Last week included a historic night on the stage at the Peabody Awards — and for the field of interactive!
In brief, I flew out to LA on June 9 to attend the red carpet award show. I was there as a member of the jury, and specifically the Interactive Board. Here we are pictured:
This is the first time that the interactive winners were treated as equals on the main stage, a watershed for the legitimacy of the field. Interactive projects ranged from interactive journalism to VR, interactive documentary, and narrative games. There is strong overlap with what our graduate students make at American University in our Game Center, and the recognition of immersive is building a foundation to someday recognize games that are city- and place-based like most of those in my Playful City Lab.
No other major award show in Hollywood has showcased interactive media in this integrated way — beyond innovation to truly be “stories that matter.” In a phrase, Peabody significantly leveled the playing field.
The range was astounding. Traditional Hollywood was easy to spot: Mel Brooks (predictably hilarious on stage), Bluey and Star Trek… but there were also games that could be played on Xbox about the Protestant Reformation (“Pentiment”), a VR project on Ukraine (“You Destroy. We Create | The war on Ukraine’s culture”), and even an Instagram series (“The Hidden History of Racism in New York City”). Try these projects, if you haven’t already.
The focus on “stories that matter” was powerful. One of the most stirring moments came from a surprise speech by Patrick Stewart, who was my hero decades ago as a teenage Star Trek fan. Instead of waxing poetic about the show, he toasted the Peabody Awards ceremony as being “unlike any other” because the work represents the direction that “liberty and democracy will proceed.” So many agreed, and the deep sense of mission was powerful.
The deliberative process of the Peabody Awards especially distinguishes them. Rather than voting, the final board deliberates over several days to reach a consensus. This process was both incredibly educational for most of us — such a treat — and crucial to build a shared understanding of quality across very different media forms.
Due to COVID, this was the first ceremony in person in years (and the first in LA, since it was previously held in NYC). I am honored to have served for two years, helping to launch the open call. We were led by our chair Diana Williams, who also led the selection of “legacy awards” in the prior year. Such an honor to serve with Lars Bastholm, Jay Bushman, Aymar Jean Christian, Katerina Cizek, Navid Khonsari, Dan Pacheco, Sergio Peçanha, Adrienne Shaw, Kamal Sinclair, Sara Thacher and Lance Weiler.
Thank you to the whole Peabody Team, especially for the steadfast commitment of executive director Jeffrey P. Jones to recognize interactive media, and the amazing staff team.
As bonus, a few of us made the “Best of the Red Carpet” on Deadline.com. What fun! I am a bit celebrity challenged, but had fun browsing (or search for ‘Stokes’ toward the bottom).