A Cappella Video Awards
The annual A cappella Video Awards (AVA) recognize excellence in music videos in the a cappella community.
The AVAs define a music video as “a produced short film that integrates a song with imagery and is created for promotional or artistic purposes.”
The AVA mission reflects that of its parent organization, the Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA): we aim to reward artists that create outstanding work and to promote innovation, creativity, and continued growth of the a cappella medium.
Timeline
| September 30 | Application for nominators and judges are due.
If you would like the opportunity to participate in the AVA process, please fill out our nominator/judge interest form. You may apply at any time during the year to be a nominator in the upcoming cycle. All applications received after the deadline will be considered for the following year. |
| September 30 | AVA submission form due.
The submission form must be completed out by this date in order to be considered eligible. |
| Mid-October | Nominations begin. |
| Early November | Nominations end, 11:59 PST |
| End of November |
Nominees are announced
Nominees are announced in all categories. |
| Early December |
Judging begins
Judges log in to the awards system and begin assessing and ranking the nominees. |
| End of December |
Judging ends, 11:59 PST |
| February 16 | Winners are announced live at LAAF and on www.casa.org
One winner and one runner-up is announced for each of the awards. |
Eligibility
Your video is eligible for the 2025 AVAs if:
1. It was released to the public between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024. Public release date is the time at which your work became available online for free or paid consumption by the public.
2. It has not been considered in a previous year for AVAs or a CARA video award.
3. It is entirely a cappella (uses no instruments).
4. A submission application form has been filled out on carawards.org and submitted by September 30.
The AVAs define a music video as “a produced short film that integrates a song with imagery and is created for promotional or artistic purposes.” To honor this medium, videos that are recordings of a live performance or competition set are only eligible for live performance categories. This year, those categories include Outstanding Live Video and Outstanding Competition/Festival Set.
Produced music videos that feature a pre-recorded performance or competition set will also be eligible for Outstanding Competition/Festival Set, even if they are not eligible for Outstanding Live Video. However, in order to be eligible for genre or group type award categories, long sets consisting of multiple songs should be separated and submitted individually.
Category specific eligibility is determined by genre, voicing and group type. Learn more about our definitions of these classifications.
Past Results
Submission Instrutions
Fill out the submission application form at carawards.org.
The submission fee is $5 per video up to $25 per group max (i.e. if your group submits 6 videos, you would only be charged $25).
If you have questions or would like to follow up on receipt of the form, email the Awards team at [email protected].
Nomination/Judging Process
The CASA Awards programs allow people all over the world to assist in the nominating and judging process. By using the web, we can get more people involved, and simultaneously guarantee consistently high-quality judging.
Becoming a Nominator / Judge
In order to join a nominating committee, any person may fill out our nominator/judge interest form.
What We Look For
An applicant must have adequate a cappella experience and knowledge, have no relations/conflicts of interest with any competing groups in the category(ies) in which they are working, and they must be committed to impartiality.
Judging and nominating takes place virtually and participants can be located anywhere in the world.
A diverse subset of the individuals from the pool of applicants will be chosen as judges. Qualifications may include superior musicianship, a cappella experience and knowledge, and recording or production experience. We take the qualifications of our judges very seriously in an effort to maintain the prestige of the CARAs. These positions require a lesser time commitment than do the nominating positions (because there is significantly less music to which you must listen) but is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated the highest level of proficiency in the a cappella domain.
Process Overview
We have released a detailed article describing our philosophy and process. It's good to be familiar with, but intimate knowledge is not a prerequisite for volunteering.