The Los Angeles Web Series Festival, more commonly known as the LA Web Fest, is a

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

festival based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It was founded in 2009 by Michael Okwudili Ajakwe Jr and was one of the first web series-based events; ''Filmmaker Magazine'' called it "the granddaddy of all webfests." The event has attracted controversy for its policies.

Background

The festival had its first official event in 2010. The venue has changed several times since its inception, with the 2015 festival being held at the Hilton Universal City Hotel in Universal City. When asked about the importance of web series as a creative medium by Carolyn Handler Miller for her book ''Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment'', founder Michael Ajakwe, Jr. said:

Before, filmmaking was a rich man's game. And if you couldn't afford to make a film, a great voice might be lost ... Web series offer freedom.

Since the festival's

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presentation in 2010, it has helped produce web series-based festivals in several major cities around the world, including in

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(Marseille Web Fest),

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(Melbourne Web Fest),

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

(Rio Web Fest) and

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

(Seoul Web Fest).

Controversy

In 2015, after other LA-based web series festivals scheduled their events around the same time (including the HollyWeb Festival and

Indie Series Awards The Indie Series Awards (formerly the Indie Soap Awards) is an annual event hosted by '' We Love Soaps'', based in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best in independently produced, scripted entertainment created for the Internet. The ceremon ...

), Ajakwe came under fire for enforcing an 'exclusivity clause' stating that all entrants "must withdraw their shows from HollyWeb Fest and their award consideration at the ISAs, or be disqualified from LA WebFest." The clause has since been the subject of controversy and derision in the web series community, with many calling it "anticompetitive" and "unreasonable." Ajakwe spoke to ''Snobby Robot'' about the issue, claiming it stems from earlier conflicts in 2012 when the Hollywood Web Series Festival planned their festival on the same weekend as the LA Web Fest. ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...

'' also published a story about the controversy, writing: "The battle lines are drawn in the emerging web fest world, as the venerable LA Web Fest has drawn an exclusivity line in the sand for its 2015 entrants."

Award categories

* Outstanding Comedy Series * Outstanding Writing (Comedy) * Outstanding Directing (Comedy) * Outstanding Female Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Male Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Comedy) * Outstanding Drama Series * Outstanding Writing (Drama) * Outstanding Directing (Drama) * Outstanding Female Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Male Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Drama) * Outstanding Action Series * Outstanding Writing (Action) * Outstanding Directing (Action) * Outstanding Ensemble Performance (Action) * Outstanding Animated Series * Outstanding Music Video * Outstanding Documentary Series * Outstanding Variety Series * Outstanding Educational Series * Outstanding Directing (Non Fiction) * Outstanding Writing (Non Fiction) * Outstanding Cinematography * Outstanding Editing * Outstanding Costume Design * Outstanding Production Design * Outstanding Makeup * Outstanding Soundtrack * Outstanding Special FX * Outstanding Sound Editing

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.lawebfest.com/ Awards established in 2009 Web series awards 2009 establishments in California Festivals established in 2009

Background

Controversy

Award categories

See also

References

External links