Awards
The Awards were presented December 19 at the AMIA Membership Meeting. You can watch the full presentation here.
AMIA’s Silver Light Award recognizes outstanding professional achievement in the field of moving image preservation and archives.
Dr. Caroline Frick’s achievements at the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) represent a defining contribution to the field of moving image archiving. Before founding TAMI in 2003, she held key preservation and archival positions at Warner Bros., NARA, AMC, and the Library of Congress, experience that shaped her visionary approach to regional media preservation. Under her leadership, TAMI has grown from a modest collection into one of the nation’s most widely accessed regional archives. Her groundbreaking partnership with the Texas Film Commission launched the Texas Film Round-Up, which for two decades has preserved and digitized more than 50,000 films and videotapes and raised statewide awareness of the importance of community collections. Today, TAMI’s collection receives more than 1.2 million annual views, reflecting the impact of the access and engagement models she pioneered. In addition to her work at TAMI, Dr. Frick leads the Channel US project, a national effort to elevate recognition of television as cultural heritage and to save what remains of America’s local television collections before they are lost forever.
The William S. O’Farrell Volunteer Award:The William S. O’Farrell Volunteer Award is named for long-time member Bill O’Farrell honoring his volunteer efforts and the mentoring role he played within the field.
Katie Trainor has been a dedicated AMIA volunteer for many years and has played a foundational role in shaping one of the organization’s most beloved conference traditions. For many of its early years, she was the driving force behind Archival Screening Night, helping to build the program into the showcase it is today, celebrating archivists and archival collections around the world. Katie has been a long-time member of the Conference Committee and has served as the Program Chair for the past two years, guiding the development of thoughtful, inclusive, and forward-looking programming. Her generosity, reliability, and unwavering commitment to AMIA’s mission exemplify the spirit of volunteer service.
ender Media PortalThe Alan Stark Award honors projects who have made a significant contribution through their efforts that contributes to, and supports, the work of moving image archives and/or AMIA.
The Transgender Media Portal, launched in June 2024, is a groundbreaking project that expands representation in audiovisual archives and models new standards for ethical metadata. Despite more than 1.6 million transgender people living in the United States, trans creators have long been excluded from shaping how their stories are documented and accessed. The Portal directly addresses this gap by connecting users to trans-made films and videos held in archives across the U.S. and Canada, including major institutions such as UCLA and the Academy Film Archive, as well as vital community archives. Its technical design—built from sustainable flat HTML pages made searchable by a JSON index—offers a lightweight, long-lasting, low-bandwidth solution that challenges assumptions about what digital access tools must be. Prioritizing accessibility and community involvement, the project provides a replicable model that moves the field forward in representation, ethical description, and sustainable digital infrastructure.
Ray Edmondson Advocacy Award:The Ray Edmondson Advocacy Award recognizes an individual, an organization, or a project that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of media archives or those working to preserve and provide access to media archives.
Dwight Cody is now the world’s sole remaining restoration, repair, and parts-supply business for Steenbeck editing tables. For more than four decades, he has sustained the Steenbeck ecosystem through a 45-year parts inventory, designing 28 innovative “New Generation” circuit boards, and safeguarding critical components. As he plans to retire in 2029, Cody is ensuring this expertise endures by offering intensive, hands-on workshops, training small cohorts in full machine rebuilds and long-term maintenance. His advocacy is both vocal and deeply practical—he has not only kept machines running and available to archivists around the world, but his commitment to sharing this knowledge and passing on his expertise will ensure it continues for generations to come.
The 2025 AMIA Spotlight Award is presented to Jeffrey Bickell this year in recognition of his long-term advocacy for and impact on the Hearst Newsreel Collection. Jeffrey’s contribution spans more than three decades and significantly predates the Packard Humanities Institute partnership, and while others have contributed to the project, Jeffrey’s stewardship has seen his early advocacy develop into the current phase of preservation and public access. As he departs from his role, he leaves a clear and sustainable roadmap that will guide the collection’s future.
The Hearst Newsreel Collection is one of the world’s largest and most historically significant newsreel collections. Jeffrey Bickell has championed the collection for more than 30 years, advocating for its care, visibility, and long-term relevance. Since the 2016 launch of the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) partnership to restore and make this material accessible, he has been a driving force behind the work. Today, more than 16,000 news stories can be accessed online, with new material added as it is preserved and scanned. His deep expertise, and unwavering belief in the collection’s value have provided a clear and lasting roadmap for its future.
AMIA Legacy Award:The Legacy Award honors individuals whose visionary leadership, advocacy, and lifelong commitment to access have significantly advanced the field of media preservation. Dr. Hayden’s distinguished career exemplifies these values. From her groundbreaking tenure as the first woman and first African American Librarian of Congress to her decades of leadership in public libraries and archives, she has worked tirelessly to expand equitable access to the nation’s cultural and historical record.
“Carla Hayden’s impact on our field is immeasurable,” said Mike Mashon, President of AMIA. “As Librarian of Congress, she brought unprecedented visibility to the importance of preserving our moving image heritage, and she did so with a deep commitment to public access and community engagement. Her leadership has inspired a generation of archivists, particularly those entering the field through programs like AMIA’s Pathways Fellowship, to see preservation not only as a technical practice, but as a public service. We are deeply honored to recognize her with our inaugural Legacy Award.”
The award was presented by Dr. Jacqueline Stewart, Chair of the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) and acclaimed film scholar. A former AMIA board member and founder of the South Side Home Movie Project, Stewart is a leading advocate for representation in archival practice, and her work has expanded public understanding of the vital role community memory plays in audiovisual preservation. A host of TCM’s Silent Sunday Nights and former President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, she has brought film history to broad public audiences for decades. Her leadership at the NFPB, her advocacy for access to our cultural heritage, and her close ties with AMIA make her an especially meaningful presenter for this inaugural honor.