New York Festivals and AwareNow Media launch health storytelling award

New York Festivals TV & Film and Radio Awards have teamed with AwareNow Media to create the AwareNow Award, a new honor for health and medical storytelling that drives awareness and action. The award will be given to the top entry across documentary categories in the 2027 competitions.

Why it matters: - The new award puts a formal spotlight on health and medical stories that can inform audiences and influence real-world behavior. - The recognition spans both film and audio, expanding the reach of storytelling focused on public health, caregiving and access to care. - The award is designed to elevate work that turns personal experience into awareness and action.

What happened: - New York Festivals TV & Film Awards and Radio Awards partnered with AwareNow Media to launch the AwareNow Award. - The award recognizes storytelling in film, audio and documentary formats centered on health and medical issues. - The honor will go to the highest-scoring submission across the Health/Medical Information Documentary and Health/Medical Documentary categories.

The details: - AwareNow Media describes itself as an official storytelling platform for causes, using film, editorial content and storytelling initiatives to highlight people, issues and organizations driving change. - New York Festivals cited a long history of recognizing health and medical documentary work across both competitions. - Rose Anderson, EVP at New York Festivals, said the award is intended to give a brighter spotlight to filmmakers and audio storytellers using their craft to share knowledge, raise awareness and inspire positive action. - Recent winning entries cited by New York Festivals included "Vapors of Death," "The Network" and "Mary Bourke: Who Cares," each focused on health, medicine or caregiving. - "Vapors of Death" examined drug-laced vapes and the health and social consequences of addiction across Asia and the UK. - "The Network" traced a grassroots movement that helped women in Latin America access safer abortions and examined its relevance in the United States. - "Mary Bourke: Who Cares" followed comedian Mary Bourke as she became a full-time caregiver after her husband suffered a stroke. - AwareNow Media premiered Because I Can in 2026, a feature documentary about MS warrior Allié Merrick McGuire and her friend Angela Bernard. - The film follows Bernard’s promise to run a marathon in honor of McGuire after McGuire’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis. - Allié Merrick McGuire, co-founder and CEO of AwareNow Media, said the award will honor storytellers who bring greater awareness, humanity and understanding to health and medical stories. - New York Festivals said entries are judged by international juries of award-winning industry professionals under each competition’s established criteria. - The 2027 TV & Film Awards eligibility window runs from September 1, 2025, through December 31, 2026. - The deadline for entering the 2027 TV & Film Awards is December 31, 2026. - The 2027 Radio Awards require entries to have been produced, released, screened, aired, published, issued or streamed between January 1, 2026, and January 31, 2027. - Entry information, categories and competition rules are available through New York Festivals’ TV & Film Awards and Radio Awards.

Between the lines: - The partnership signals that both organizations see health storytelling as more than a genre category; they view it as a tool for public understanding and social impact. - By tying the award to the strongest entry across documentary categories, New York Festivals is making health storytelling a cross-platform competitive benchmark. - The emphasis on lived experience suggests the award will favor work that combines reporting with emotional clarity and audience relevance.

What's next: - The AwareNow Award will be part of the 2027 New York Festivals TV & Film and Radio competitions. - Filmmakers and audio creators can submit entries through the competitions’ published rules and entry portals. - The winner will be selected from the highest-scoring qualifying submissions in the designated health documentary categories.

The bottom line: - New York Festivals and AwareNow Media are using a new award to reward health storytelling that informs audiences and pushes them toward action.