Red Bull, “Epic Rap Battles of History” and a “Halo” web series have all won Streamy Awards, which recognize the year’s best in online video, Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter announced on Wednesday. The awards show takes place on Sunday, but the producers announced 19 winners in advance.
“Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn,” a live-action web series set in the world of the popular video game, is the biggest winner so far with three awards. It won Best Editing (Michael Louis Hill), Best Production Design (Kasra Farahani) and Best Cinematography (Brett Pawlak). The show, which aired on the gamer-friendly Machinima Prime YouTube channel, debuted in October in advance of the release of the “Halo 4” video game.
Stewart Hendler directed the series, and though he was not nominated for his work on "Halo," he won the Best Direction Streamy for his work on the Bryan Singer-produced ”H+ the Digital Series."
Two other shows are already repeat winners as well – “Epic Rap Battles of History” and ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.”
“Epic Rap Battles,” which pits figures like Hitler and Darth Vader against one another in musical one-upmanship, won “Best Music Series” and “Best Original Song.” Peter Shukoff (alter ego Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist (alter ego Epic Lloyd) won the latter award for a video that pitted tech titans Steve Jobs and Bill Gates against one another. Their YouTube channel is part of the Maker Studios network.
Hank Green and Bernie Su created “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,” which won for Best Interactive Program and Best Writing for a Comedy. Su won the writing award.
The YouTube show, which stars Ashley Clements and Mary Kate Wiles, takes its name from the main character of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” The series adapted that book in video blog form, as Bennet (Clements) discusses her life and her family.
All three of those shows will contend for other awards on Sunday, as “Halo 4” is up for Best Drama Series and Best Action or Sci-Fi Series, “Bennet” is up for Best Comedy Series and Shukoff is up for Best Online Musician.
One of the most memorable physical feats of the past year took home an award, as “Red Bull Stratos” claimed the Best Live Event category. "Stratos" is the name of the space diving project that culminated in Felix Baumgartner parachuting to Earth from the stratosphere in October. Sponsored by Red Bull and live streamed on YouTube, Baumgartner both broke world records and set a YouTube record for most concurrent views of a live stream.
Other winners thus far include Ken Jeong for his guest apperance on Yahoo’s “Burning Love,” "Kids React” for Best Non-Fiction or Reality Series and Tony Valenzuela's writing on "Black Box TV" on the drama side of things.
Dick Clark and Tubefilter have 16 more awards to give out, including the Audience Choice Awards for Best Series and Best Personality. The show begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Palladium in Hollywood.
