Lady Gaga, Pokemon Go, Steve Buscemi among 407 Webby Award winners
Lady Gaga, Pokemon Go and Steve Buscemi are among the winners of this year's Webby Awards. The annual honour, now in its 21st year, celebrates the best of the internet and web culture.
Gaga won a pair of Webbys for her high-tech tribute to David Bowie at last year's Grammys, which was produced in partnership with Intel. Pokemon Go was picked as best game and won two other awards after becoming a smartphone sensation last summer. And Steve Buscemi snagged the prize for best actor, thanks to his performance in Louis C.K.'s web series Horace and Pete.
In total, there are 407 Webby winners this year, with prizes in the special achievement, web, online film and video, advertising and media, mobile sites and apps, social and podcasts and digital audio categories. On top of that, there's two winners in most of these categories: recipient of the Webby Award (chosen by the academy) and the Webby's People's Choice Award (chosen by public voting). Some of the nominees snagged both prizes.
A few nominees with Canadian connections were named winners: the people's choice Webby for game or application in advertising and media was given to Absolut Deadmau5, a VR storytelling adventure featuring the hit Canadian DJ.
And for the best use of data driven media award within the advertising and media category, projects with Canadian ties won both the Webby and the people's choice awards.
Publicis New York was given the Webby for their "I'm Moving to Canada" campaign for Doctors of the World. It took the sky-high search results of people looking to move to Canada during the U.S. election and turned them into donations for Syrian medical aid.
FCB Toronto and the Canadian Down Syndrome Society won people's choice for their Down Syndrome Answers video series, which featured people with Down Syndrome answering and offering insight into the 40 most common questions asked about the condition.
The CBC podcast Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams was nominated for best documentary in the podcasts and digital audio category, but didn't end up winning.
The awards will be handed out in New York during a ceremony next month hosted by Joel McHale. And of course, organizers will be strictly enforcing the prize's trademark five-word acceptance speeches.
Here are a handful of some other notable winners, who will be feted in May:
- Artist of the year: Solange
- Best actress: Gillian Anderson, The Fall
- Social movement of the year: Women's March
- Best writing (editorial), web: The New Yorker (Webby winner and people's choice)
- Comedy: long form or series, online film and video:Jimmy Kimmel Live's mean tweets series
