Film critic Roger Ebert named Webby Awards person of year
Though Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak after surgery for cancer, he has found a new and powerful voice online.
The film critic was chosen as person of the year in the 14th annual Webby Awards, which celebrate Internet achievement.
Winners were announced this week by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member group of Web experts.
Ebert was singled out for “raising the bar for online journalism” with his blog on the Chicago Sun-Times’ website. He is also an avid Twitterer and is planning a new movie-review TV program that he says will have a strong online presence.
Aside from special achievement awards, the Webbys also honor a variety of categories, each of which includes a winner picked by the academy and one picked by public voting (though the two often arrive at the same decision).
The top winners were College Humor and The New York Times, each with five awards.
Rock band OK Go, famous for its viral music videos, was named video artist of the year. Amy Poehler, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and star of NBC’s “Parks & Recreation,” was chosen as actress of the year for her online series “Smart Girls at the Party.”
Viral video of the year went to the Muppets’ cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The best mash-up or remix video went to “Auto-tune the News” from BarelyPolitical.com.
Jim Carrey’s official website ( www.jimcarrey.com) won for best celebrity or fan website. Filmmaker David Lynch’s “Interview Project” won for best documentary series.
Lisa Kudrow’s Web series, “Web Therapy,” won for best comedy series, though the “people’s choice” Webby in that category went to “Jake and Amir,” the College Humor series.
The website for the Make it Right Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt, was awarded the Webby for best activist website. Isabella Rossellini won for best individual performance in her “Green Porno” videos for the Sundance Channel.
Twitter won for best social networking, Foursquare for mobile social networking and Hulu for broadband.
Frequent Webby honorees TheOnion.com and ColbertNation.com also were winners. The website for the satirical newspaper The Onion won for best humor, while the official site of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” won for best TV website.
The honoree for lifetime achievement was Vinton Cerf, one of the Internet’s founding fathers who pioneered its communications technology at Stanford University. He is currently “chief Internet evangelist” for Google.
Winners will accept their awards June 14 in New York at a ceremony hosted by B.J. Novak of “The Office.”