AirVuz has named the winners of its second annual Drone Video Awards. The site is an online community and video host built for drone pilots. Winners were revealed during an AirVuz Live broadcast on Facebook. The contest covered videos uploaded between January 1 and December 31, 2018.
Still, the contest drew a huge field. More than 30,000 videos were uploaded during the year, while only 18 came away as category winners. Together they shared a prize pool of more than $10,000, up from 11 categories at the first edition.
The top honor, Drone Video of the Year, went to Los Angeles cinematographer Mike Bishop. His film, Kingdom of the Wild, follows wildlife in Namibia, and it also won the Drone for Good category. Bishop shot the footage on the Erindi Private Game Reserve. After pitching his idea to conservation groups and to drone maker DJI, he connected with the Cheetah Conservation Fund, founded in Namibia in 1990.
Then came the money: his grand prize was worth about $3,000. Bishop said he plans to put the money into another wildlife conservation film. Each category winner also received about $500, a plaque and other prizes.
Category winners
FPV Video of the Year went to Johnny FPV for a video shot in Saudi Arabia. The same pilot also took Extreme Sports with A New Perspective. Meanwhile, the other category winners were:
- Cities and Urban: St. Petersburg, The City of White Knights, by Timelab.Pro.
- People and Lifestyle: Lands of the Maya, Guatemala and Mexico, by videobros.
- Countries and Regions: 4K Icelandic Drone Adventure, by Brendon Dixon.
- Nature category: The Epic North, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, by PilotViking.
- Game of Drones: The Ice Cave, by Snorrithor.
- Dronie: The Last Dronie, by Chris Castor.
- Originality: 24 HRS, by Panvelvet.
- Freestyle FPV: The Cold Edge of the World, by Gab707.
- Micro Drone Acro: Envelopment, by nurkfpv; Micro Drone Angle: Onnanocos x Micro Drone, by KatsuFPV.
- Tiny Whoop Acro: Surfin USA, by hoodblade; Tiny Whoop Angle: Lake Maria, by BluJ.
- Showreel: Showreel 2018, by aeroCircus.
- Audience Award: Magic Iceland, by David Aguilar.
Before the final results, AirVuz staff and sponsors picked finalists, judging quality, difficulty and creativity. The contest was also open to pilots worldwide. Sponsors included Horizon Hobby, PolarPro, GetFPV, Rotor Riot and Tiny Whoop. The Drone Girl, DroneLife, Women and Drones and Women Who Drone also backed the awards.
