The BREAKTHROUGHS IN STORYTELLING AWARDS are presented by the Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University School of the Arts in recognition of the year’s most innovative narratives.
Breakthrough Prize: Consensus Gentium (UK)
Special Jury Prize: Reverse Rorschach (France)
Digital Dozen: Acts of Faith, Body of Mine, Borderline Visible, Consensus Gentium, House of Weaving Songs, No Save Points, Passing Electrical Storms, Port of Entry, Reverse Rorschach, Tulpamancer, Voidopolis, The Wolf and the Lamb
Presented virtually on November 13, 2024 by Merel van Helsdingen, Founding Director of Amsterdam’s Nxt Museum; Diana Williams, Co-founder and CEO of Kinetic Energy Entertainment; Matthieu Lorrain, Creative Lead, AI & Creativity Research at Google DeepMind, and Josh Goldblum, Founder of BlueCadet, FutureSpaces and Artwrld. In lieu of physical or digital awards, a statement of intent was co-created by the audience and GPT-4 in an experiment led by Columbia DSL member Shar Simpson. Awards presentation hosted by Columbia DSL’s Lance Weiler and Frank Rose and produced by Aaron Matys; assistant producer, Eileen Lu.
Breakthrough Prize: Dreamachine (UK)
Special Jury Prize: Unlearning Language (US / Japan)
Digital Dozen: Backup Ukraine, Bureau of Multiversal Arbitration, Channels, deepwork, Dreamachine, Evolver, Immortality, Song of the Ambassadors, Sutuverse, Theater of the Mind, Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s), Unlearning Language
Presented virtually on April 5, 2023 by the Emmy-nominated comedian and critic Baratunde Thurston; Andrea Lipps, curator of contemporary design and head of digital at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; and DSL members Nicholas Fortugno, chief creative officer and cofounder of the Brooklyn game studio Playmatics, and Shar Simpson, who teaches the lab’s digital storytelling and world-building classes at the School of the Arts. Awards created by Takaaki Okada and Lance Weiler and co-created by the audience in real time before being minted as NFTs by Lance Weiler. Awards presentation hosted by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose and produced by Aaron Matys, followed on April 12 by the first Breakthroughs in Storytelling Summit at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center and on April 15 by the first Breakthroughs in Storytelling Symposium online. The DSL is grateful for the support and involvement of HUB Montréal.
Breakthrough Prize: Life After BOB: The Chalice Study (US)
Special Jury Prize: Dates (UK)
Digital Dozen: Breonna’s Garden, The Changing Same, Dates, Forest of Us, Life After BOB: The Chalice Study, Lizardly, Neurocracy, Obsidian, Otherly, Raining Stories, TM, Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up.
Presented virtually on April 13, 2022, by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design and director of R&D at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Aramique Krauthamer, executive creative director of Whatever; Jake Sally, COO of Jadu; and Ziv Schneider, winner of the 2021 Special Jury Prize for Sylvia. Hosted by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose. Produced by Aaron Matys; assistant producer Sean Kim. Awards created by Takaaki Okada and Lance Weiler and co-created by the audience in real time before being minted as NFTs by Lance Weiler.
Breakthrough Prize: Darkfield Radio (UK)
Special Jury Prize: Sylvia (US)
Digital Dozen: Agence, Darkfield Radio, Kentucky Route Zero Act V, Lollipop 2, Lure, Masterpiece: Nighthawks, Motto, Play Inside, Remote Tourism, Scarecrow VRC, Sylvia, The Third Day: Autumn.
Presented virtually on April 7, 2021, by Jessica Brillhart, director of the Mixed Reality Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies; Erin Reilly, director of innovation and entrepreneurship at UT Austin’s Moody College of Communication; Fabien Riggall, founder and director of Secret Cinema; and Frank Rose. Hosted by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose. Produced by Aaron Matys; assistant producer Sean Kim. Awards created in augmented reality by Marcio Lima, Aaron Matys and Lance Weiler and minted as NFTs by Lance Weiler.
Breakthrough Prize: Facial Recognition Machine (US).
Special Jury Prize: Lithopy (Czech Republic).
Digital Dozen: Colony Sound, Death Stranding, Eva.stories, Facial Recognition Machine, Hypnospace Outlaw, Lithopy, Presence, Proto, Spectre, Traveling While Black, Un/tied Shoes, Where There’s Smoke.
Presented virtually on April 29, 2020, by Nicholas Fortugno, chief creative officer of Playmatics; Illya Szilak, writer/director of the 2019 Special Jury Prize winner Queerskins: A Love Story; Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of Wired; and Karen Wong, deputy director of the New Museum and co-founder of New Inc. Hosted and produced by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose. Assistant producer Sean Kim. Awards created in augmented reality by Clay Weishaar.
Breakthrough Prize: WDCH Dreams (US).
Special Jury Prize: Queerskins: A Love Story (US).
Digital Dozen: 1 the Road, Au-delà des limites, The Collider, Gris, Healing Spaces, The Horrifically Real Virtuality, JFK Unsilenced, The Lockdown, Queerskins: A Love Story, The Structure of Stand-up Comedy, WDCH Dreams, Where the Water Tastes like Wine.
Presented April 3, 2019 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center by Yasmin Elayat, director of the 2018 Special Jury Prize winner Zero Days VR; Justin Hendrix, executive director of RLab and the NYC Media Lab; Lina Srivastava, founder of the Creative Impact and Experience Lab; and Frank Rose. Hosted by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose. Produced by Luisel Peña. Awards created by DSL member Amir Baradaran.
Breakthrough Prize: The Oracles (UK).
Special Jury Prize: Zero Days VR (US).
Digital Dozen: Arden’s Wake (prologue) and Maestro, The Believers Are But Brothers, Bloodless, Carne y Arena, Cosmic Top Secret, Did You Mean Mailchimp?, Everything, It Must Have Been Dark by Then, The Oracles, The Space We Hold, What Remains of Edith Finch, Zero Days VR.
Presented April 4, 2018 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center by Ellen Lupton, senior curator at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and author of Design Is Storytelling; Kevin Slavin, TED speaker and chief science and technology officer of The Shed; Karen Palmer, creator of the 2017 Digital Dozen member RIOT (prototype); and Noah Brier, co-founder of Percolate. Hosted and produced by Lance Weiler and Frank Rose. Awards created by DSL member Amir Baradaran.
Breakthrough Prize: The Swedish Number (Sweden).
Special Jury Prize: Giant (US).
Digital Dozen: Collisions, Field Trip to Mars, Firewatch, Giant, Inside, Inside: Artists & Writers in Reading Prison, Laura Poitras: Astro Noise, Riot (prototype), Saydnaya: Inside a Syrian Torture Prison, The Swedish Number, These Memories Won’t Last, Westworld (season 1) and DiscoverWestworld.com.
Presented April 5, 2017 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center by Frank Rose, with special guests Karen Palmer, creator of Riot, and Milica Zec and Winslow Turner Porter III, co-creators of Giant.
Digital Dozen: Absolut Silverpoint, The Deeper They Bury Me, The Displaced, Door into the Dark, Freedom, The Hopscotch Opera, Karen, Life Is Strange, Mukto-Mona, Network Effect, The Pickle Index, This Is the Story of One Block in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn.
Announced January 27, 2016. Presented February 23, 2016 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center by Frank Rose, with special guests Adam Moss, editor of New York magazine, and Bill Wasik, deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine, for a discussion on digital journalism, and Lauren Cornell, curator and associate director of technology initiatives at the New Museum, and Zach Kaplan, director of Rhizome, for a discussion on art and technology.
The jury for the awards is made up of members of the Digital Storytelling Lab and faculty from across the Columbia community:
Barrie Adleberg, DSL member
Christopher Baldassano, assistant professor of psychology
Hilary Brougher, chair, School of the Arts Film Program
Ira Deutchman, DSL founding member and professor emeritus of professional practice in film
Nicholas Fortugno, DSL member
Rachel Ginsberg, DSL member
Sarah Henry, DSL member
Susie Kavanaugh, DSL member
Rob King, professor of film; faculty, Center for Comparative Media and Heyman Center for the Humanities
Magalis Martinez, DSL member
Rita McGrath, associate professor, Columbia Business School; faculty of Executive Education
Romy Nehme, DSL member
David K. Park, DSL founding member; member, Committee on Global Thought and Data Science Institute, and fellow, Center for the Management of Systemic Risk
Luisel Peña, DSL member
Frank Rose, DSL awards director and senior fellow, School of the Arts
Maureen Ryan, DSL member and associate professor of film
Dennis Tenen, DSL member; associate professor of English and comparative literature; faculty, Center for Comparative Media
Lance Weiler, DSL founding director and associate professor of film and theatre
Paul Woolmington, DSL member and senior fellow, School of the Arts