The Canadian Independent Music Video Awards are back! Voting now open for the 5th CIMVAs, Canada’s largest celebration of purely independent music videos and the artists and creators behind them.

The CIMVA’s were created when Dropout Entertainment saw a gap in the recognition/awards culture. While music videos of artists signed to major labels with huge budgets behind them are often celebrated, no awards existed that recognized solely independent artists and the filmmakers/creators behind the camera of independent music videos. The CIMVA’s were created to shine a spotlight on the dedication, creativity and hard work that Canadian artists put into creating these incredible works of art.

Voting for Round 1 of the contest is now open and will close on May 1st, with 4 winners moving on to round 2 chosen by most fan votes, and 4 winners chosen by the CIMVA Judges.

To qualify, submitted videos must have been released during the 2024 season (January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024) and the band must include a minimum of 50% Canadian members.

Artist entries must be Independent, this contest does not accept entries from artists signed to the three major music labels (Warner, Sony, or Universal).

In Round 1 User votes will account for four of the eight finalists in each genre category. The additional four finalists will be determined by the CIMVA Judges Panel.

As of May 16th, 2025 the category finalists will be posted and voting will again open for round two.

Voting for genre category winners will run until May 30th. Genre category winners are chosen by a combination of user and judges votes. Overall best video is determined at the sole discretion of the CIMVA judges, and will be selected from one of the 6 category winners.

All awards will be announced at a live awards ceremony held in June, 2025.