Hugo Award for Best Fancast
The Hugo Award for Best Fancast, is one of the Hugo Awards, and is awarded to the best non-professional audio or video periodical devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".[1][2]
Hugo Award for Best Fancast | |
---|---|
Awarded for | The best non-professional science fiction or fantasy video or audio series published in the prior calendar year |
Presented by | World Science Fiction Society |
First awarded | 2012 |
Most recent winner | Our Opinions Are Correct (Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders) |
Website | thehugoawards.org |
The fancast must have released four or more episodes by the end of the previous calendar year, at least one of which appeared in that year, and it must not qualify for the dramatic presentation category. It must also not provide or be published by an entity that provides a quarter or more of the income of any one person working on the fancast.[3] The name of the award is a portmanteau of fan and podcast. The Hugo Award for Best Fancast was first proposed as a category after the 2011 awards, and then appeared as a temporary category at the 2012 awards. Temporary awards are not required to be repeated in following years. The 2013 awards, however, did repeat the category, and afterwards it was ratified as a permanent category, and will appear in all future years.
During the 9 years the award has been active, 24 fancasts by 66 people have been nominated, and 6 of those fancasts have won. SF Squeecast, created by a team of five people, won the award in both 2012 and 2013, and declined to be nominated for 2014.[4] SF Signal Podcast, run by Patrick Hester, won the 2014 award, and Galactic Suburbia Podcast, run by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch, won the 2015 award. No award was given in 2016, and Tea and Jeopardy, by Emma Newman and Peter Newman, won in 2017 on its third nomination. Ditch Diggers, by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace, won the 2018 award in its second year of nominations, and Our Opinions Are Correct, by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders, won the 2019 and 2020 awards. Galactic Suburbia Podcast has received the most nominations at eight, followed by The Coode Street Podcast at seven.
Selection
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the awards presentation constitutes its central event. Supporting members are those who do not attend the convention itself, and pay a smaller membership fee as a result. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees, except in the case of a tie. The fancasts on the ballot are the six most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of fancasts that can be nominated. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held.[5] Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works; it was changed that year to six, with each initial nominator limited to five nominations.[6] Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year.[7][8] Members are permitted to vote "no award", if they feel that none of the nominees is deserving of the award that year, and in the case that "no award" takes the majority the Hugo is not given in that category. This happened in the Best Fancast category in 2016.[9]
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the story was first published. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominated works.
* Winners + No award
Year | Fancast | Editor(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | SF Squeecast* | Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente | [10] |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [10] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Andrew Finch | [10] | |
SF Signal Podcast | John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester | [10] | |
StarShipSofa | Tony C. Smith | [10] | |
2013 | SF Squeecast* | Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente, and David McHone-Chase | [11] |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [11] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Andrew Finch | [11] | |
SF Signal Podcast | John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester | [11] | |
StarShipSofa | Tony C. Smith | [11] | |
2014 | SF Signal Podcast* | Patrick Hester | [12] |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [12] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Andrew Finch | [12] | |
The Skiffy and Fanty Show | Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, David Annandale, Mike Underwood, and Stina Leicht | [12] | |
Tea and Jeopardy | Emma Newman | [12] | |
Verity! | Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L. M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts | [12] | |
The Writer and the Critic | Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond | [12] | |
2015 | Galactic Suburbia Podcast* | Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch | [13] |
Adventures in SF Publishing | Brent Bower, Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward, and Moses Siregar III | [13] | |
Dungeon Crawlers Radio | Daniel Swenson, Travis Alexander, Scott Tomlin, Dale Newton, and Damien Swenson | [13] | |
The Sci Phi Show | Jason Rennie | [13] | |
Tea and Jeopardy | Emma Newman and Peter Newman | [13] | |
2016 | (no award)+ | [9] | |
8-4 Play | Mark MacDonald, John Ricciardi, Hiroko Minamoto, and Justin Epperson | [9] | |
Cane and Rinse | Cane, Rinse | [9] | |
HelloGreedo | HelloGreedo | [9] | |
The Rageaholic | RazörFist | [9] | |
Tales to Terrify | Stephen Kilpatrick, Scott Silk, and Philip Oldham | [9] | |
2017 | Tea and Jeopardy* | Emma Newman and Peter Newman | [14] |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [14] | |
Ditch Diggers | Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace | [14] | |
Fangirl Happy Hour | Ana Grilo and Renay Williams | [14] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch | [14] | |
The Rageaholic | RazörFist | [14] | |
2018 | Ditch Diggers* | Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace | [15] |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [15] | |
Fangirl Happy Hour | Ana Grilo and Renay Williams | [15] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch | [15] | |
Sword and Laser | Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt | [15] | |
Verity! | Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L. M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts | [15] | |
2019 | Our Opinions Are Correct* | Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders | [16] |
Be the Serpent | Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske, and Jennifer Mace | [16] | |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [16] | |
Fangirl Happy Hour | Ana Grilo and Renay Williams | [16] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch | [16] | |
The Skiffy and Fanty Show | Jen Zink, Shaun Duke | [16] | |
2020 | Our Opinions Are Correct* | Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders | [17] |
Be the Serpent | Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske, and Jennifer Mace | [17] | |
Claire Rousseau's YouTube channel | Claire Rousseau | [17] | |
The Coode Street Podcast | Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe | [17] | |
Galactic Suburbia Podcast | Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch | [17] | |
The Skiffy and Fanty Show | Jen Zink, Shaun Duke | [17] |
References
- Jordison, Sam (2008-08-07). "An International Contest We Can Win". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- Cleaver, Emily (2010-04-20). "Hugo Awards Announced". Litro Magazine. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- "Hugo Award Categories". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
- Gallo, Irene; Engle-Laird, Carl; Bourke, Liz; Landon, Justin (2014-04-22). "Rocket Talk, Episode 5: The Hugo Awards". Rocket Talk. Tor.com. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
- "The Hugo Awards: Introduction". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
- "Worldcon 75: 2017 Hugo report #2" (PDF). Worldcon 75. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
- "The Locus index to SF Awards: About the Hugo Awards". Locus. Archived from the original on 2010-01-03. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- "World Science Fiction Society / Worldcon". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2009-04-14. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
- "2016 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
- "2012 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2012-04-09. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
- "2013 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
- "2014 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2014-04-20.
- "2015 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
- "2017 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
- "2018 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
- "2019 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
- "2020 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Retrieved 2020-04-08.