First awarded 1958 Presented by Worldcon Category of Hugo Award | Official website thehugoawards.org Instituted 1958 | |
Awarded for The best dramatized production devoted primarily to science fiction or fantasy Last awarded 2002; replaced by Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) and Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) from 2003–present Most recent winner The Martian (Long Form)
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The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. The award has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction". The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation was given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year.
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The award was first presented in 1958, and with the exceptions of 1964 and 1966 was given annually through 2002 when it was retired in favor of the newly created Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) and Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) categories, which divided the category depending on whether the work was longer or shorter than 90 minutes. In the 1964 and 1966 awards there were insufficient nominations made to support the category. Prior to 1971 the category was defined as including works from "radio, television, stage or screen", and thereafter was expanded to "any medium of dramatized science fiction or fantasy", resulting in the nomination of recorded songs and other works. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years prior in which no awards were given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have been awarded for 1939, 1941, 1946, 1951, and 1954; the 1946 and 1951 awards were for the Best Dramatic Presentation category while the 1939 and 1954 awards were for the Short Form category. There were insufficient nominations to support an award in the Long Form category for those years. The 1941 awards were for both Long and Short Form.
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with five nominees, except in the case of a tie. These five works on the ballot are the five most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of works that can be nominated. The 1958 awards did not include any recognition of runner-up magazines, but since 1959 all five candidates were recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of five nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year. Members are permitted to vote "no award", if they feel that none of the nominees is deserving of the award that year, and in the case that "no award" takes the majority the Hugo is not given in that category. This has happened in the Dramatic Presentation category four times, in 1959, 1963, 1971, and 1977.
During the 64 nomination years, 43 awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, 14 awards each for Short Form and Long Form, and 6 Retro Hugo awards have been given. One of these was for non-fiction: in 1970 it was awarded to news coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The individual shows with the most awards are the revived 2000s-era Doctor Who with 6 Short Form awards out of 29 nominations, The Twilight Zone with 3 Best Dramatic Presentation awards out of 4 nominations, and Game of Thrones with 3 wins out of a long form and three short form nominations. Other shows or series with multiple awards or nominations include the original Star Trek series with 2 wins out of 8 nominations, Star Trek: The Next Generation with 2 wins out of 3 nominations, and Babylon 5 with 2 wins out of 4 nominations. Less successful were Buffy the Vampire Slayer with 1 out of 6, Battlestar Galactica (2004) with 1 of 5, and Harry Potter with no awards after 7 nominations.
Winners and nominees
In the following tables, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the work's name have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list. Entries with a gray background and a plus sign (+) mark a year when "no award" was selected as the winner. In the case of television presentations, the award is generally for a particular episode rather than for a program as a whole; however, sometimes, as in the case of The Twilight Zone, it was given for the series' body of work that year rather than for any particular episode.
Best Dramatic Presentation
* Winner(s) + No winner selected
2003-present
Starting with the 2003 awards, the Dramatic Presentation award was split into two categories: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) and Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form). The Long Form award is for "a dramatized production in any medium, including film, television, radio, live theater, computer games or music. The work must last 90 minutes or longer (excluding commercials)" in the official Hugo Award rules. The Short Form award is for "a dramatized production in any medium, including film, television, radio, live theater, computer games or music. The work must last less than 90 minutes (excluding commercials)" in the official Hugo Award rules.
Retro Hugos
Beginning with the 1996 Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Society created the concept of "Retro Hugos", in which the Hugo award could be retroactively awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years in which a Worldcon was hosted, but no awards were originally given. Retro Hugos have been awarded four times, for 1939, 1946, 1951, and 1954. 1939 and 1941 were given 75 years later, while the other awards were given 50 years later. In 1946 and 1951, an award was given for Best Dramatic Presentation, as the category had not yet been split, while in 1939 and 1954 an award was given for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. The Long Form category did not receive enough nominations for an award to be given in either year. The 1941 Retro Hugos awarded both Long and Short Forms. The next year that Retro Hugos can be awarded is 2022, for 1947.