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, 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.

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...

Norway has chosen to send masked comedy-dance duo Subwoolfer to Eurovision 2022 in Turin with "Give That Wolf A Banana", after a competitive selection process. [tip: Elysium]

The live performance was accompanied by pyrotechnics and is available in campy sign language. There's an interpreted interview with the duo, in which they discuss difficulties with adapting to Earth's higher gravity, as well as the inspiration for their song – now out in a romantic mix.

Some of you might be familiar with my Facts About the Furry Fandom video on YouTube. After it went viral, I decided to make a series out of it, following it up with More Facts About the Furry Fandom and Facts About Furry Meetups & Conventions.

The next video in the series will be about fursuits and fursuiting. However, unlike the previous videos, most of the information I'm looking for isn't easy to find via reliable sources like FurScience and [adjective][species]. Therefore, I've decided to take a different route.

I've created a short survey about fursuits and fursuiting which I'd like you to fill out. Most of it consists of "yes/no" and "choose what you prefer" questions, with a few exceptions. You don't need a fursuit to take part! You just have to be a furry.

Also, feel free to spread the word about this survey in other furry social media!

At the end of the survey, you can enter your name into a prize draw and potentially win $250. As long as you're over 18, and can accept a PayPal transfer, you're eligible for the draw if you complete the survey before the deadline. More details are in the survey's introduction.

The deadline is Friday, November 26, 2021.

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 are…

Voting is open for the 2021 Good Furry Award! Now in its third year, the award is our appreciation of the fans who show our fandom's community spirit. Last year's winner was Ash Coyote, and the 2019 prize went to the late Tony "Dogbomb" Barrett.

This year, over thirty furries have been nominated by their peers. Voting will continue through the end of May, and the winners (one first prize, and three honorable mentions) will be announced in June by Grubbs Grizzly on his "Ask Papabear" advice column website.

The winner will receive a handsome trophy, as well as $500. To cast your vote, go to https://www.askpapabear.com/2021-voting.html. If you're not familiar with some of the nominees, scroll down the page to find a description of who they are!

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!]

The 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...

As previously covered here on Flayrah, a furry known by his fursona name of Bucktown Tiger had made The Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy. He participated in the Thursday night quarterfinals game against some very heavy hitters. But little could he have known that his greatest enemy would not be the contestants before him that night, but a Final Jeopardy question that would be presented before the contestants on the following game Friday night.

A question whose answer was: “Who is Shere Khan?”

So how could this have happened where a furry fan, whose favorite animal species is the tiger, end up being torn up by the most infamous of all anthropomorphic tigers? Let’s break it down.

The winners of the 2018 Ursa Major Awards have been announced at AnthrOhio - it's been a busy month for awards in the fandom. Lions and tigers coyotes and (now) bears, oh my!

This year's winners and runners-up (listed in descending numbers of votes) are...

The 2018 Ursa Major Awards voting window has been opened! Send them your e-mail address, and you can vote for any of the nominations in 13 categories. Voting closes on Sunday, March 31. The winners will be announced at AnthrOhio 2019 (May 23–26).

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

This year's nominees are...

The furry fandom’s favorite fighting fox has proven once against that when it comes to the competitive fighting game scene, he cannot be denied. SonicFox found himself victorious in the EVO eSport World Championship, to taking home the first-place victory in Dragon Ball FighterZ. He also kept his form as a top contestant in the Injustice 2 scene, able to take home third place despite having waned his practice to focus on the anime based game.

Many in the furry fandom typically care so little about sports that the University of Waterloo that researches furries literally uses sports fandoms as a control group when trying to compare those in furry with those of the outside world. However, it seems that when it comes to the fighting game eSports scene, many have found themselves giving into the fan fever of competition as one of their own dominates its world.

Those who watched the final match against Goichi (using the tag Go1) were not disappointed as the two faced off in their final sets to claim the title. It is a match that will go down in fighting game history scene for the intensity, and little bit of controversy.

The 2017 Ursa Major Awards vote has been opened! Send them your e-mail address, and you can vote for any of the nominations in 12 categories. Voting closes on Saturday, March 31. Please pass on this annoucement if you're on a furry message forum or social media site!

The winners will be announced at FurDU 2018 (May 4-6). And if you have the time to vote, why not also suggest furry creations for the 2018 Recommended Anthropomorphics List?

This year's nominees are...

In comparison to many forms of media, furry as a fandom as a concept is relatively young. Likewise, in the world of competitive sports, the once fledgling video game sports community is witnessing a major growth in popularity. Over the weekend of September 16th, these two world eclipsed as a furry by the name of SonicFox took the grand prize in the Injustice 2 Pro Series tournament: $120,000. You could get a very nice fursuit with that kinda scratch, or you know, college or mortgage money if you want to be responsible adult I suppose.

However, this isn’t a Cinderella story coming out of nowhere, SonicFox is a record holder in Guinness for his many Injustice tournament wins. His adapt and flexible style in the fighting game genre is well respected.

But in case you missed the blue furry fury outfoxing his competition, you can watch the full event at Twitch. The grand final starts at the 8 hour and 48 minute mark.