The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) held its second annual awards ceremony last night, showering accolades upon new and familiar favorites of the Internet community.
Streamed live over the Internet and followed by thousands of people via Twitter hashtag, the awards provided some surprises and big wins for Web series like Squaresville, which won for Best Comedy Writing, Best Ensemble, and Best Comedy Series. Vlogger Grace Helbig also won for Best Taped Host and Best Taped Hosted Series, while director Sean Becker won in both the Comedy category for My Gimpy Life and the Non-Fiction category for Felicia Day’s The Flog. The Nerdist, Chris Hardwick, scored big; his new Nerdist platform won Best Online Channel amid fierce competition from fellow nominees like Geek and Sundry and Funny or Die.
There were some surprises, though, such as a shut-out for popular Jane Espensen comedy Husbands, and a snub for Tom Hanks’ high-budget dystopia Electric City in favor of Bryan Singer’s high budget apocalyptic H+. Big names like Bill Maher and Julia Stiles showed up in a few categories as well.
Though the awards were not without the requisite awkwardness and technical glitches of the typical live ceremony, last night’s awards, which were created after the notoriously disastrous Streamy Awards of 2010, went off with a thankful lack of streaking and onstage groping. Amid the generally high spirits, IAWTV Chairman Paul Kontonis rattled off statistics showing the dramatic increase in attention and funding given to Web TV over the past few years, citing that spending on original online content had quintupled from $50 million in 2011 to a projected $250 million in 2013.
“Like a lot of you here, I had dreams of doing what I do, that I wasn’t allowed to do,” said What’s Trending host Shira Lazar when accepting her award for Best Live Host, “so I just created it!”
Check out the complete list of winners (in bold) and nominees below.
Best Educational Web Series
Engineer Your Space
BOOKD
Infinite Thinking Machine
Lovely Lady Cakes TV
The Digits
Best Variety Web Series
Rhett and Link
Elders React
iJustine
Kids React
The Angle Show
Best Original Music
Cost of Capital, Rob Gokee
10,000 DAYS, Joseph LoDuca
AIDAN 5, Mike Jackson
Continuum, Damon Criswell
Epilogue the Series, Tyler Durham
Best Cinematography
H+ The Digital Series, Brett Pawlak
10,000 DAYS, Marco Mazzei
Drone, Sean Stiegemeier
Guidestones, Jay Ferguson and Robert Barnett
Western X, Jason Ryan and Michael Flores
Best Editing
Continuum, Blake Calhoun
Guidestones, Anthony Baird and Thomas Smalley
SYD2030, Alexander Barnett
The Division, Eric Won
Video Game High School, Desmond Dolly
Best Design (Art Direction/Production)
Continuum, Eric Whitney
10,000 DAYS, Mimi Gramatky
AIDAN 5, Jason Mowry
H+ The Digital Series, Andres Cubillan
The League of S.T.E.A.M., The League of S.T.E.A.M.
Best Visual Effects (Digital)
H+ The Digital Series, Faction Creative and The Sequence Group: VFX Supervisor Ian Kirby; Digital Effects Supervisor Chris van Dyck; VFX Producer Caleb Bouchard
AIDAN 5, Ben Brown and Shawn Likley
Black Box TV, Paul Lowey
Continuum, Element X Creative, Chad Briggs
Written by a Kid, Written by a Kid
Best Comedy Writing
Squaresville, Matt Enlow
Husbands, Brad Bell, Jane Espenson
My Gimpy Life, Gabe Uhr
Stockholm, Scott Brown
The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour, Jeff Lewis
Best Dramatic Writing
The Booth at the End, Season 2, Christopher Kubasik
AIDAN 5, Ben Bays
Continuum, Blake Calhoun
Leap Year, Yuri Baranovsky and Vlad Baranovsky
The Steps, Dylan Kussman
Best Non-Fiction Writing
The Flog, Felicia Day
Ain’t it Cool with Harry Knowles, Harry Jay Knowles and Brett A. Hart
Celebrity Sleepovers, Mark Malkoff
DailyGrace, Grace Helbig
Larry King Now, Jason Rovou
The Philip DeFranco Show, Philip DeFranco
Best Male Performance in a Comedy
The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour, Jeff Lewis (Jeff)
Fresh Hell, Brent Spiner (Brent Spiner)
Glitch, Jesse Lee Keeter (Brian “Glitch” Banner)
Husbands, Sean Hemeon (Brady Kelly)
Stockholm, Zack Gol (Danny)
Best Female Performance in a Comedy
My Gimpy Life, Teal Sherer (Teal)
Husbands, Alessandra Torresani (Haley)
Pretty, Stacy McQueen (Annette Champagne)
Squaresville, Mary Kate Wiles (Zelda)
Squaresville, Kylie Sparks (Esther)
Best Makeup / Special Effects
The League of S.T.E.A.M.: Nick Baumann, Robin Blackburn, Sheyne Fleischer, Andrew Fogel, Glenn Freund, Trip Hope, Russell Isler, James Lavrakas, Duane Matthews, Kate Walsh, Conrad Wright Jr., and Aubriana Zurilgen
AIDAN 5, Katrina Francis and David “House” Greathouse
Bite Me Season 2, Michael Del Rossa
Epilogue the Series, Nathan Shelton
JourneyQuest Season 2, Bandersnatch Studios
Best Costume Design
The League of S.T.E.A.M., Nick Baumann, Robin Blackburn, Sheyne Fleischer, Andrew Fogel, Glenn Freund, Trip Hope, Russell Isler, James Lavrakas, Duane Matthews, Kate Walsh, Conrad Wright Jr., and Aubriana Zurilgen
10,000 DAYS, Rita Riggs and Shawnelle Cherry
Save the Supers, Greg Aronowitz
Shelf Life, Lino Stavole and Stephanie Stevens
The Skyrim Parodies, Kristen Nedopak
Best Interactive/Social Media Experience
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
DIRTY WORK
Engineer Your Space
MyMusic
What’s Trending
Best Live Event
Bill Maher: CrazyStupidPolitics
2nd Annual Indie Intertube Awards
MTV: Live in NYC.
Transforming The World through Comedy
We Day Winnipeg 2011
Best Online Channel
Nerdist Channel
College Humor
Funny Or Die
Geek and Sundry
My Damn Channel
Best Supplemental Content
Red vs. Blue
Guidestones
MyMusic
Pretty
REMIXED
Best News Web Series
The Philip DeFranco Show
Around the World
Newsmakers
Tech News Today
This Week in Tech
Best Directing of a Comedy
My Gimpy Life, Sean Becker
Generic Girl, Steven Itano Wasserman
Husbands, Jeff Greenstein
Pretty, Steve Silverman
Squaresville, Matt Enlow
Best Directing of a Drama
Anyone But Me, Tina Cesa Ward
10,000 DAYS, Eric Small
AIDAN 5, Ben Bays and John Jackson
Guidestones, Jay Ferguson
The Division, Eric Won
Best Directing, Non-Fiction
The Flog, Sean Becker
Celebrity Sleepovers, Mark Malkoff
My Damn Channel LIVE, Jack Ferry
PRODIGIES, Danny Stolzman
REMIXED, Jeffrey Waldron
Best Live Host
What’s Trending, Shira Lazar
AfterBuzz TV’s So You Think You Can Dance, Kristyn Burtt and AJ Gibson
My Damn Channel LIVE, Beth Hoyt
Stupid for Movies, Mark Keizer and Wade Major
This Week in Tech, Leo Laporte
Best Taped Host
DailyGrace, Grace Helbig
All Star Celebrity Bowling, Chris Hardwick
Larry King Now, Larry King
Sword and Laser, Veronica Belmont
The Flog, Felicia Day
Best Live Hosted Series
What’s Trending
AfterBuzz TV’s So You Think You Can Dance
Indie Intertube
My Damn Channel LIVE
Stupid for Movies
Best Taped Hosted Series
DailyGrace
5 Minute FX
All Star Celebrity Bowling
TableTop
Weapons of Mass Production
Best Documentary Series
PRODIGIES
Blind Judoka
Failure Club
Raising an Olympian
Vampires
Best Animated Series
Red vs. Blue
Battlefield Friends
Do’s and Don’ts
Electric City
Krogzilla
Best Male Performance in a Drama
The Booth at the End, Season 2, Xander Berkeley (The Man)
AIDAN 5, Bryan Michael Block (James Aidan)
Continuum, Brad Hawkins (Tipton)
SYNC, Tanner Thomason (Charlie Cooper)
The Steps, Dylan Kussman (Charlie Madison)
Best Female Performance in a Drama
Blue, Julia Stiles (Blue)
Anyone But Me, Rachael Hip-Flores (Vivian)
Continuum, Melanie Merkosky (Raegen)
Guidestones, Supinder Wraich (Sandy Rai)
Lauren, Troian Bellisario (Lauren)
Best Ensemble Performance
Squaresville
Anyone But Me
Leap Year
Out With Dad
Pretty
Best Comedy Web Series
Squaresville
Husbands
My Gimpy Life
The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour
Wainy Days
Best Drama Web Series
Leap Year
Aidan 5
H+ The Digital Series
The Booth at the End
The Division
Screengrab via Dailymotion