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Ursa Major Awards

Music cut from 2023 Ursa Major Awards after 'squabbling'

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Ursa Major Awards banner by EosFoxx Voting opened March 1 for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards - but the event intended to identify and celebrate the best works featuring non-human beings given human attributes has been marred by drama, well before the close of voting on its popularly-selected nominees on March 24.

Initially, there were fifteen award categories, but the Music category was removed five days after nominees were announced:

The organization posted an additional explanation on its front page:

It's important to remember that the Ursa Major Awards (like so many other awards) are designed to celebrate and recognize great works, not to judge the character or personality of creators. Unfortunately, the personal squabbling, attacks, and counter-attacks have reached a fever pitch in the Best Music Category this year. The staff of the ALAA have made the unfortunate observation that the category has been compromised, and so we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Best Music category for works from last year (2023). We fully intend to attempt the award in that category again next year (for works from 2024), hopefully with some better controls in place. We apologize to all the music creators out there, and we thank all of our nominators and voters for their patience.

Ursa Major Awards open for 2023 nominations

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The Ursa Major Awards for the best furry content of 2023 are now open for nominations! Anyone can nominate works from inside or outside the fandom from January 20 to the end of February 17, 2024. After the nomination period has closed, voting will run from March 1st to March 31st.

Ursa Major Awards - The 2022 Winners Announced!

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe winners of the 2022 Ursa Major Awards have been announced! There were 1350 voters this year! (The voting tallies can be viewed here.)

Also a reminder that the Ursas are run voluntarily, and are accepting PayPal donations to help continue running things in the future. Check their website for details!

And now, the 2022 Awards go to... (Drum roll please)...

Ursa Majors 2022 Nominees Announced - Voting Open for March

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe annual Ursa Major Awards have announced their nominees for 2022. Voting has opened and will be held until the end of March. The new category of Music has five nominations. The Best Fursuit category did not have enough nominations to be run this year.

The nominees are listed below. More details around publication and links to more information of each nominee can be found on the Ursa Major's website voting page.

Ursa Major Awards open for nominations of 2022 works

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe annual Ursa Major Awards have opened for nominations for the best furry works published during 2022. Visit UMA's nominations webpage to enter your nominations. The nominations period "will continue until the end of 11 February 2023.

The nomination categories this year are:

  • Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series
  • Best Anthropomorphic Novel
  • Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
  • Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Non Fiction Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
  • Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
  • Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
  • Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
  • Best Anthropomorphic Game
  • Best Anthropomorphic Website
  • Best Anthropomorphic Fursuit (or "Costume (Fursuit)")
  • Best Anthropomorphic Music *NEW*

The music category is a new addition, and was announced at Ursa's twitter on January 20. It isn't listed as a catagory on the HTML page, but will be available on the form.

Ursa's Major Issue - Confident self-promotion vs humble passionate skill, and a voting system's favoritism

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UrsaVoting.jpgUrsa, we may have a problem. Or at least so it may seem. Over the past few years the number of people voting in the furry fandomā€™s popular choice awards appears to be dwindling once again, despite continual growth and booming attendance at our conventions - COVID aside - revealing the growing audience and community beneath this stagnation.

But if less people in proportion are voting, is there a reason for this? One option may be that the system may be lead to some strange victors based on popularity of a franchise or personality rather than other considerations. But is this just a coincidence or could it be how the system was inadvertently crafted?

This articleā€™s goal is to highlight why the current system is so sensitive to favoring artists who self-promote or whose fans rally on their behalf, at the expense of voters that weigh more toward judging the quality of the pieces nominated without authorship considerations. It will then propose a small change to make it more fair to both types of voters and creators, without stifling out those who show up with a passion for their artist.

Be wary, this gets long and technical. But if youā€™re reading this up to this point, Iā€™m sure you knew thatā€™s what you were in for.

'Shine', 'Awoo!' take 2021 Ursa Major Awards by landslides; K. Garrison wins three

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The results of the 2021 Ursa Major Awards were announced this Sunday, with motivated fan-bases driving decisive voting in certain categories, while others were finely balanced.

Littlefur/adult baby slice-of-life comic Shine by UK artist Star ran off with Best Graphic Story; coming second was a remake of Found, another of her works under the name Toddlergirl. Both had seen strong support in last years' Ursa Major Awards.

'Awoo!: Volume 1' Likewise, AC Stuart's Awoo!: Volume 1 (on Amazon) stormed the opposition for Best Other Literary Work, with four more first-preference votes than the other four nominees put together.

Netting twice the points of the next nominee for Dramatic Short Work was Frank Behring's "Nobody Does It Better", derived from Best Comic Strip Carry On. Artist Kathy Kellogg (KD Nightstar) also took Best Published Illustration for "A World of Our Own" ā€” beating all other nominees by 50%.

Voting is open for the 2021 Ursa Major Awards

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The Ursa Major Awards logo.The vote for the 2021 Ursa Major Awards is happening this month! Send them your e-mail address, and you can vote for any of the nominations in 14 categories. Voting closes on Thursday, March 31.

Links to the content in question are provided, some may be for mature audiences. Ursa's Twitter Feed also provides a summary of each of the nominees for the categories.

Spread the word - Please re-post this announcement if you're on an active furry message forum or social media site!

This year's nominees are...

Ursa Major Awards open for 2021 Nominations

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Ursa Majors Awards The annual Ursa Major Awards have opened for nominations for the best furry content for the 2021. You may enter your nominations here. The categories up for nomination this year are listed below. Be sure to get your entries in before February 12th.

  • Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series
  • Best Anthropomorphic Novel
  • Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
  • Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
  • Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
  • Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
  • Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
  • Best Anthropomorphic Game
  • Best Anthropomorphic Website
  • Best Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

A large list of recommended items from each of these categories can be found here if you are looking for examples of work within each category. You may select content that is not listed on this recommended list as long as it was published or created in 2021. You may also only nominate work for categories you are familiar with and leave the rest without entries.

Winners of the 2020 Ursa Major Awards

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The Ursa Major Awards logo.The winners of the 2020 Ursa Major Awards have been announced on YouTube!

Nominations for the best work involving anthropomorphic animals in 2020 were taken this February, and the top five in each of fourteen categories were voted on during March.

This year's winners areā€¦

Voting opens for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards

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The Ursa Major Awards logo. The 2020 Ursa Major Awards vote is ready to go! Send them your e-mail address, and you can vote for any of the nominations in 14 categories. (Last year's "Dramatic Series or Short Work" has been split into two separate categories.) Voting closes on Wednesday, March 31.

Please re-post this announcement if you're on an active furry message forum or social media site!

This year's nominees are... [Update (2 May): the winners have been announced!]

Ursa Major 2020 Nominations are Open

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe Ursa Majors have opened up nominations for 2020. Those wishing to nominate have up until February 13th to do so. The categories for this year are the for this year are as follows:

  • Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series
  • Best Anthropomorphic Novel
  • Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
  • Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
  • Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
  • Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
  • Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
  • Best Anthropomorphic Game
  • Best Anthropomorphic Website
  • Best Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

There is a recommended list of all the content that came out last year.

As a reminder, last year, non-fiction work was removed due to lack of nominations. So if you are a regular reader, please take the time to go over the 2020 archives and nominate one of our pieces, or at the very least Jon Oliver's search for rat erotica.

Winners of the 2019 Ursa Major Awards!

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe Ursa Majors have announced their winners for 2019, celebrating excellence in the furry arts! Due to Covid-19, there was no formal ceremony at a furry convention this year; instead the results were announced on May 23, 2020 in a YouTube video.

Determined by popular vote, two categories were excluded this year due to not getting enough nominations (Fursuits and Non-Fiction).

The winners and runners-up are...

Ursa Major Awards for 2019 Open for Voting - Fursuit and NonFiction categories removed for year

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Ursa Majors Awards.jpgThe Ursa Majors are ready for votes and the nominees have been revealed. Voting can be found at their website and is open throughout the month of March. Two categories, however, received no nominees due to being an insufficient number of nominations and will not be put up to vote for a winner. Those two categories being Fursuits and Non-Fiction.

If you enjoy film, fiction, art, or any other of the many items that are up for selection as the best of the best for the year of 2019 be sure to vote this month. If you like non-fiction or fursuits, well, you can always be sure to nominate next year.

The nominees are:

2019 Ursa Major Award Nominations open until the end of February 14th

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Nominations for the 2019 Ursa Major Awards are now open and will close at midnight on February 15th.

To submit your nominations in any of thirteen categories, everyone must first go to the nominations page to enroll for a key.

The categories are:

  • Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture
  • Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series
  • Best Anthropomorphic Novel
  • Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction
  • Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction Work
  • Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story
  • Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
  • Best Anthropomorphic Magazine
  • Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration
  • Best Anthropomorphic Game
  • Best Anthropomorphic Website
  • Best Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

Please note that the Fursuit category requires all of the following: a link to a good photo taken in 2019, where it was taken, and who made it.

If a nominee in the other categories is not listed in the Recommended List, please supply a link to it. It never hurts to supply a link if you are unsure if it is in the list.

Be sure to get have your voice heard prior to the deadline before February 15th and nominate your favorite items today!