CINDY, an acronym for "Cinema in Industry," began in 1959 as an industrial film competition. It was originally created by the Industry Film Producers Association (IFPA), an American professional organization. Later, this group became the Informational Film Producers of America and, in 1984, the Association of Visual Communicators (AVC). Today the twice-a-year CINDY Awards are proudly presented by the International Association of Audio Visual Communicators (IAAVC), a non-profit group representing theatrical, broadcast, non-broadcast, and interactive media professionals throughout the world.
As the market for industrial films has evolved into video and other media formats over the years, CINDY has changed dramatically. Interactive media was added in 1985, making CINDY the first interactive media competition in the world. Today CINDY continues to honor the informational media producer but has expanded to embrace all production professionals.