Nominations Open October 28, 2025

These awards are given to Feature Film and Television full-time Camera Operators who have operated on distinguished projects of considerable quality during the previous year. Anyone in the Film/TV community may nominate a Camera Operator for this award, including but not limited to SOC members, directors, producers, production crew members, studios, and production companies. Camera Operators may also submit themselves.

Submissions for Camera Operator of the Year will open on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, and close on Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

Once submissions close, the list of submissions will be sent to the voting members of the SOC to select five in each category using the web-based ballots.

Then submissions will be vetted for their qualifications by the Awards Committee and a distinguished Jury of Committee members will then select nominees in each category.

The list of the final nominees in each category will be sent to all voting members of the SOC in good standing for a vote by web-based ballots.

For this award, there will be no consideration of any Director of Photography who also operated the camera on the same project.

The recipients will be announced at the Awards Celebration, Saturday, March 7, 2026, and will be kept private until that time.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Film Nominee Submissions
To be eligible:

  • The nominee must be credited as “A Camera Operator” or “Camera Operator” (for productions with only one credited Camera Operator), have been the lead Camera Operator on the production, and have worked on the production for the majority of the schedule. In the event of shared or non-standard screen credits, the credited Camera Operators must agree on who meets this criterion or agree to share the nomination.
  • A nominated Camera Operator may include other Camera Operator(s) as part of the nomination (e.g., B Camera or Steadicam).
  • All Camera Operators on the specified production must have verifiable Camera Operator screen credits and have contributed significantly to the quality of the finished project.

Projects must meet the following qualifications for consideration in the Camera Operator of the Year – Film category:

  • Be of Feature length (60 minutes or longer),
  • Be self-contained and not part of a larger episodic or limited-series project,
  • Be released during the calendar year 2025 and complete a screening run of at least seven consecutive days in theaters in at least one of the six qualifying U.S. cities. Qualifying cities: Los Angeles County; City of New York (Five Boroughs); the Bay Area (counties of San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, San Mateo, and Contra Costa); Chicago (Cook County, Illinois); Miami (Miami-Dade County, Florida); and Atlanta (Fulton County, Georgia)

OR be made available in the previous calendar year 2025 through commercial streaming, paid video-on-demand service, or other broadcast or cable distribution.

Television Nominee Submissions
To be eligible:

  • The nominee must be credited as “A Camera Operator” or “Camera Operator” (for productions with only one screen-credited Camera Operator), have been the lead Camera Operator on the episode, and have worked on the production for a minimum of three (3) episodes released during the calendar year 2025. In the event of shared or non-standard screen credits, the credited Camera Operators must agree on who meets this criterion or agree to share the nomination.
  • A nominated Camera Operator may include other Camera Operator(s) as part of the nomination (e.g., B Camera or Steadicam).
  • All Camera Operators on the specified production must have verifiable Camera Operator screen credits, have contributed significantly to the quality of the finished project, and have worked on the production for a minimum of three (3) episodes released during the calendar year 2025.
  • A minimum of three (3) episodes of the submitted project (including the submitted episode) must have been broadcast on television, cable, or streaming service during the calendar year 2025
  • A nominated Camera Operator may be submitted for only one (1) episode of any single television production in a calendar year. (NOTE: A Camera Operator may be submitted for more than one television production in a calendar year. A production may be submitted more than once should different episodes meet the above criteria.)

SUBMISSION AND FEES

The form below allows you to nominate an operator for their work on a project. There is a $75 USD submission fee per nomination. Payment must be made to complete your nominee submission and is available at the end of the form.

Any questions or special requests, please contact Kristin Petrovich at Kristin@soc.org

Please be aware that the information provided in this submission form will be used for the SOC voting member’s submission selection.

Submit COY Nominations Here

TIMELINE

October 2025

  • Tuesday, October 28, 2025 – Camera Operator of the Year submissions open to the public

 December 2025

  • Wednesday, December 31, 2025 (11:59pm PST) – Camera Operator of the Year submissions close
January 2026
  • Thursday, January 8, 2026 – Camera Operator of the Year submissions Membership voting for Nominees open
  • Friday, January 16, 2026 – Camera Operator of the Year submissions Membership voting for Nominees closes (11:59pm PST)
February 2026
  • Thursday, February 5, 2026 – Camera Operator of the Year Nominees voting opens to membership
March 2026
  • Sunday, March 1, 2026 (11:59pm PST) – Camera Operator of the Year voting closes
  • Saturday, March 7, 2026 – SOC Awards Show broadcast live 4:30pm PST/ 7:30pm EST