2010 Ursa Major Awards winners
The winners of the tenth annual Ursa Major Awards for the best anthropomorphic/"funny animal" literature and art first published during 2010 have been announced at a presentation ceremony tonight at Morphicon in Columbus, Ohio.
See also: Last year's winners, the 2010 nominees and other UMA coverage.
| Best Anthropomorphic Novel | Shadow of the Father, by Kyell Gold [Mature Audiences] (Sofawolf Press, January) |
|---|---|
| Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction | Bridges, by Kyell Gold [Mature Audiences] (Novella released as single publication by FurPlanet Books, February) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work | Fur-Piled #4, by Leo Magna (Sofawolf Press, comic collection with some new material, July) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story | Twokinds, by Tom Fischbach (Internet, January 6 (#537) to December 4 (Holiday 2010)) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip | Housepets! by Rick Griffin (Internet strips from January 1 to December 31) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Magazine | Heat [Mature Audiences] (Sofawolf Press, July) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration | Cover for Kyell Gold's Shadow of the Father, by Sara Palmer (Sofawolf Press, January) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Game | Disney Epic Mickey (Flayrah review) (Developer: Junction Point Studios; Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios, November 25) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture | How To Train Your Dragon (Producers: DreamWorks, Mad Hatter, Vertigo; Distributor: Paramount Pictures, March 26) |
| Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series | Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention (Produced by Aardman Animations for BBC One. Episode 1 to 6; 3 November to 8 December) |
More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Awards, the Ursa Major Awards are presented each year for excellence in the furry arts. They are intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom's equivalent of the Hugo Awards presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom's Anthony Awards, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Awards, and so forth. The physical award consists of an illustrated trophy certificate or plaque, designed by artist Heather Bruton.
Eligibility in the ten categories is for works featuring anthropomorphic characters first published during the calendar year 2010. This can include new compilations of older works, such as a new collection of previously-published separate works. Nomination and voting for the awards was open via the Internet to anyone who is a fan of anthropomorphic characters. There were five finalists in each category except where there was a tie for fifth place, in which case there were six finalists.
Between March 13 and April 17, 1,372 voters from countries as diverse as Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the USA selected the winners.
The Ursa Major Awards are administered by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic literature and arts. Each year, the ALAA encourages fans to suggest worthwhile works for inclusion in the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, which fans often use as a guide when nominations for the next Ursa Major Awards open in January.
About the author
PeterCat — read stories — contact (login required)an anthrocon art show director from Syracuse, NY
Intrigued by the late-80s CBS series "Beauty and the Beast," PeterCat discovered SF conventions and began helping out at art shows. On the Internet, he created the Furry InfoPage and in his FurryMUCK persona as Rhal, maintains a list of furry-themed MU*s.
Comments
"More formally known as the Kyell Gold/Sofawolf Press Awards, the Ursa Major Awards are presented each year"
Fixed that for you.
You forgot all around wank fiction fest
Kinda dancing around "furry" with 'anthropomorphic/"funny animal"', aren't we? :-)
Regardless, congratulations to the winners - especially Tom, who is new for 2010.
The list in the article seems to be incomplete. The awards in the Motion Picture category and others are listed here.
Good catch - I've added them to the list.
I thought "Mature works" were banned?
Not quite. Only those which ALAA deems "obscene, libelous, or otherwise detrimental to the integrity and good standing of the Ursa Major Awards and the anthropomorphics fandom", including "works of a predominantly sexual nature, or which include explicit sexual situations involving characters which may be underage or non-anthropomorphic animals."
Going to be hard to win a with a non-mature work then. I mean libido is a powerful voting tab, though some day maybe a PG-13 work will conquer, and that'll be a day I'd clearly like to see in deed. Anyone can invoke sensations of interest when sex is involved, getting an audience without it is a much harder feat, and they would truly be an artist of heavy merit. (Which is why I alway look to see how well the non-mature works faired against the mature works, they are two different leagues as sex already has a target audience selling something new and different is a much more laborious task)
Upon excepting the award they'll be able to say, "my work, is better then porn? NO WAI!" It'll happen some day, I'm sure. Someone will figure out a way to do it.
"Twokinds" won over "Cruelty" in Graphic Story.
«Disney Epic Mickey» this is cool!
Yeah, but it was an honor to be a finalist. :) Just gotta work harder for next year!
I don't think it's really that fair to let one publishing thing win 3 awards.
There were 2 for shadow of the father, the third thing was for a short story, which was a different publication.
I am disappoint.
Could you qualify that?
Like, "at all" would be a good place to start.
Lackadaisy and FAux Pas did not make it. THAT makes me VERY disappoint.
Okey-doke.
I've never read Two Kinds, so I ain't gonna judge anything but the premise.
Furry does race.
Judging I'm probably with you on this one.
I'm relatively happy with the winners, at least in the categories I actually care about xD Kinda bothered that Wallace and Gromit won an award over the other candidates, though. It's hardly considered anthro imho :c
As much as How to Train a Dragon is I suppose. Gromit, like the dragons has personality but doesn't speak, same with all the dragons in the movie.
Gromit is an anthropomorphic dog though. There's nothing anthropomorphic about the dragons. That is how they are in that fictional world. They aren't an anthropomorphic version of a real dragon.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Maybe that is just how some dogs are in Gromit's world, and he's not anthropomorphic either.
That doesn't matter. He's a dog and so is seen relative to real-world dogs, making him anthropomorphic.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
anthropomorphic dose include feral but intelligent behavior. I aw some of Hoe to Train Your Dragon and the dragon does act in a intelligent human manor.
At the end of the movie, the dragons are referred to as pets, not something one calls a complete equal; one of the two directors also compared Hykup and Toothless's relationship to that of cowboy and horse. The dragons are anthropomorphisized incidentally, not purposefully. Toothless is almost certainly meant to be taken as a really smart animal, not a being of human level intelligence. Still worthy of respect, of course, but not a "person."
How To Train Your Dragon is not furry, even if we go by the all inclusive "the only rule is that it contains anthropomorphic animals" definition of furry. If that's how everyone else wants to define it, I'm going to make darn sure you all stick to at least that much. This would make it the second movie in a row to win the Ursa Major without actually being furry; Avatar featured vaguely animalistic aliens.
But How To Train Your Dragon, completely unlike Avatar was a darn good movie; the "we finally have something to talk about" scene managed to be very funny and very sad at the same time. It may have been my favorite scene from any movie of any genre last year. A comparable scene from Avatar would be lacking.
I guess that's the trick then, put something REALLY not anthropomorphic in each category and then when something gets in there that's questionable in that regard, then it'll be accepted because at least it wasn't like that previous one
As far as the movie category was concerned, there wasn't much going furry-wise last year.
Avatar winning depressed the Hell out of me because it won against a much tougher furry offering in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
I mean, seriously, Wes Anderson gave an acceptance speech as an animated weasel for his Special Filmmaking Achievement Award from the National Board of Review. And we gave the award to some movie about a guy turning into an alien that wasn't District 9?
Also, the Avatar alien color and clothing were totally ripped off of Krystal from Star Fox Adventures. And I lost my hat at that movie. I really liked that hat.
Me and that movie have issues.
I agree it's not furry at all. You might be interested to know I've submitted an article, partly in reply to yours, giving some 'criticism' of the fandom. It's specifically focussed on making a new, and better, definition of furry.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Why? Why bother putting so much effort into arguing about the details of the definition when it could be kept simple and vague? I don't see what it would accomplish other than to allow some furs' to make a vain appeal to authority when trying to assert their preferences as more legitimate than other furs' preferences. The only change for people actually interested in the subject as opposed to fitting some definition would be going from saying "I like this subset of furry" to "I like this other subset of furry, plus some other very similar things with nearly all the same themes, but so-and-so said it is not furry."
Alternatively, if there is only one... slightly furry character in a film, it should not be called "furry". Like, if one of the characters is a sports star, that does not make a sports film.
Also, things can be more, or less "fuhreh". Like a comedy can be VERY black (Very Bad Things), or with just a few jokes about death but still relatively upbeat.
Shawn of the Dead?
Because "vague" is pretty much the same thing as "useless."
No, "too vague" is the same thing as useless, just as "too narrow." I haven't had problems with the loose definition being useless, and it seems to work fine for most other furs too.
The thing is it can get to a point where someone over anthropomorphizes. As in they see things with human characteristics that really do not have any at all.
I think the purest form I can think of this is the Weighted Companion Cube from portal. It's certainly not furry obviously, however, the character of the WCC is definately a case of the gamer over-anthropomorphizing a figure into human status. Typically out of suggestion from GlaDos.
Same thing can happen in movies about animals with furries, particularly when the animals are a central character. The piece may suggest they have human qualities but the making of them as human is purely in the mind of the particular viewer.
Your dragon will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak. If your dragon does speak, please disregard its advice.
Cool!
Whatever your opinion of my opinion is, honestly, cool.
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