Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Tag: awards

March 21, 2023

Ursa Majors 2022 Nominees Announced – Voting closes at end of March.

by Patch O'Furr

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

Go HERE to vote, and don’t wait, the deadline is March 31! 

The furry fandom’s annual Ursa Major awards honor the best and most loved anthropomorphic creations of the past year. They put a spotlight on talent that deserves recognition, and lets fans discover and support it directly with popular voting by anyone.

Nominations for works from 2022 ended in February. Nominees are in 14 categories, and the Ursa Majors site has more details about each one. Music has a new category, but Best Fursuit isn’t active this year due to lack of nominations.

Volunteers run the Ursa Major Awards. Please support them. Since 2001, these awards have been run with unpaid work. They appreciate support to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more. Click the button to donate >

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March 15, 2022

The 2021 Ursa Major Awards are open now and need your vote.

by Patch O'Furr

Furry fandom’s Ursa Major awards honor the best, most loved anthropomorphic creations of the past year (2021.) Vote now to help the community choose their favorite movies, art, books, news magazines, and more. You can vote until March 31.

The nominations in 14 categories have links to the content here, and you can also find it linked on their Twitter feed.

If you like seeing this collected and open for community feedback, share it on your personal feeds and tell your friends to vote!

This year’s nominees are…

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

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February 10, 2022

2 Days Left to Nominate for the Ursa Major Awards!

by Patch O'Furr

Furry fandom’s Ursa Major awards honor the best, most loved anthropomorphic creations of the past year (2021.) There’s just a short time to nominate what the public can vote on. Get yours in while you can. Movies, art, books, news magazines, and more… which ones will the community choose?

Nominate HERE for the Ursas, but don’t wait until it’s too late! February 12 is the deadline.

Volunteers run this. Please support them so they can make a community award possible.

Since 2001, these awards have been run with long hours of unpaid work. The volunteers would appreciate any support you can give to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more.

Categories:

  • 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)

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

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March 8, 2021

Go vote for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards!

by Patch O'Furr

Cast your vote now for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards. Voting closes on March 31 for the 14 categories below. Every year, furry creators (and mainstream creations) are eligible for this popular vote. Which movies, art, books, news magazines, and more will the community choose as favorites?

When you’re done, please ask your friends to share and repost the link! It helps creations that deserve attention.

Since 2001, these awards have been run with hard work by volunteers. They would appreciate any support you can give to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more. (paypal@ursamajorawards.org)

The 2020 Nominees: 

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December 14, 2020

2020 update for the Ursa Major Awards and The Good Furry Award for Ash Coyote

by Patch O'Furr

Something cool just came in the mail. It’s better than a Christmas present. It’s the Ursa Major Award for the year’s best anthropomorphic magazine!

The Ursa Major Awards are for public voting for the best furry movies, books, comics, art and more from the previous year. If you know of good 2020 works to share, the Recommended Anthropomorphics List is open NOW. Tell them what you love: recommended@ursamajorawards.org. Check out the list if you’re looking for good stuff to watch and read. Nominations for the next awards will start later in January 2021.

The most recent winners were decided a while ago, but it took time for everyone to get awards in the mail just recently. The awards depend on volunteer work by Rod O’Riley, the co-founder of ConFurence (with Mark Merlino). Rod and Mark run the Prancing Skiltaire house in Southern California and have been together for 40 years.

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February 3, 2020

Nominations now open for the 2019 Ursa Major Awards!

by Patch O'Furr

Sent in by a host of the Ursa Major awards, and co-founder of the first furry convention and oldest fan house in Southern California (the Prancing Skiltaire):

It’s that time of year again! The Furry community will honor the best of Anthropomorphic animation, art and literature, and everyone is invited to help choose the best for 2019! You make the nominations, and vote for the winners. Nominations are now open, until February 15, 2020. There is even a recommended list to help you make your choices, but you may submit anything your feel deserves the award. To nominate in any or all categories, go to https://ursamajorawards.org

Sylys Sable

Nominations for the 2019 Awards are now open and will close at midnight on February 15th, 2020.

To nominate online, go ENROLL FOR ONLINE NOMINATIONS or LOGIN if you have already enrolled.
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February 23, 2018

The Ursa Major Awards are a fandom institution, but can we fund them?

by Patch O'Furr

Co-written by Thurston Howl and Patch O’Furr. Full disclosure – Howl and Patch have received Ursa Major awards by community vote.

Even in non-writing communities in the furry fandom, many furries are aware of the Ursa Major Awards. They’ve been around for about 17 years, have presence at cons, and each year they receive many voters. However, for all their legacy, Thurston Howl – (a furry publisher who assisted with social media and marketing for the UMAs in 2017) – has come forward with concerns involving the UMAs’ recent soliciting for donations and GoFundMe campaign.

A transparency concern.

Until now, there has been no formal budget or accounting for funding. Fred Patten, Secretary of the ALAA (Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which runs the UMAs), told Howl on 5/30/17: “I cannot remember that the Treasurer for the ALAA has ever submitted a formal treasury report.” Fred confirmed there were no records for 17 years, and later added:

I don’t know how much it costs to print UMA award certificates, buy frames for them, ship them to the recipients, make and ship powerpoint presentations, etc., and I don’t know how much total in donations we’ve gotten over the years…

There have been complaints in email discussion by associates.  ALAA member Bernard Doove said: “I would like a report on the finances that is more than ‘we’re broke.'” And on 5/4/17, a donor reported that they considered their donation “an unwise decision that could have been put to much better use elsewhere.” There were even fears of misappropriation, but Bernard Doove found no evidence when he looked in the bank accounts. The explanation seems to be fees of $156/year to maintain a Checking and Savings account if they have under a $300 minimum balance each.

It honestly seems like an issue of mixing small fan efforts with more formal organization, like how fandom started. ALAA Treasurer Rod O’Riley was a fandom founder who helped start Confurence in 1989. He responded to a request for comment:

The problem is not transparency — the problem is a lack of funds to be transparent about.

All donations have made their way into our bank account, and have been spent on either what they were supposed to be spent on — making and mailing out our trophies and plaques — or else were swallowed by the bank fees. ALL donations. Sometimes they took a while to get where they were going — as recently, when PayPal and our bank’s on-line system had difficulties talking to each other, for reasons I still do not understand. But eventually, they got where there were going.

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July 3, 2017

Discover the best of furry fandom with the 2016 Ursa Major awards, and 2016 Cóyotl Awards.

by Patch O'Furr

Since 2001, the Ursa Major awards have promoted public choice for the best furry stuff in many categories (movies, art, books, magazines, and etc.)  Since 2011, The Coyotl Awards have featured the Furry Writer’s Guild choice for best fiction – “an anthropomorphic Nebula equivalent to the Ursas’ Hugos.”

The Ursas are popular and the Coyotls are juried by merit.  Both are an awesome way for fans to discover works by each other, and prove how furries are more than underdogs compared to other fandoms anchored on central media properties.  They can help furries to Be The Media.

The Ursas will have a new Fursuit category next year. That has been demanded for many years but not added while there was debate about defining it. Designers, builders, wearers, and even photographers have some claims about inclusion – how do you award a team? Find out when voting starts for 2017.

The staff of Dogpatch Press (Fred, Pup Matthias, and I) are honored to win the 2016 Ursa for Best Magazine. That helps to keep cool stuff coming. Give yourselves pats for inspiring it.  If you want more good stuff in the furry news niche, try these: Flayrah, Culturally F’d, Furry.Today, InFurNation, Fur Media, Furrymedia, [adjective][species], Furry News Network, Gaming Furever, Furryfandom.es, and Furry Stammtische.

Fred Patten tells more. (- Patch)  

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March 14, 2017

Vote now for the 2016 Ursa Major Awards!

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

419893_189786951121868_189782644455632_235270_39724323_n-e1331832247101Voting for the 2016 Ursa Major Awards, for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of the 2016 calendar year in 12 categories, is now open.  The voting is open from March 13 to April 30.  The awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony at Anthrocon 2017, in Pittsburgh, PA on June 29 – July 2.

The twelve categories are:  Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture; Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short 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; and Best Anthropomorphic Website.

Voting is open to all!  To vote, go to the Ursa Major Awards website at  http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ and click on “Voting for 2016” at the left.

You will receive instructions on how to register to vote.  You do not have to vote in every category.  Please vote in only those categories in which you feel knowledgeable.

This final ballot has been compiled from those works receiving the most nominations that were eligible.  The top five nominees in each category are the finalists.  Please make sure that your nominations are only for works published during the calendar year (January through December) in question.

2016 FINAL BALLOT

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture

Finding Dory (Directed by Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane; June 17)

Kung Fu Panda 3 (Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni; January 29)

The Secret Life of Pets (Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney; July 8)

Sing (Directed by Garth Jennings and Christophe Lourdelet; December 21)

Zootopia (Directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush; February 11)

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October 13, 2016

A welcome new category for the Ursa Major Awards: Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction.

by Patch O'Furr

WHY DON’T FURRIES RECOGNIZE GOOD JOURNALISM?

 

This topic has come up before: “Bay Area Furs find out why there should be a Furry award for Best Journalism” (see some good articles within) – and – “VICE looks back on the Midwest Furfest attack, earning kudos for thoughtful journalism.”

The simplistic answer is – back around 2001, this little fan group was mistreated by Vanity Fair, MTV and CSI.  Forevermore, “The Media” was a thing to hate.

But it’s not so simple. In a chicken-or-egg way, “The Media” deserves some credit for creating furries. (It’s a FANdom!)  That usually means fiction media, but there’s much more than that. There’s the “science” part of science fiction; transhumanism, animals and nature, and anything about growing a self-defined subculture. There’s info coming from the Anthropomorphic Research Project.  A top selling nonfiction book (from Thurston Howl publishers) is the fandom-essay collection Furries Among Us.

Nonfiction is a big deal in fandom for anthropomorphic animals.

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