Award Ceremonies

Hugo Voting Closed; Ceremony Plans in Place

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Voting for the 2014 Hugo Awards and 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards closed at the end of July. The SF/F world’s attention now focuses on London, where the Awards will be announced at two ceremonies at the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, Loncon 3.

The 1939 Retro-Hugo Ceremony will be on the first night of Worldcon, Thursday, August 14, 2014, at 8 PM. Mary Robinette Kowal and Rob Shearman will host the ceremony in the ICC Auditorium at the ExCeL convention center. The ceremony will be followed by a swing dance with music by the Brideshead Ballroom Stompers.

The 2014 Hugo Awards Ceremony will be on the final night of the convention, Sunday, August 17, also in the ICC Auditorium of the ExCel at 8 PM. Justina Robson and Geoff Ryman will host the ceremony. The ceremony will also include the announcement of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and selected other awards.

Admission to both ceremonies is open to all attending members of Loncon 3 (and day admission holders for the respective days). No separate ticket is required. Formal attire is neither required nor prohibited; in other words, feel free to dress up for the event, but don’t be afraid to come as you are.

Both events are planned to be live-streamed via UStream by Loncon 3, and the 2014 Hugo Ceremony is planned to also be covered by text-based coverage on CoverItLive by the Hugo Awards Web Site team. Results of each set of awards will also be posted on the Hugo Awards web site shortly after the end of each ceremony.

The designs for the bases of the 1939 Retro-Hugo and 2014 Hugo Awards will be unveiled at the Loncon 3 Opening Ceremonies on Thursday, August 14, at Noon, and the trophies will be on display throughout the convention in the Exhibits area.

2013 Hugo Awards Replay Available

~ Kevin

The complete, uninterrupted 2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony is now available for replay on Ustream.

The original live broadcast on September 1, 2013 was adversely affected by technical problems with LoneStarCon 3’s equipment. The problems were not with the Marriott’s internet feed or with Ustream itself, and LoneStarCon 3 has apologized for not being able to provide the live feed as intended. However, you can now watch the entire event the way it unfolded live in San Antonio.

2013 Hugo Ceremony Recording in Preparation

~ Kevin

LoneStarCon 3 posted on it’s website earlier today the following announcement:

LoneStarCon 3 apologizes for the interruptions to the live broadcast of the 2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony. These problems were caused by issues with the convention’s equipment that caused failures in the feed to Ustream. LoneStarCon 3 wishes to make it clear that these technical difficulties were in no way due to Ustream Inc or the Marriott hotel, who have both provided excellent support throughout this year’s event.

LoneStarCon 3 has retained the master data for the broadcast and we expect to upload this within 1-2 weeks to enable fans around the world to appreciate the ceremony in full.

We will announce here when the full recording of the Hugo Awards ceremony is made available.

Hugo Awards Ceremony Tonight

~ Kevin

The Hugo Awards will be announced tonight at a ceremony at LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention, in San Antonio, Texas. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 8 PM CDT. We’ll be on the air around 7:45 PM with our live text-based coverage of the awards ceremony. The window to our call of the ceremony is below.

Live video coverage of the ceremony will be on the Hugo Awards UStream Channel. We’ve been reassured that Ustream has “whitelisted” the broadcast and is fully aware of the planned event, so expect no repetition of the unfortunate interruption that affected last years’s broadcast.

Note that the video and text-only coverage streams are not synchronized, and based on past experience, are likely to get out of synch with each other.

2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony to be Broadcast Live

~ Kevin

LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention, in partnership with Ustream, will broadcast the 2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony live and advertising-free on Sunday, September 1, 2013.

The ceremony will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Rivercenter hotel in downtown San Antonio, starting at 8 PM Central Daylight Time (9 PM EDT, 6 PM PDT). LoneStarCon 3 Toastmaster Paul Cornell, himself a past Hugo Award winner and multiple Hugo Award nominee, will host the ceremony.

In addition to the live video broadcast via Ustream at, the official Hugo Awards site will provide live text-only (lower bandwidth required) coverage via CoverItLive. As in previous years, the CoverItLive event will be hosted by former Worldcon Co-Chairman Kevin Standlee and two-time Campbell Award Nominee Mur Lafferty.

LoneStarCon 3 has partnered with Ustream, the leading video technology platform for live business communications, to provide this exclusive, ad-free broadcast, enabling science fiction fans around the world to participate in this prestigious event without interruption. This means that issue with automated ‘bots that affected last year’s broadcast has been dealt with, and the ceremony is a “whitelisted” event on Ustream.

For more information and the full announcement, see the LoneStarCon 3 web site.

2013 Hugo Award Nominees Announced

~ Kevin

The nominees for the 2013 Hugo Awards were announced at four conventions, online via UStream, through CoverItLive coverage on the Hugo Awards web site, and via the Twitter feed and other social media of LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 Worldcon, on March 30, 2013.

1,343 valid nominating ballots (1,329 electronic and 14 paper) were received and counted from the members of Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3 and Loncon 3.

See the 2013 Hugo Awards page for the full list of nominations.

The 2013 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award winners will be announced Sunday, September 1, 2013, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas.

2013 Hugo Nominations to be Announced March 30

~ Kevin

The finalists for the 2013 Hugo Awards will be announced on Saturday, March 30. The announcements will be made simultaneously at four science fiction conventions an also on a special CoverItLive internet feed hosted by TheHugoAwards.org

The nominations will be announced at these conventions and sites:

  • Online coverage at TheHugoAwards.org (Coverage begins shortly before 1 PM PDT)
  • Norwescon 36, one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier science fiction and fantasy conventions, in Seatac, WA (1 PM PDT)
  • Minicon 48, Minnesota’s longest-running science fiction convention, in Bloomington, MN (3 PM CDT)
  • Marcon 48, the Midwest’s largest annual convention, in Columbus, OH (4 PM EDT)
  • EightSquaredCon, the British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon), in Bradford, England (8 PM GMT)

Nominations will also be released category by category via the LoneStarCon 3 Facebook page and the LoneStarCon 3 Twitter feed.

Participation in the Hugo Awards nominating process is at an all-time high, with 1,343 valid nominating ballots cast this year, substantially exceeding the previous record of 1,101 set in 2012 by Chicon 7.

Once the nominees are announced, the final ballot voting will commence. Attending, Young Adult, Military, and Supporting members of LoneStarCon 3 will be able to cast final ballots until Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 11:59 PM EDT. The winners will be announced on Sunday, September 1, 2013, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at LoneStarCon 3.

More information is available in the full LoneStarCon 3 announcement.

CoverItLive coverage of the 2013 Hugo Awards Announcement is made possible through a grant from Chicon 7 to cover event hosting costs.

Hugo Awards Ceremony to be Re-Broadcast

~ Kevin

Hugo Awards Ceremony Rebroadcast
The 2012 Hugo Awards Ceremony, originally staged at Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon, on September 2, will be re-broadcast in its entirety and ad-free via UStream on Sunday, September 9, starting at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT) at www.ustream.tv/channel/hugo-awards.

The original broadcast on UStream was interrupted when UStream’s automated copyright-infringement software detected content deemed to be in violation of copyright. The content (clips of Hugo-Award-nominated dramatic presentations) had been cleared for use as part of the ceremony, but UStream was unable to restart the coverage of the ceremony.

UStream founder and CEO Brad Hunstable spoke directly to Chicon 7 Chairman Dave McCarty the day after the 2012 Worldcon ended and apologized for the disruption. UStream will rebroadcast the 2012 Hugo Awards Ceremony without ads or interruption and will work with the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee (which McCarty chairs) and future Worldcons to support future Hugo Award ceremony broadcasts.

Further details are in the press release on the Chicon 7 Worldcon web site.