10 Most Prestigious Movie Awards Around World

Since race for the movie awards is getting heated up, we decided to bring you most prestigious movie awards around the world. Most movie awards have categories that cover the most important elements of making the movie. Although the categories can vary from one award to another, the main few are usually always there: Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actor/Actress, and Best Supporting Actor/Actress.

All movie awards usually fit in one of the four categories: Critics’ Awards, Festival Awards, Industry Awards and Audience Awards. Critics’ Awards are voted by the movie critics, who usually vote annually while Audience Awards are voted by the audience. When it comes to Industry Awards, the winners are voted by the people who work in some branch of the movies. Festival Awards are being given to the best movies that are shown in a particular festival.

But awards are not the only thing that measures a true success of a movie. Ticket sale is also one way to see how the audience reacts, but also merchandise sale. So, be sure to check our article on 11 movies that sold the most merchandise to see which one has won the most audience’s hearts.

With a plethora of movie awards around the world – how should we decide which are the most prestigious? We’ve figured out that prestigious should have something to do with the long tradition, so we’ve deiced to take into account how long those awards exists. But, since this is not the list of the oldest movie awards, we also consulted other articles about most prestigious awards. We gave each movie award points from 1 to 10, based on their place on those other lists and extra points depending on how old they are, creating our ultimate list. Let’s take a look, shall we? 

10. International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA Awards)

One of the youngest movie awards on our list has already managed to get the prestige that many awards seek for. Instituted in 2000, the award honors both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Bollywood. The specific thing about this ceremony is that it’s held in a different country every year.

9. Locarno International Film Festival

Locarno is one of the most appreciated film festivals among the independent filmmakers and ones that make movies because of love and not for money. Locarno has always been about the films and less about glamour and movie stars. The top prize of the Festival is the Golden Leopard, awarded for the best international feature film.

8. Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival is considered one of the world’s “Big Three” film festivals, alongside Berlin and Cannes. Film Festival in Venice is among the oldest film festivals in the world, being founded in 1932. The most important award of the festival is Golden Lion.

7. Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale)

The second of the world’s “Big Three” film festivals on our list of most prestigious movie awards around the world. The notable feature of this festival is that the Berlin International Film Festival is largest publicly attended film festival worldwide based on attendance rates. The most important award is Golden Bear for the best feature film.

6. European Film Awards

Like IIFA Awards, European Film Awards also have a region that they honor. For European Film Awards, eligible are only European cinema and European producers, directors, and actors. The European Film Awards are presented annually in a different European city since 1988.

5. Filmfare Awards

Second Indian award on our list proves that Bollywood is growing rapidly. The Filmfare awards honor the best in the Hindi language film industry of India and are considered one of the oldest in the country. The winners are voted by the public alongside the committee of experts.

4. Golden Globe Award

You may have had a chance to watch the Golden Globes recently on TV, since the latest edition ended a week ago. The winners of the Golden Globe Awards are decided by 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Award honors not just the best of movies, but also the best of television in the past year.

3. Cannes Film Festival

Last and most prestigious of “Big Three” film festivals. Festival is invitation-only and is held in the city of Cannes since 1946. The main award, Palme d’Or was created in 1955 and replaced Grand Prix du Festival. Besides being among the most prestigious, the festival is probably one of the most publicized ones as well.

2. British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA)

As we get close to the final revelation, we have to make a short stop in Great Britain. British Academy Film Awards were first held in 1949, and they are open to all nationalities, except the few categories reserved for British films and filmmakers.

1. Academy Awards

I know you are not surprised seeing The Oscars triumphant on our list of most prestigious movie awards around the world. Although they are not what they used to be, and they’ve lost a part of the charm, the things will surely get better if Leonardo DiCaprio wins an Academy Award this year. Besides being the oldest award on the list, Academy Award also has the most recognizable shape, and a total of 2,947 Oscars were awarded since the Awards were conceived. The fun fact about those little statues is that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1.