this year.”
Funny Women Awards director Becky Singh says: “We are known in the industry for finding incredible comedy talent, and this year will be no different. We’ve restructured the Awards process and yes, it will be challenging, but we're gonna do it anyway!”
Entry for Comedy Shorts, Comedy Writing and Stage Awards registration will be open from Wednesday 1st April 2020. Details about registration, terms and conditions for all Award categories will be available on funnywomenawards.com from next week.
