Countdown To The Knight Of Illumination Awards: London And Las Vegas

UK & USA - The 11th Knight of Illumination Awards UK (KOI) lands at London's famous Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on Sunday, September 16. Hot on its heels comes the first ever KOI Awards USA, all set to be staged at The Foundry inside Las Vegas' SLS Hotel and Casino on Saturday October 20. Both events recognize great lighting and video design across Theatre, Concert Touring & Events, and Television (named 'Live Broadcast' in the USA).

Nominations for this year's UK Awards have reached record levels. KOI-USA has hit the ground running with a considerable amount of nominations for its first year.

"The vision for KOI has always been to champion both the craft of lighting and video design and the creativity of the designers," says Pio Nahum, CEO of headline sponsor Claypaky. "In the UK, and across Europe, I believe KOI has dramatically raised awareness and appreciation of lighting and video design and continues to do so. We're thrilled that we are now able to bring this to the USA. Thank you to the industry for your overwhelming support for KOI on both sides of the Atlantic."

In the run-up to the 2018 ceremony, Britain's 'longest-serving theatre critic' Michael Billington, who writes for The Guardian and is a KOI-UK Theatre judge, penned an article highlighting his new-found appreciation of how "lighting design can enhance, enrich, and even explain" our experience of a show or performance.

Previous KOI winners have included Patrick Woodroffe and Adam Bassett of Woodroffe Bassett Design, Fabiana Piccioli, David Hersey, and Lucy Carter. Winning a KOI Award has fueled success for younger recipients, who are starting out on their careers, and given credit where it's due to those who have been pushing creativity and professionalism forward for years.

This year's shortlisted lighting and video designers can be found on the KOI website.

The judging process has always been a key part of the KOI Awards' integrity. Nominations are submitted through the KOI-UK and KOI-USA websites, and each category's nominees are evaluated by an independent panel of expert judges. The judges exhaustively review the shows and supporting materials, narrowing the field to a final shortlist of three designers per award, and, finally, agreeing on the winner. Both ceremonies also present a Lifetime Recognition Award.

For KOI, critic and broadcaster David Benedict chairs the Theatre panel, lighting director and chair of the Society of Television Lighting and Design (STLD) Stuart Gain chairs the Television panel, while Jess Allan, owner of Productionomics, chairs the Concert Touring & Events panel.

Across the pond at KOI-USA, lighting designer Clifton Taylor chairs the Theatre panel; lighting designer Jeff Ravitz chairs the Live for Broadcast panel; and principal lighting designer and founder of Lightswitch John Featherstone chairs the Concert Touring & Events panel.

The UK ceremony will be hosted by lighting designer and KOI co-founder Durham Marenghi, with entertainment courtesy of BBC Comedy's 'mind-reader' magician, Chris Cox.

To stay up-to-date with the KOI Awards in the UK and the USA, view nominations, and be among the first to find out the winners in each category, like us on Facebook!

Since its inception in 2007, The Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) has continued to grow in stature and is now the most credible UK industry A¬-wards to celebrate international lighting and video content design for entertainment. KOI recognises work broadcast or performed in the UK across the fields of Concert Touring & Events, Theatre and Television. Judging is carried out by three panels of industry experts in conjunction with prestigious industry organisations the ALD and the STLD.

The KOI awards were conceived by renowned lighting designer Durham Marenghi, Jennie Marenghi and Italian lighting manufacturer Claypaky which, to this day, is headline sponsor of the event, alongside Osram. The Awards and ceremony are managed by specialist content creation and events company The Fifth Estate Ltd on behalf of the KOI Executive Committee: (alphabetically) Durham Marenghi; Jennie Marenghi; Pio Nahum; Sarah Rushton-Read and the KOI committee: Jess Allan; David Benedict; Coral Cooper; Bernie Davis; Rick Fisher; Stuart Gain and Peter Mumford.