WEBBY AWARDS 2017: VR Nominations

There is another prove that “VR is serious” :)

This time it comes from WEBBY AWARDS as they have a special sub-category “VR: Cinematic or Pre-Rendered” and “VR: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-time” for both branded and non-branded submission within “Online Film&Video” category. And guess what?

Unlike sub-categories “Weird/ Viral / Video Remixes/Mashups” and others, for VR you’ll have to pay full $385 USD price for the late entry. And yes, even though the official deadline was December 16, 2016, are still can try to submit your amazing 360 work till January, 27, 2017! What else than this should say that “VR is here for long?” :)

Official categories in Film/Video category include:

VR: Cinematic or Pre-Rendered
A non-branded immersive, virtual reality or 360 degree experience photographed or pre-rendered CGI.

VR: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-time
A non-branded immersive, virtual reality or 360 degree experience rendered on a real-time gaming platform.

VR: Cinematic or Pre-Rendered
A branded virtual reality immersive 360 degree experience photographed or pre-rendered CGI.

VR: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-time
A branded immersive 360 degree experience rendered on a real-time gaming platform.

As for the Judging criteria, here is what I’ve found:

Virtual Reality by definition takes the user to different reality or experience. An essential attribute of a VR experience is how immersive the experience is for the user. When thinking how immersive a VR experience is, consider the following: Does the experience bring you somewhere new? Does the experience include stereo audio that enhances or supports the visual component? Do you easily get lost in the experience?

Actually, this is the second year for those nominations. So, let’s have a look on the last year winners:

2016 Online Film & Video VR: Cinematic or Pre-Rendered (Non-Branded):

Webby Winner + People’s Voice
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association / Secret Location

Orchestra VR

2016 Online Film & Video VR: Cinematic or Pre-Rendered (Branded)
Webby Winner
Discovery Communications

Discovery VR

People’s Voice
UNIT9

Stella Artois: Buy A Lady A Drink

2016 Online Film & Video VR: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-time

Webby Winner
National Film Board of Canada
WAY TO GO

Way to Go

People’s Voice
TURBULENT/NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
THE UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER

The Unknown Photographer

2016 Online Film & Video VR: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-time (Branded):

Webby Winner
National Film Board of Canada
CARDBOARD CRASH VR FOR GOOGLE CARDBOARD
http://webbyawards.com/winners/2016/online-film-video/branded-entertainment/vr-gaming-interactive-or-real-time-branded/cardboard-crash-vr-for-google-cardboard/

People’s Voice
Target Creative
HOUSE ON HALLOW HILL

House on Hallow Hill

Other nominees might be found here: http://webbyawards.com/winners/2016/online-film-video/general-film/vr-cinematic-or-pre-rendered/

It’s seems so that Chris Milk would be one of the judges of the upcoming award and you can find his profile here.

Other jury members are Head of Industrial Design at Oculus, Peter Bristol and David Coz, Co-Inventor of Google Cardboard as members.

I also found it interesting to this article with ROGER BARAN AND SAM LUCHINI, whose work “Dreams of Dali” was nominated as well: http://webbyawards.com/news/goodby-silverstein-creators-of-dreams-of-dali-vr-experience/

So, if you feel that your work is strong enough to compete with the works of the previous year and, for sure, with dozens of the project from 2016 — I guess, you can try to get in the world of WEBBY AWARDS.