First awarded 2012 Official website thehugoawards.org Instituted 2012 | Most recent winner No award given (2016) Presented by Worldcon Category of Hugo Award | |
Awarded for The best non-professional science fiction or fantasy video or audio series published in the prior calendar year People also search for Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine Winners & Nominees Tales to TerrifyStephen Kilpatrick, Tales to Terrify, Nominee, The RageaholicRazörFist, The Rageaholic, Nominee, Cane and RinseCane and Rinse, Cane and Rinse, Nominee, 8-4 PlayJustin Epperson - John Ricciardi - Mark MacDonald -, 8-4 Play, Nominee, HelloGreedoHelloGreedo, HelloGreedo, Nominee, Galactic Suburbia PodcastTansy Rayner Roberts - Alexandra Pierce - Alisa Krasnostein -, Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Winner, Adventures in SciFi PublishingMoses Siregar III - Timothy C Ward - Brent Bowen -, Adventures in SciFi Publishing, Nominee, The Sci Phi ShowJason Rennie, The Sci Phi Show, Nominee, Dungeon Crawlers RadioDale Newton - Travis Alexander - Scott Tomlin -, Dungeon Crawlers Radio, Nominee, Tea and JeopardyPeter Newman - Emma Newman, Tea and Jeopardy, Nominee, SF Signal PodcastPatrick Hester, SF Signal Podcast, Winner, The Writer and the CriticKirstyn McDermott - Ian Mond, The Writer and the Critic, Nominee, Galactic Suburbia PodcastTansy Rayner Roberts - Alexandra Pierce - Alisa Krasnostein -, Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Nominee, Verity!Lynne M Thomas - Tansy Rayner Roberts - L M Myles -, Verity!, Nominee, The Coode Street PodcastJonathan Strahan - Gary K Wolfe, The Coode Street Podcast, Nominee, The Skiffy and Fanty ShowStina Leicht - Jen Zink - Paul Weimer -, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, Nominee, Tea and JeopardyEmma Newman, Tea and Jeopardy, Nominee, SF SqueecastSeanan McGuire - Catherynne M Valente - Elizabeth Bear -, SF Squeecast, Winner, SF Signal PodcastPatrick Hester - John DeNardo - JP Frantz, SF Signal Podcast, Nominee, Galactic Suburbia PodcastTansy Rayner Roberts - Alexandra Pierce - Alisa Krasnostein -, Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Nominee, StarShipSofaTony C Smith, StarShipSofa, Nominee, The Coode Street PodcastJonathan Strahan - Gary K Wolfe, The Coode Street Podcast, Nominee, SF SqueecastSeanan McGuire - Catherynne M Valente - Elizabeth Bear -, SF Squeecast, Winner, SF Signal PodcastPatrick Hester - John DeNardo - JP Frantz, SF Signal Podcast, Nominee, Galactic Suburbia PodcastTansy Rayner Roberts - Alexandra Pierce - Alisa Krasnostein -, Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Nominee, StarShipSofaTony C Smith, StarShipSofa, Nominee, The Coode Street PodcastJonathan Strahan - Gary K Wolfe, The Coode Street Podcast, Nominee | ||
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 pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was previously officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. It has been described by The Guardian and Litro Magazine as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".
The Hugo Award for Best Fancast is awarded to the best non-professional audio or video periodical devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects. The fancast must have released four or more episodes by the end of the previous calendar year, at least one of which appeared in that year, and it must not qualify for the dramatic presentation category. It must also not provide or be published by an entity that provides a quarter or more of the income of any one person working on the fancast. The name of the award is a portmanteau of fan and podcast. The Hugo Award for Best Fancast was first proposed as a category after the 2011 awards, and then appeared as a temporary category at the 2012 awards. Temporary awards are not required to be repeated in following years. The 2013 awards, however, did repeat the category, and afterwards it was ratified as a permanent category, and will appear in all future years.
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the awards presentation constitutes its central event. Supporting members are those who do not attend the convention itself, and pay a smaller membership fee as a result. 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 fancasts on the ballot are the five most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of fancasts that can be nominated. 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 happened in the Best Fancast category in 2016.
During the 5 years the award has been active, 17 fancasts by 52 people have been nominated, and 3 of those fancasts have won. SF Squeecast, created by a team of five people, won the award in both 2012 and 2013, and declined to be nominated for 2014. SF Signal Podcast, run by Patrick Hester, won the 2014 award, and Galactic Suburbia Podcast, run by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch, won the 2015 award. No award was given in 2016.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the story was first published. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominated works.
* Winners