As the deadline for the Funny Women Awards 2025 fast approaches, last week saw us hold a zoom with our Founder Lynne Parker, our Awards Director Alex Rochford and a whole host of prospective Funny Women entrants to answer all their most pressing FAQ’s.
For those that couldn’t make the event, we are publishing the transcript from the evening with all the information you need to know…
If you’ve been represented as an actor for more than five years but not as a comedian, can you still apply for the Stage Award?
Yes. We set that criteria as five years of comedy representation probably means you’ve been going for about eight years anyway, because it probably takes you two or three years to get a comedy agent in the first place. And we’re very much looking for grassroots, not people who have smashed Live of the Apollo.
Can a comedy short be a character monologue or are you looking for an edited short film?
Yes is the answer to that. It can be a character monologue.
May I refer you to Lorna Rose Treen, who won the Comedy Short Award in 2022, and she did a monologue as a character who was an irreverent brownie. She did it on an iPhone. And it’s just her dressed up as a brownie, and it’s hilarious. And she won. We’re not choosing the comedy short on massive production values.
Can you enter multiple categories?
Yes, you can. 100% the form is set up so that you can complete multiple sections.
Once you’ve been in the final of the Stage Award, you cannot re-enter that award. But if you’ve been a semi finalist in the Stage Award, you can enter that award again, and you can still enter any of the other awards. You can enter as many times as you like.
How many people apply for the awards on average?
The Stage Award in the last couple of years has been about 450.
Comedy writing fluctuates. We had a bumper year last year, we had about 350 scripts.
Shorts, about 100 entries last year. We think that’s an untapped one. We’d like to see more entries for that, and you could enter that and still enter the stage award.
Across all of the categories, it’s between 1000 and 1500.
How is the Content Creator Award awarded?
Content Creator nomination, we are just working on the mechanics at the moment, and we’re talking to our friends at BBC Studios Funny Parts. Anyone who is publicly nominated will go on our list, and then our judges will look at the breadth of work they do. We ask nominators to pick a certain Clip or Video that they found particularly funny, to give us a flavour. Then we go in and look at the Content Creator and the breadth of stuff they do. It’s not just on one TikTok or one Instagram video or one YouTube short. We’ll try and get a flavour of the person. This year, we’re working with BBC Funny Parts, who happen to be experts in digital content. So we are looking at someone who we can nurture. We’re looking for someone who we can help, who we can encourage, who we can advise, because, as I said, with BBC Funny Parts on board and BBC studios, that’s brought an extra expertise to this category.
I use some music that hasn’t flagged any issues with YouTube. Would people be disqualified for using media that isn’t royalty-free?
Sadly, yes. One of the things that every entrant needs to be aware of is that when they enter the awards we ask quite specifically that all your music is cleared, that you own all your music, that you’re not ripping off someone’s script, the work is all your own. So unfortunately, no third-party music, don’t rip off people’s jokes because, well, just don’t.
When submitting your five-minute video for the Stage Award. Does it have to start at the beginning of a set?
No. Five minutes is five minutes. We’re not talking five minutes 15 seconds and you will be penalised . Everyone will enter a YouTube clip and we literally watch five minutes of it, give or take, so some people have submitted 10 minutes and we will just cut it off at the end of the joke. It also needs to be five continuous minutes. So don’t edit. It can also be a self-tape. If you haven’t got a gig, submit a self-tape tape which again needs to be five continuous minutes. If it’s a recording of you at a live gig, if you spend the first two minutes of your set chatting to the audience, we’re less interested in that. We’re more interested in your material. So if you want to cut off the beginning of your set where you’re chatting to the man in the front row wearing a blue jumper, get rid of that bit. We want to see your best five continuous minutes, even if it was a 15-minute set, take your best continuous five minutes out of that.
Is it okay to use green screen for comedy shorts?
Absolutely, yes. End of answer.
What are you looking for in an act when it comes to the Stage Award?
I’m going to defer to the judging criteria and say. We look for stage presence, delivery, originality, humour and material.
Same thing for the Shorts Award: Concept, plot, originality, humour and dialogue,
Same thing for the Writing Award. Concept, plot, originality, humour and dialogue,
We try and keep it in these four categories that are mostly the same. All marked out of 10, all the marks are put into a big pot. That’s when we start to look at the highest scorers and who’s going forward to the next round.
With particular reference to the Stage Award, we are back running live heats this year, and there are currently 12 heats planned. There will be some more online ones tagged on the end. Let’s say 400 enter, they’re all going to be marked on stage presence, delivery, originality, humor and material. The top scorers will move into the live heats. Then across those heats, we’ll go through the process again of stage presence, delivery, originality, humor and material. We’re taking it purely on a score based system, the top scorers will go through to the semifinals, and then from the Semi’s the scores will be used to whittle down to the 10 people that go to the London final.
If you have recently submitted for SNL, can I use a piece of that? Or would you rather have fresh material?
If you have submitted something for SNL, that is five minutes and one continuous shot of you going in and out of characters, yes. Using different accents, doing impressions – and it’s one continuous shot that’s okay.
If it’s edited clips of you changing costume or whatever. It’s a no, no. If you’re thinking of entering the stage award with a character, you’ve got to really kind of commit to that character for five minutes.
Do we have to upload our videos to Youtube as unlisted or set public from the outset?
Don’t set it as public if you don’t want the public to see it. If it’s already public and it’s got hundreds and thousands of views, then let us know, everyone else must be liking it as well. Some people have sent us a fresh private, unlisted video, and it’s got one view and one like from us. So absolutely fine. Just send it over.
Will you be running readthroughs of scripted pieces entered into the writing award?
No, we feel the Female Pilot Club does a very good job of that, and we don’t have the infrastructure to do what they’re doing.
How long does the submitted piece have to be for the Writers Award?
Five pages and a treatment. When judging, we tend to read the script. We read the dialogue, and if the dialogue pops off the page, I then read the treatment. So our tip would be to focus hard on making those characters real and pop off the page, so then you don’t need a great, long treatment. In your script, what is the thing that’s going to be memorable and different and original? It might be something rude, or it might be something visual from your script that brings attention to it. So focus on the dialogue and have a really good, clear treatment that kind of explains what your characters are doing without going into a great, long explanation that we don’t need. We want to get a flavour of original, well-written scripts. And I’ll be making sure that the judge is key to concept, plot, originality, humour and dialogue.
What should be on the 1 Page Treatment
Give an idea of the wider overview of the project. Explain a bit about each character, where they are in their life. Explain if it’s a series / one off / radio / television / short film.
Can the Stage Award initial tape be green screen if it’s a character?
Yeah, we’ve done that before and then you can perform live at heats, if invited.
Can a comedy short be performed live, or is it always just shown as a video through the heats?
Yes, let me just very quickly explain. Let’s take the Stage Award. So, stage award, we’re going to have all of the submissions that are all going to be marked and judged, then we’re going to have the heats, the live heats, they’re all judged. Then we’re going to have the semi-finals.
Then we got the final writing award. What we’re going to do with the writing award is they’re all read, then a long list is produced, and we tell everyone who’s on the long list. Then we have another set of readings, and we produce a short list. Then we tell everyone about the short list, then we have a top three, and those top three are invited to the final. And then on the night, we reveal who’s won from the top three.
That’s exactly the same as the shorts award. The short is viewed and scored. Then we have a long list of 20. And then we tell everyone. Then we have a new set of judges. Then we have a top 10. We tell everyone, and then we have a top three. And those top three are shown at the final on the big screen. And then the winner is also revealed on the night.
Comedy content Creator is open nominations from all around. Then when we get to September, we release the long list, which will be 20 people. Alll of those 20 people are invited to the final, and the online voting goes all the way up to the day of the final, and then those of the 20 that are at the final, we reveal who’s won.
The Industry Award, we whittle down all the votes from our panel. There’ll be three people chosen, and those three people will be invited to the final, and that’s revealed on the night.
What is the judging process like?
You’re not just at the mercy of one person. We get several people to look at your entries. Several people read your script, several people will watch your audition video, several people will watch your comedy short, because it’s not just one person’s opinion.
Any technical spec for the Stage Awards tape submission?
Make sure we can see you clearly in the footage you submit. And let us see what makes you stand out, what makes you different from the other competitors.
Semifinals are filmed and to a high standard, they will potentially be aired on BBC Studios Funny Parts Socials. The Final will also be filmed to a really high standard, good quality material for everyone from that point.
Do you have to pay to enter the Funny Women Awards?
There are five awards, no charge to enter any of them.
Can we get tickets for the live heats, semi finals / finals?
Yes – tickets will be available for purchase through our website and will go live soon.
What happens if you get through to the heats but you can’t attend them in person?
If you can’t make an in-person heat, there will be online heats offered to you.
Where can I sign up to the newsletter.
You can sign up here
If your question hasn’t, been answered already drop us a message here
And if you’re ready to enter, you can do that here
