Nomination Eligibility Deadline Looms
Published on 24 Jan 2010 at 2:09 pm.
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Filed under Voting Deadlines.
If you want to participate in the nominations stage of this year’s Hugo Awards, and you were not a member of the 2009 Worldcon in Montréal, then you must purchase at least a Supporting Membership in this year’s Worldcon by January 31st.
Note that this is not the deadline for submitting nominations, it is just the deadline for securing eligibility to vote. That’s set much earlier to allow time for your membership to be processed, and for ballot papers to be mailed to anyone who does not wish to vote online.
This year’s Worldcon, Aussiecon 4, takes place in Melbourne, Australia in September. It is not necessary to buy an Attending Membership, or travel to Australia, in order to vote in the Hugo Awards. All you need is a Supporting Membership. Prices for these are: AU$70, US$50, CA$50, £25, €35 or ¥4,900. Further details, including online payment, can be found here.
A Blast from the Past
Published on 10 Jan 2010 at 11:37 am.
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In 1979 Worldcon was held in Brighton, England, and the BBC sent along a film crew. They were making a series of programs, Time out of Mind, about science fiction writers, and Worldcon was a good place to get footage. The final program in the series ended up dedicated entirely to the convention, and culminated in a brief segment from the Hugo Award ceremony where we see Vonda N. McIntyre receive her trophy for Dreamsnake.
As the series dates back to 1979, little has been seen of it for a long time. However, one enterprising British fan, Arnold Akien, did record it on a very early VHS machine, and that video has found its way to us. Here, then, is a brief moment from the history of the Hugo Awards.
Amongst the other luminaries present at the convention were Christopher Reeve, who accepted the Hugo Award for Superman. A young British fan called Dave Langford received his first two Hugo Award nominations that year, but he did not win in either category. A full list of the 1979 winners can be found on this site.
2009 Award Ceremony Video
Published on 6 Jan 2010 at 6:11 am.
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The Anticipation folks have made a DVD of the 2009 Hugo Award Ceremony available for sale. It costs $9.95 + postage, and you can buy it from CreateSpace. A DVD of the convention’s masquerade is also available.
Nominations Open for 2010
Published on 1 Jan 2010 at 5:00 am.
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Filed under Voting Deadlines.
As per our tweet earlier today, Aussiecon 4 has opened nominations for the 2010 Hugo Awards. And being in Australia, which started 2010 long before most of us, they were very quick off the mark indeed. You can find the ballot at their web site.
As usual, the nominating stage of the process is open to anyone who was a member of last year’s Worldcon, Anticipation in Montréal, and to anyone who buys at least a supporting membership in Aussiecon 4. In order to give the Aussiecon 4 folks time to process memberships before the ballot closes you must buy your membership by January 31st. Supporting membership prices are as follows: US $50; AU $70; € 35; £25; ¥4,900. You can buy them online here.
Fans around the world are already discussing which works and people to nominate. You may wish to check the third party recommendation sites listed in our right-hand sidebar. If you are unsure about the eligibility of online works because of the changes to the WSFS Constitution that were made in Montréal you may find this public statement by Aussiecon 4’s Hugo Award Administrator helpful. And please remember that Best Graphic Story is now an official category so you can keep nominating such works.
The deadline for submitting nominating ballots is 23:59 PST on Saturday, March 13, 2010.
Logo in Book Stores Soon
Published on 22 Dec 2009 at 1:28 pm.
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John Scalzi reports that the Tor edition of his book Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded is going to hit the book stores soon (the official publication date is January 5th). As far as we know, this is the first book to bear the official “Hugo Award Winner” logo. We look forward to seeing many more, but congratulations to John and many thanks to Tor.
Introducing the Hugo Award Showcase
Published on 12 Nov 2009 at 1:36 pm.
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People have been asking us for some time where there is no annual anthology of Hugo Award winners. Our answer has been that no one wanted to publish one (and WSFS does not publish books). However, that answer no longer applies. We are delighted to announce that we have licensed Prime Books to produce a Hugo Award Showcase anthology. It will be edited by Campbell-winning writer, Mary Robinette Kowal. The 2010 edition, as well as featuring winning fiction from 2009, features a magnificent cover by 2009’s Best Artist, Donato Giancola. Here’s a mock-up of the proposed cover.
Oscars Copy Hugos
Published on 1 Sep 2009 at 3:32 pm.
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Filed under In the News.
The instant runoff voting system that the Hugo Awards use for their final ballot (often known as an Australian Ballot) has come in for a fair amount of criticism in its time. People complain that it is too complicated and they can’t understand it. However, we have stuck with it, because we believe that it produces better results. A certain other well known set of awards has always used a first past the post (plurality) system, but it was announced recently that from now, at least for Best Picture, on the Oscars will use an instant runoff system very similar to the one we use. Apparently the folks in charge of the Oscars think the change will produce better results (better here meaning fewer people yelling, “how come that won?”).
Tied in with this decision is the move to expand the nominee list for Best Picture to 10 films. Once you know that, the instant runoff system decision becomes obvious. With first past the post voting it is possible to win with a (1/N) + 1 share of the vote, where N is the number of nominees. With 5 nominees it was theoretically possible to win Best Picture with 21% of the vote; with 10 nominees you could win with 11%, so the chances of an upset win are much greater. The instant runoff system, however, will always produce a compromise winner that is least disliked by all voters.
There is just one problem for the Oscars. The members of the Motion Picture Academy are complaining that the new voting system is too complicated and they can’t understand it. Perhaps we could get some experienced Hugo voters to help them cast their votes.
2009 WSFS Business Meeting Report
Published on 18 Aug 2009 at 11:04 am.
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Filed under Rule Changes.
At the 2009 Business Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society the following motions that affect the Hugo Awards were adopted. (Strikeouts indicate text removed, underlines indicate text added.)
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2009 Hugo Award Winners
Published on 9 Aug 2009 at 8:35 pm.
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Presented at: Anticipation, Montréal, Quebec, August 6-10, 2009
Toastmaster: Julie Czerneda, with translation by Yves Meynard
Base design: Dave Howell
Awards Administration: Diane Lacey, Ruth Lichtwardt, Jeff Orth and Rene Walling
- Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
- Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
- Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
- Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
- Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
- Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
- Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
- Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
- Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
- Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
- Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
- Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
- Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
- Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
- Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
And the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (presented by Dell Magazines): David Anthony Durham
A full voting breakdown is available here.
Full nominations details are available here.
The 2009 Trophy
Published on 9 Aug 2009 at 8:05 pm.
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Pictures of the 2009 Hugo Award trophy, designed by Dave Howell, are now online here. Be sure to check out the top-down view of the base, which shows the blast pit as the Hugo rocket lifts off from the asteroid base.