Big Names In Online Video Lead 2014 Webby Award Nominees

The nominees have been announced for the 18th annual Webby Awards, and the online video categories are stocked with the brightest content creators of the past year. In particular, several of last year’s winners–including Vice, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, and the PBS Idea Channel–will attempt to defend their victories.

Vice, which won last year in the News Series category, scored nine total nominations among this year’s video categories, mostly in documentary categories. Other well-represented websites among the video nominees include Funny or Die (5 nominations), CollegeHumor (4), Google/YouTube (4, including two for YouTube Nation), and Maker Studios (one each for partner channels The Gauntlet, Bart Baker, and Epic Rap Battles of History).

Vice isn’t the only nominee hoping to make it back-to-back wins. PBS Idea Channel, which won two Webby Awards last year, is up for Best Host and Best First Person series. ESPN’s 30 for 30 shorts will try to repeat their victory in the Documentary Series category, while Yahoo Screen’s Burning Love is up for Best Writing after winning Best Comedy Series last year.

Several branded videos also scored multiple nominations. Volvo’s “Epic Split” led the way with four, while Interlude’s ingenious Bob Dylan video

picked up three nominations of its own. Viral marketing pranks are also well represented among the nominees; Carrie‘s “Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise” is up for three awards on its own.

YouTube’s top content creators are also well-represented. Aside from the Maker Studios partners listed above, nominees also included Rhett and Link, Vsauce, Grace Helbig, The Young Turks, What’s Trending, and Ray William Johnson‘s Riley Rewind.

The complete list of nominees, which spans dozens of categories, can be viewed through an interactive voting app on the Webby Awards website. “This year’s Nominees really start to show the promise of a connected society where our social interactions help shape and enable so much of our daily life,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “We are excited to share these outstanding works with the world and see which ones the public will choose as Webby Winners.”

Voting will close on Thursday, April 24th, so mosey over to the Webby Awards website before then to check out the full list of nominees and make your voice heard.