TRT Documentary Awards is organized to support amateur and professional documentary filmmakers, to contribute to the development and spread of the documentary genre, to ensure that different and high-quality documentary films from various countries meet with the audience, and to create a platform where documentaries from all over the world can meet and exchange ideas in the long term.
TRT Documentary Awards is held in two main sections as national and international competitions. The National Competition has been held in two categories; "Student Films" and "Professional." The language of the competition in the national category is Turkish. In the international category, the language of the competition is English.
The TRT Documentary Film Awards fulfill its goal of encouraging the creative methods of documentary cinema by encouraging and supporting national and international documentary films and productions and making them meet with the audience.
In 2018, 1605 documentary films from 101 countries, 1397 of which were in the international category, participated in the International TRT Documentary Awards.