Vimeo has been honoring the best of the best in their end of the year Staff Pick Awards since 2016, but this year they're shaking things up a bit. Of course, the first step remains whittling down over 1,200 Staff Picks selected this year to a neat and tidy 93 over seven categories. But now, once all of the grunt work is done in house, the nominees will be sent around to a panel of celebrity jurors. 

The Best of the Year jurors include Tony-winning actor & producer Alan Cumming, writer & producer of Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse Phil Lord, 7x world champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore, New York Times inaugural “52 Places” journalist Jada Yuan, and Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams.

Vimeo also announced that each award recipient will receive a cash prize and a physical Staff Pick Best of the Year trophy, in addition to the coveted Staff Pick Best of the Year badge. Finally, all Best of the Year award recipients will be announced on January 17, and the winning films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that evening. 

Check out the best of the year selections below (more than a few of which we've written up on the site over the past year) and you can have yourself your own best of festival in the comfort of your home.

Best of Action Sports (Watch all films here)

  • “Tsirku” – Eric Crosland, Tim Symes
  • “Dean Goes Surfing” – Caitlyn Greene
  • “Brendan Howey” – RAW 100 – Rupert Walker
  • “Two Nineteen Forty Four” – Tristan Greszko
  • “Griffin Gass / Pacific Standard Time” – Ben Ericson
  • “RJ Ripper” – Joey Schusler, Ben Page
  • “A GoPro Adventure in Les 3 Vallees” – Claudiu Voicu
  • “Olas X: A Big Wave Surf Film” – Scott Nichols
  • “Space” – John John Florence, Erik Knutson
  • “Seeking Nirvana 3.2 – Hard Nose the Highway” – Mike Henitiuk, Joe Schuster, Matt Margetts, Riley Leboe
  • “MÚKÙNE” – Arthur Bourbon, Damien Castera
  • “The Shadow Campaign // Ski Photographer” – Frank Pickell
  • “Soft” – Christian Haller, Kris Lüdi

Best of Animation (Watch all films here)

  • “Waves ’98” – Ely Dagher
  • “Le Futur Sera Chauve / The Bald Future” – Paul Cabon
  • “What Is Beauty?” – Anna Ginsburg
  • “Stems” – Ainslie Henderson
  • “Xylophone” – Jennifer Levonian
  • “Life Cycles” – Ross Hogg
  • “DIY” – Volume 1 – Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch
  • “Ugly” – Nikita Diakur
  • “Black” – Tomek Popakul
  • “Dinner For Few” – Nassos Vakalis
  • “JEOM” – Kangmin Kim
  • “In the Distance”- Florian Grolig
  • “The Shivering Truth” – Vernon Chatman, Cat Solen

Best of Comedy (Watch all films here)

  • “Cecile on the Phone” – Annabelle Dexter-Jones
  • “Fly Safe” – Noah Malone
  • “Mountain Fever” – Frédéric Hambalek
  • “Mixtape Marauders” – Peter Edlund
  • “The Loaf Zone” – Christopher Rutledge
  • “Love Is Blind” – Dan Hodgson
  • “An Emmy For Megan” – Megan Amram
  • “The Dreamer” – JEAN
  • “The Climb” – Michael Angelo Covino
  • “Enough” – Anna Mantzaris
  • “Latched” – Justin Harding, Rob Brunner
  • “Women Are Mean” – Doron Max Hagay
  • “Metta World Teeth” – LAMAR+NIK
  • “Pussy / Cipka” – Renata Gasiorowska

Best of Documentary (Watch all films here)

  • “Alone” – Garrett Bradley
  • “Field of Vision” – Concussion Protocol – Josh Begley
  • “I Have A Message For You” – Matan Rochlitz
  • “Cucli” – Xavier Marrades
  • “The Wild Inside” – Andrew Michael Ellis
  • “Little Potato” – Wes Hurley, Nathan M. Miller
  • “Ivry” – Jake Oleson
  • “A View From the Window” – Chris Filippone
  • “My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes” – Charlie Tyrell
  • “American Psychosis” – Amanda Zackem
  • “Skip Day” – Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan
  • “I Was A Winner” – Jonas Odell

Best of Drama (Watch all films here)

  • “Slapper” – Luci Schroder
  • “Forever Now” – Kristian Håskjold
  • “Phone Story” – Graham Mason
  • “The Boyfriend Game” – Alice Englert
  • “Intercourse” – Jonatan Etzler
  • “Prends-Moi” – Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, André Turpin
  • “Joy In People” – Oscar Hudson
  • “Drug Runner” – Charlotte Regan
  • “Incel “- John Merizalde
  • “The Turk Shop” – Bahar Pars
  • “Fauve” – Jeremy Comte
  • “Primo” – Federica Gianni
  • “Thick Skin” – Erlendur Sveinsson

Best of Eye Candy (Watch all films here)

  • “Young Marco” – Trippy Isolator – Rop van Mierlo
  • “Salvage” – Dirk Koy
  • “Arena” – Páraic McGloughlin
  • “Windows” – Jason Allen Lee
  • “Winter Time – A Hyperlapse Film” – Juraj Prostinák
  • “Aperture” – Emanuele Kabu
  • “Lattice” – Maria Constanza Ferreira
  • “Coexist” – Michael Marczewski
  • “One minute of miniatures” – Clemens Wirth
  • “Influencers” – f°am Studio
  • “Trapped Summer” – Peter Tomaszewicz
  • “Optics” – Maxim Zhestkov
  • “Portals”- Vladimir Tomin
  • “The Wormhole – Timelapse 4K” – Michael Shainblum
  • “ΔNOMΔLY” – Jacco Kliesch
  • “__/__/__” – Claudia Barral

Best of Travel (Watch all films here)

  • “Russia” – Pete R.
  • “Vhils” – debris, Macau 2017 – Jose Pando Lucas
  • “Sun Moon London” – Luke Miller
  • “Barcelona” – Hannah Lau-Walker
  • “Sand in the Sky” – Dana Saint
  • “Tune in New York” – Lukas Willasch
  • “CATS! A Travel Music Video” – Andrew Norton
  • “Seoul_wave” – Brandon Li
  • “Marfa” – The Brothers McLeod
  • “Still/Life” – Josh Hayward
  • “Operation Jane Walk” -Robin Klengel & Leonhard Müllner
  • “My Trip to Japan” – Dante Zaballa
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