The first official Star Wars Fan Film Awards took place in 2002. Lucasfilm and AtomFilms launched this contest to officially sanction amateur productions of its saga for the first time.
Entries had to stay under thirty minutes when the competition opened in 2002. The time limit dropped from thirty minutes to fifteen minutes in 2003 and shrank again to ten minutes by 2006.
Kevin Smith hosted the first ceremony in 2002 which aired on the SciFi Channel. Subsequent years saw winners screened online at starwars.com and atom.com or appearing on SpikeTV during special Atom TV episodes.
Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager claimed the Lucas Selects title in 2007. Christmas Tauntauns won the top honor in 2002 while Troops took the Pioneer Award that same year.
The program ran until 2018 when Lucasfilm announced its discontinuation in favor of new sharing methods. It left behind a catalog of amateur works that documented fan passion over sixteen years.