The 2nd Annual Streamy Awards took place last week, and while I was already familiar with many of the award-winners, some I'd never heard of. Every year when new-media awards like the Streamys or the Webbys are announced, I watch the nominees and winners in hopes that I'll discover something that truly embodies the creative freedoms offered by the web, something unique and unlike anything in Hollywood. But every year I'm disappointed. This year's Best Drama winner, The Bannen Way, won specifically because it was the best of the bunch at emulating Hollywood. And while I feel there are a lot of brilliant comedies on the web -- You Suck at Photoshop, Wainy Days, The Onion News Network -- it's much harder to find compelling drama.
The most interesting drama series I saw via the Streamys was Compulsions (Streamy winner for Best Writing for a Drama Web Series):
The most interesting series that I'd seen before -- in this case a winner for Best Art Direction -- is definitely Green Porno.
To get the overall flavor of online-oriented awards shows like the Streamys, here's the intro video from this year's awards:
Is this really "the future of entertainment?"
