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Entries are now open for the 10th Digital Cinema Media Awards, presented in partnership with Campaign.
Honouring cinema’s most exceptional advertising campaigns for a decade, the Digital Cinema Media Awards offer brands and professionals a chance to have their incredible talent, strategy and creative work recognised on the industry’s most prestigious stage.
Two new categories have been announced in 2026:
Excellence In Cinema Effectiveness recognises campaigns that demonstrate outstanding effectiveness in cinema advertising and will remain a category for future Digital Cinema Media Awards.
And unique to this year’s tenth anniversary only, the Cinema Campaign of the Decade invites the industry to select its favourite campaign from the past nine Grand Prix winners.
If your campaign won the DCM Grand Prix before, you’re in with a chance. More information and how to vote can be found here, with voting closing on 7 August.
Entrants have a further five main categories to choose from with an additional Grand Prix awarded for the overall winner.
Categories are free to enter, and prizes include a cinema screen-time campaign to the value of £100,000, a red-carpet premiere experience for two people, exclusive access to DCM’s screening room and cinema tickets. Nominees are invited to a glamourous award ceremony hosted on the 8 October at BAFTA in London’s Piccadilly, where the winners will be revealed.
Every category for the DCM Awards 2026:
- Best Use of Cinema (Small)
- Best Use of Cinema (Large)
- Best Creative Use of Cinema
- Excellence in Cinema Effectiveness (new)
- Best Long-Term Use of Cinema
- Cinema Champion of the Year
- Cinema Campaign of the Decade (new)
- GRAND PRIX
Karen Stacey, CEO, Digital Cinema Media: “Can you believe it’s already ten years since the first DCM Awards? What an incredible journey it’s been – showcasing the exciting ways advertisers are harnessing the unique context and environment of cinema. I still find myself anticipating what’s next every year! With that in mind, it’s only fitting that for our tenth anniversary we do something a little bit special and introduce a unique celebratory category for our incredible advertisers to vote on. I can’t wait to join the nominees for our biggest celebration at BAFTA yet.”
Chaired by Maisie McCabe, UK Editor at Campaign, a distinguished panel of industry experts will decide the winners of each category:
- Davina Barker, Chief Revenue Officer at DCM
- Genna Trentham, Client Managing Director at Spark Foundry
- James Bailey, CEO Media, UK&I at Dentsu
- Jem Lloyd-Williams, Mindshare President and WPP Media CSO
- Jenny Biggam, Founder, the7stars
- Jon Stevens, WPP Media President at Wavemaker
- Karen Stacey, CEO at DCM
- Katie Lee, CEO at Starcom
- Patrick Affleck, CEO at Havas
- Paul Knight, CEO at PHD
- Rachel Peace, UK Managing Director, Hearts & Science
- Sarah Nugent, CEO at UM
- Will Spence, CEO at Initiative
DBLG, the creative agency behind the London Film Festival and Studio Canal, has been commissioned to brand the entire Digital Cinema Media Awards.
Relive 2025 ahead of the Tenth Awards
In 2025, Specsavers and MG OMD’s “Should've Gone To... Cinema” campaign was the evening’s standout winner, taking home the Best Creative Use of Cinema award and overall Grand Prix.
Savills and Bountiful Cow won the award for Best Use of Cinema (Small) while Best Use of Cinema (Large) was taken home by Magnum and Mindshare’s ‘Nothing Cracks Like a Magnum’ campaign.
NHS Blood & Transplant (NHSBT) and MG OMD were awarded Best ‘Marketing For Good’ campaign, which saw a collaboration with Marvel Studios’ iconic antiheroes Deadpool and Wolverine.
What’s more, the Best Long-term Use of Cinema was won by The Royal Air Force and OmniGOV at MG OMD for their ‘Flight, Film, and Firsts: RAF’s Trailblazing Recruitment Through Cinema’ campaign.
And when it came to 2025’s Cinema Champion, Rob Powell at Dentsu was honoured as individual Cinema Champion of the Year while the Unilever AV team received the team award.
The Digital Cinema Awards are free to enter and the closing date for submissions is Friday 24 July. Judging will take place in September, and the live red-carpet awards ceremony will take place on Thursday 8 October at London’s BAFTA in Piccadilly.
For more details, entry guidelines and terms and conditions, please visit www.dcm.co.uk/awards or contact awards@dcm.co.uk