The closest US equivalent to the awards would be the Streamy Awards. But while the categories of the Streamys are based on traditional TV awards, the German Web Video Award’s 13 categories (described below) borrow mostly from web culture. From “Cute” to “Epic”, and “Fail” to “Win”, they boast more acronyms than a Nobel prize winner: FAQ, FYI, LOL, OMG, VIP.

The voting system is based on a mixture of audience and jury votes. The former are able to push videos by sharing them on social networks, with the three videos with the most shares in each category proceeding to the final round. A jury will also select their own choice of three videos in each category.

This applies to 11 of the 13 categories. The nominees and winners in “Newbie” and “AAA” are chosen entirely by the jury.

In the final round, it’s again a 50:50 jury and audience choice. Points from 6 to 1 (6 for the best video) will be split between the six videos in each category, both from the jury and based on the amount of shares on social networks and blogs. These points will then be totaled up to announce the winner. In the case of a tie between jury and audience vote, the latter will be the determining factor.

Only four weeks into the competition more than 2,800 videos had been submitted, and around 81,000 shares counted.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony in Düsseldorf on the 25th of May. The event will be accompanied by a two-day “Videocamp”, an unconference/BarCamp for video makers. Pictures of last year’s ceremony can be seen here.

*The categories explained:

Academy Approved Art:

best video in terms of camera/editing/audio

Action:

A video with a lot of….action!

Cute:

No matter if it’s a video of a cat or a baby, the cutest one is going to win in this category.

Epic:

There will only be one truly epic video: The best video of the year.

Fail:

worst professional video

FAQ:

service video, explaining step by step how something works

FYI:

no matter if it’s a journalism or documentary piece, it’s all about informing the audience

Let’s Play:

gaming videos

LOL:

Funny incidents or comedy: It’s all about videos that make you laugh.

Newbie:

for the best budding video producer

OMG:

for the video with the best surprise effect

VIP:

for talented personalities in front of the camera or commenting in the background

Win:

best marketing video