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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.

Leo Awards shuts down due to lack of judges

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Leo Awards.jpgOn March 3rd, the Leo Awards announced that they would be retiring its writer's award. This award started in 2018 by Thurston Howl Publishing and its founding was written about by Fred Patten that year. Thurston had announced their consolidation with another furry publisher, Fenris Publishing, in December of 2023.

The announcement listed several reasons for making this decision which included: lack of judges and lack of interest in the awards outside of the writers themselves.

Their full statement can be read below the fold and on social media.

Try. Try to Make the World a Better Place

Once again it’s time to nominate someone special for the Good Furry Awards. What’s that you ask? Started in 2019 by Grubbs Grizzly (host of the Ask Papabear web site), the Good Furry Awards are presented annually to recognize folks all over who represent the spirit of the furry fandom. People like Dogbomb, Ash Coyote, Cassidey Civet, and more — all nominated and voted on by furry fans like you. So now it’s your turn! Nominations are open all the way ’till September of 2024, then voting starts shortly after — and the winner is announced in mid-October. This year, for the first time the awards are diversifying, the better to celebrate furries who aren’t necessarily media celebrities (yet!). Now there’s a Good Egg Award (for furries helping others), an Image Award (for folks promoting and educating about the Furry Fandom) and the Furtastic Award (for just plain helpful folks!). Find out about all this and more at the official Good Furry Awards page — and check out the WikiFur article to see the furs who’ve been nominated and honored before!

Sixth annual Good Furry Awards open for nominations

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Good Furry Awards logo
The 2024 Good Furry Awards are now open to receive nominations. This is the sixth year for the program, which is sponsored by the 'Ask Papabear' advice column and Uncle Bear Publishing. It recognizes furries who have generously given their time, skills, or money to help the furry community, promote a positive image of the furry fandom, or otherwise help animals and people anywhere in the world.

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.

2023 Good Furry Award Winners Announced

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small_WEB - Gold.pngGrubbs Grizzly has announced the winners of the 2023 Good Furry Awards, sponsored by Ask Papabear and Uncle Bear Publishing.

Winner of the 2023 Award

The winner of the 2023 award is Kite's Windswept Wanderings!

This furry has provided high quality videos of fursuits and convention experiences that inform and entertain with clear videography and narration. Highlighted in these show the care and dedication furries take with their costuming and gatherings to make memorable characters and experiences.

Honorable Mentions go to others who came close to winning this year including:

  • Chise
  • Christopher "Papa Woof" Roth
  • Beeton Nukicoon

The Lifetime Achievement Award

This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Reed Waller. Reed Waller founded the publication of an APA [Amateur Press Association] furry comic, Vootie, in 1976. Working along side with his wife, the late Kate Wooley, they would later contribute their own comic, Omaha the Cat Dancer. This comic would gather renowned as being foundational in setting the tone of furry to be more mature and adult themes in their artistic settings than their the stereotyped perceptions of their funny animal counterparts which were typically seen as being for younger audiences.

To learn more about the awards, winners, and nominees, go to https://www.askpapabear.com/2023-winners.html

Winners of the 5th Annual Good Furry Award to Be Announced Saturday, May 13

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The votes have been cast and the winners of the 5th Annual Good Furry Awards have been selected by the furry community!

Grubbs Grizzly, the awards' administrator, will go live on Facebook this May 13 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time to make the announcements. The grand prize is a handsome trophy and a check for $500. There will also be 3 honorable mentions who receive trophies, too!

This will also be the second year for the Lifetime Achievement Award, which last year went jointly to Mark Merlino and Rod O'Reilly (founders of Confurence). While the Good Furry Awards are selected by the general furry community, the Lifetime award is picked by a select committee of greymuzzles. The winner receives a handsome trophy.
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For those who are not on Facebook or cannot watch at that time, announcements will be made on the www.AskPapabear.com website, and a video will be presented on YouTube.

Voting for the Good Furry Awards Is Now Open

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Good Furry Award The fifth annual Good Furry Awards voting is now open for all who wish to participate. There are 30 nominees to choose from, including four group nominees. Voting will remain open at our website through May 5, 2023.

The awards are designed to acknowledge furries who are active in the fandom who are helpful to their communities and are examples of the true spirit of the fandom.

Four prizes will be awarded based on voting, including three honorable mentions who receive trophies and a first-place winner who receives a trophy and a check for $500 from sponsor Uncle Bear Publishing.

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.

Good Furry Awards Nominations Now Open

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Good Furry Award.jpgNominations are now open for the 5th Annual Good Furry Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Ask Papabear and Uncle Bear Publishing, recognize furries who are active in the community and are doing things to project a positive, helpful, and friendly image of the fandom to all furries and nonfurries alike.

Anyone in the fandom can nominate one or more furries (note: nominees should be currently active in the community) now through March 31, 2023, after which there will be a 2-month period for voting. The winner receives a handsome trophy, a free banner ad on Ask Papabear, and a check for $500. Past winners include Tony "Dogbomb" Barret, Soatok Dhole, Ash Coyote, and Cassidy Civet.

There will also be a Lifetime Achievement Award announced by special committee. This award debuted last year to recognize furries who have made a lifelong impact to the fandom. Last year, the co-winners were Rod O'Riley and Mark Merlino.

To learn more about the award, go to https://www.askpapabear.com/good-furry-award.html. To nominate someone, follow this link: https://www.askpapabear.com/goodfurrynominationform.html.

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 fandom’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 article’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 you’re reading this up to this point, I’m sure you knew that’s what you were in for.

Good Furry Awards Live Presentation at BLFC

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The 4th Annual Good Furry Awards will be presented live for the first time on June 3 at Reno's Biggest Little Fur Con. The first three years of the awards were all done online, but the administrator of the awards, Grubbs Grizzly, felt it would be fun to do a live show this year.

The brief ceremony will be in the Ruby Room at 5pm on Friday night at the con. It will also be broadcast live on the Bearly Furcasting podcast.

This year there will also be a new Lifetime Achievement Award! This special award is selected by Uncle Bear Publishing and is in addition to our regular awards.

You can learn more by visiting the Ask Papabear website at https://www.askpapabear.com/

'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" — beating all other nominees by 50%.

Every winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, ranked

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WhoAreYouWearing.jpgThough it’s the baby of Oscar categories, the Best Animated Feature Academy Award will turn 21 this Sunday, meaning it would be old enough to drink alcohol in America, if it could actually do that. Encanto, Flee, Luca, The Mitchells vs. the Machines and Raya and the Last Dragon will compete to become the next recipient of the award.

First introduced in 2001, Best Animated Feature is the only “new” category to be introduced this century so far. Like many new categories, a few animated features had earned "Special Achievement" Oscars, starting with the original American made animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with another going to 1997’s Toy Story, as well as one to the live action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Other movie awards followed the Oscars, adding their own animated categories, though the Annies, which are for animation, had obviously been awarding Best Feature for a few years.

Since 2001, 20 movies have won the award, which is a nice round number for doing a countdown, worst to best. The following ranking is based on my opinions, and my opinions only. But, even if you think my rankings are horrible, no good, absolutely wrong, well, I’ve also included a lot of factoids and trivia, so that might be worth reading. Also, not all of the winners have been particularly furry, but most have something of interest to furries going on in them.

Update: The original list was through 2021 only, but has been updated to include the 95th Academy Awards' winner on March 10, 2024, the day of the 96th Academy Awards. The plan is to make this traditional.

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...