Winners of the 2026 STAR Awards were announced during the October 1 celebration aboard the iconic Queen Mary in Long Beach.

These awards recognize excellence in government video programming in 56 categories, including Community Event Coverage, Best City | County Services Information Video, Human Interest, Public Safety, PSA, Sports Programming, Social Media, Parks & Recreation and more. 

This years STAR awards ceremony also included a compact symposium with two amazing learning sessions. One led by Devin Scott who spoke on his 30+ years in television and recent award-winning AI-driven work, Scott covered practical strategies for improved prompt structure, injecting genuine creative input, and communicating visual ideas clearly—equipping filmmakers to harness AI as a storytelling tool without losing their creative voice. The other led by Sarah Krieg who took real-world examples, that looked at how traditionally dry government information can become something unexpected, engaging, and memorable.

Added to the event was also a vendor show. Doerschel & Associates, Tightrope Media Systems, iEEi, and Media Control Systems joined us for the event. Thank you Vendors!

View First Place Winner VideosView Full List of Winners

Event photos available soon!