Young Artist Award

The **Young Artist Award** (first known as the **Youth In Film Award**) is an award given by the **Young Artist Foundation**.  The foundation was started in 1978 to award child actors and singers under the age of 21 for their work in movies, television, theater and music. The foundation also raises money for talented children to go to school.

The 1st Youth In Film Awards were given in October 1979, at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Hollywood for child actors' and singers' work during the years 1978 and 1979.  The 35th Young Artist Awards will be given on May&nbsp;4, 2014 at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Southern California for child actors' work during the year 2013.

## Young Artist Foundation
The **Young Artist Foundation** is a charity started in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press member, Maureen Dragone to raise money for child artists to go to special schools to study acting, singing, or other special arts.  One of the most well known contributors to give money to the Young Artist Foundation is the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. but the name was changed to the **Young Artist Awards** for the 21st awards in March 2000.  The awards are sometimes called the "Kiddie Oscars", because many people believe they are like the Academy Awards for children working in Hollywood.

The awards were started by Maureen Dragone in 1979 to award child actors and singers for their work during the years 1978 and 1979 because she thought child actors didn't have a fair chance to win other awards given to adults like the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award.

### Statue 
The first Youth In Film Award was a small statue that looked like a small Academy Award.  It was a statue of a small golden man holding a wreath in front of his chest and he stood on a very large base that looked like a sports trophy.  All the winners are given the golden statue and all the children who are nominated are given a special plaque at the ceremony to remember their nomination.

### Voting 
The children that the Young Artist Awards considers nominating must be between the ages of 5 and 21 and are first suggested by the child's agent or manager.  Today, the Young Artist Association has over 125 members who are journalists, agents, and former child performers.  The Young Artist Awards has also awarded children for their work in other arts over the years, including theater, dance, commercials, journalism, radio and stand-up comedy.

### Special Awards 
While the number of acting categories has grown, some competitive categories like "Best Juvenile Recording Artist", "Best Family Motion Picture" and "Best Family TV Series" are no longer awarded.  The awards for those categories are now given as special "Honorary" awards.

### Ceremony 
The ceremony is held every year in Hollywood and it is the most formal awards ceremony for child actors.  The child nominees and their parents are expected to "dress up" in suits or party dresses, and many arrive in long cars called limousines.  Reporters and photographers are invited to the red carpet before the show, to take pictures and talk to the child stars when they arrive and sign autographs for fans.  The children picked to announce the winners on stage each year are usually the winners from the year before or from the year's list of nominees.

## References 
## Other websites 
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* Young Artist Awards photographs at LIFE.com