Hugo Award For Best Dramatic Presentation

Hugo Award For Best Dramatic Presentation

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.

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 1946, 1951, and 1954; the first two were for the Best Dramatic Presentation category while the 1954 awards were for the Short Form category. There were insufficient nominations to support an award in the Long Form category for that year.

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 56 nomination years, 43 awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, 10 awards for Short Form and Long Form, and 3 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 20 nominations and The Twilight Zone with 3 Best Dramatic Presentation awards out of 4 nominations. Other shows or series with multiple awards or nominations include Star Trek the original series with 2 wins out of 8 nominations, 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.

Read more about Hugo Award For Best Dramatic Presentation:  Winners and Nominees

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