The Rookies – sponsored by Autodesk – is an annual awards and mentor platform open to young creatives in film, animation, games, VR, motion graphics and architecture visualisation.

For students, The Rookies offers them a “stamp of approval” as they transition from school to production, enabling them to have their work seen, graded and commented on by industry heavyweights. As well as find out where they stack up against their peers.

For studios and recruiters, The Rookies is the place to find outstanding emerging talent. The end goal? Launch young creatives into careers. The Rookies is essentially becoming a recruitment tool for studios – a talent agency, if you will – that independently reviews digital artist’s skills and connects them with studios who need great talent.
To date they have helped place 89 students in jobs across Asia, Canada, Europe, Oceania and the US. The students they have helped have gone on to work on films (such as Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Mummy, Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers) and AAA level games (such as Hellblade, Far Cry and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor).

From the moment you realised you wanted to work in the creative media & entertainment industry, to the moment you secure your dream job, you should be proud to call yourself a Rookie.

Please make sure to put these dates in your calendar so don’t miss any of the deadlines.

For anyone interested in submitting work to The Rookies it is crucial that you read the Rules. We try to keep them clear of too much “lawyer talk” so they are easy to read.

It will only take a minute to scan over the Rules, so go on, check it out before you get distracted.

There are a large number of entry categories for students to upload their work this year. We have also created a page which outlines recommendations and examples of successful entries.

If you truly want to know how your skills stack up in the real world, you need to ask the most respected industry veterans. Well, we have that covered. From Oscar Winners to Agency Founders, our line up of judges have the experience and knowledge needed to handle this huge task.

To meet our judging panel and find out more about the judging process simple follow the link.

Everyone needs a little help from time to time. To make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible we have a dedicated team of support staff waiting to answer any of your questions – no matter how small they are.

Tip: Use the Live Chat system located bottom right of each page. 

The Rookies was founded by Andrew McDonald and Alwyn Hunt. They both worked in the Visual Effects Industry for over 15 years each working at some of the world’s top studios.

Over the past 9 years the team has grown to include an Advisory Board which helps keep the company heading in the right direction and evolving as quickly as possible.

Put simply, there would be no Awards if it wasn’t for the incredible support we have from companies and studios around the world. We are humbled to work with so many incredible people who are passionate about supporting the next generation of creative minds.

Please make sure to visit our Sponsor page and better yet, click on a banner here or there. It’s such a small thing, but it means a huge amount to these great companies.

What good is there to having an Awards if the prizes are lame. Winners of The Rookies don’t get gift certificates and a hand shake, they take home a massive bounty of prizes including the latest gadgets, hardware, software, and media.

Did we also mention you could win jobs? We have teamed up with some of the most amazing companies to offer fully paid internships to local talent!

Want to start your career with a internship at an award winning studio? Looking to take your skills to the next level with a School Scholarship? We have a huge selection of both up for grabs again this year. These internships will have you immersed in a production environment, mingling with some of the most inspiring professionals, and will get you hands on with production assets. The scholarships will have you being taught by the best schools and mentors in the world!

Every student that submits work to The Rookies is reviewed by our panel of judges. The judges score entries based on criteria including — creative skills, technical skills, presentation, variety of skills, complexity, raw talent, and employment potential.

Based on these scores each student is awarded an official ranking and badge. The badge can then be displayed on the students website or LinkedIn profile to add a level of professionalism and industry respect.

For anyone interested in telling the world about The Rookies, please feel free to download our official logos and gallery of images from Dropbox.