Beyond the big screen
From the beginning, the Brady sisters gave their awards show room to grow as the entertainment industry grew and changed around them. Categories were frequently added or dropped in response to feedback or to account for the increasing number of viewing platforms for trailers outside of movie theaters.
Evelyn recalls getting rid of the Dark and Stormy Night statue awarded to the “most contrived trailer” after the second year.
“We thought it was fun, but nobody wanted to enter it,” she laughs. (For the record, Joel Schumacher’s 8MM and Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man are the only two winners in that long-lost category.)
Starting in 2005, the GTAs expanded into mediums beyond movies with the addition of a Best Video Game Trailer category. Video games were later followed by awards recognizing televised and streaming series, network promos, electronic press kits, podcasts, and even billboards and posters.
Of course, crafting an award-winning TV spot or billboard is a different ask than creating traditional movie trailers made for movie theaters. Monica Brady says that TV shows have more footage to work with than an average feature film, and those editors have to be cautious about how they tease season-long character arcs while also avoiding spoilers for future episodes: “They’re a different art form,” she notes.
Meanwhile, trailers made for digital platforms can use available internal data to get remarkably granular in terms of how they target online audiences.
“One editor was just telling me about how they can market a trailer just to 18-25 year-old-men with all the data they have at their fingertips these days,” Evelyn Brady marvels.
According to the Brady siblings, over 60 industry professionals serve as judges for each GTA ceremony, selecting the winners in different categories.
“Ben Stiller was a judge,” Monica Brady remembers, name-dropping some of the other celebrities that have donated their time to the awards—a list that includes Quentin Tarantino, Benicio del Toro, Adam Driver, and Glenn Close.
While each category comes with its own quirks, Evelyn Brady emphasizes that the judges follow one central idea, whether they’re evaluating a movie trailer or a billboard: “Their goal is to determine which spots are the most effective. It’s about what moves you—as in, what’s moving you to the theater or to the remote.”
