There’s nothing the entertainment industry loves more than an awards show, so it’s probably a milestone of some kind that the nonprofit International Academy of Web Television now has its very own. The inaugural IAWTV Awards event was held Thursday evening, appropriately as part of the 2012 International CES.
The top prizes went to well-established creators. RCVR, an original series by Machinima, was voted best drama series. It was also recognized with Best Male Performance (Drama), which went to Daniel Bonjour, and Best Cinematography, by Joost van Starrenburg.
The Guild, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, surprised nobody by being honored as best comedy series. It also received four other awards, with creator Felicia Day recognized for best writing (comedy) and best female performance (comedy). Best directing (comedy) went to Sean Becker, and the series was voted as having the best web design.
Since these shows couldn’t exist without the Internet, that side of things also received honors. Blip.tv was named best distribution platform, beating out Hulu, Dailymotion, Crackle and Joost. A full list of the winners appears below.
“The inaugural IAWTV Awards winners represent the best of what is possible in web television,” said Paul Kontonis, chairman of the board of directors for IAWTV, and vice president/group director of Brand Content at Digitas. “The content is premium, in all genres, produced independently and by major studios and attractive to both audiences and advertisers.”
Winners were chosen by majority vote of the active voting membership of the IAWTV from nominees who topped more than 350 officially submitted web series. The inaugural IAWTV Awards event was executive produced and directed by Carver Wright of Bryan Allen Events and sponsored by CES, YouTube, Yahoo!, My Damn Channel, Blip.tv, Crackle, Deca, Grab Networks, Lionsgate, Machinima, Vizio, King of the Web, SAG New Media, JTS.TV – Just The Story, Break Media, Writers Guild of America, Vidcon, Newtek, Zingled, Beet.tv and What’s Trending with Shira Lazar.
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Inaugural IAWTV Awards Winners
Best Comedy Web Series: The Guild
Best Drama Web Series: RCVR/Web Series
Best Hosted Taped Web Series: The Web.Files
Best Hosted Live Web Series: What’s Trending with Shira Lazar
Best Animated Web Series: Red vs. Blue
Best Documentary Web Series: White Collar Brawler
Best Variety Web Series: Kids React
Best News Web Series: Tech News Today
Best Educational Web Series: DadLabs
Best Writing (Comedy): Felicia Day, The Guild
Best Writing (Drama): Susan Miller & Tina Cesa Ward, Anyone But Me
Best Writing (Non-Fiction): Rudy Jahchan, A Comicbook Orange
Best Directing (Comedy): Sean Becker, The Guild
Best Directing (Drama): Chris Preksta, The Mercury Men
Best Directing (Non-Fiction): Brett Register, What’s Trending with Shira Lazar
Best Female Performance (Comedy): Felicia Day (Codex), The Guild
Best Female Performance (Drama): Rachael Hip-Flores (Vivian McMillan), Anyone But Me
Best Male Performance (Comedy): Jeff Lewis (Stan), The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour
Best Male Performance (Drama): Daniel Bonjour (Luke Weber), RCVR/Web Series
Best Host (Taped): Kristyn Burtt, The Web.Files
Best Host (Live): Shira Lazar, What’s Trending with Shira Lazar
Best Cinematography: Joost van Starrenburg, RCVR/Web Series
Best Design: Greg Aronowitz, Dragon Age: Redemption
Best Costume Design: Shawna Trpcic, Dragon Age: Redemption
Best Makeup/Special Effects: Greg Aronowitz and Kimberly Graczyk, Dragon Age: Redemption
Best Visual Effects: Chris Preksta, The Mercury Men
Best Editing: Tony E. Valenzuela, BlackBoxTV: The Series
Best Original Music: Rob Gokee, Night of the Zombie King
Best Supplemental Content: The Mercury Men
Best Interactive/Social Media Experience: What’s Trending with Shira Lazar
Best Web Site Design: The Guild
Best Distribution Platform: Blip.tv
