2016 Webby Award nominees announced
David Farnor | On 07, Apr 2016
The 2016 Webby Award nominees have been announced and VR has officially entered the streaming race.
Established way back in 1996, The Webbys is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) – a 1,000+ member judging body – and the nominees include some of the world’s biggest viral videos and online series to hit the Internet this year. That means all the familiar faces from YouTube’s front page, such as Madhable’s Fight Club for Kids, Funny or Die’s Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Freak Out, R/GA’s Tracy Morgan in a Christmas Video, Jimmy Kimmel’s I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy and The Late Late Show’s omnipresent Carpool Karaoke.
But with virtual reality (VR) tools such as Occulus Rift and Google Cardboard reshaping the way people experience and interact with dynamic content online and on mobile devices, this year’s awards are also going somewhere new, with the recognition of “excellence and originality” in VR for the first time. Nominees in these new VR-related categories include The New York Times’ VR series The Displaced, CNN’s VR at the Democratic Debate, Stella Artois’ Buy a Lady a Drink and VRSE’s Walking New York.
IADAS members, including Jimmy Kimmel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Instagram’s Eva Chen, Questlove, Internet inventor Vint Cerf and Crisis Text Line Founder Nancy Lublin will select the winners, who will be announced on Tuesday 26th April.
The Webby Awards, though, presents two honors in every category – The Webby Award and The Webby People’s Voice Award. The latter is voted for by the public, with millions of votes coming in from all over the world. Voting is open here until Thursday 21st April.
The awards will be handed out at Cipriani Wall Street in a ceremony on Monday 16th May 16, with the show available stream on demand at webbyawards.com the morning after and highlights – including the hallmark 5-word speeches – available on The Webby Awards video channel.
From HBO’s cord-cutting OTT service HBO Now to Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the Webby nominees for this year are:
Best Web Personality/Host (Online Film & Video)
– Tyler Oakley
– Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
– The Slow Mo Guys
– Kid President
– Carmelo Anthony
Comedy: Individual Short or Episode (Online Film & Video)
– Anaconda – The Education Version (with Nicki Minaj)
– Go to College Music Video (with First Lady Michelle Obama)
– Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Freak Out: The Full Video
– Fight Club for Kids (with Chuck Palahniuk)
– Trumptastic Voyage (The Simpsons)
Comedy: Long Form or Series (Online Film & Video)
– If Google Was a Guy
– Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
– Billy on the Street with First Lady Michelle Obama
– Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #9 (Jimmy Kimmel Live)
– Epic Rap Battles of History
Entertainment (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– Star Wars app
– Marvel Unlimited
– Saturday Night Live app
– The A-Z of YouTube: Celebrating 10 Years
– Phallania
Media Streaming (Websites)
– 92Y On Demand
– TED
– HBO NOW
– PBS.org
– Pluto TV
Virtual Reality: Gaming, Interactive or Real-Time (Online Film & Video)
– Cardboard Crash VR for Google Cardboard
– Insidious Chapter 3: Into the Further
– House on Hallow Hill
– William Hill: Get in the Race
– The Neymar Jr. Effect
The full list of nominees can be seen at the official Webbys website.