Sarah Silverman wins Webby for 'I'm F**king Matt Damon'

by Stevie Smith - May 5 2009, 17:00

While never likely to wield the same weight of notoriety as the Oscars or BAFTAs, the 13th annual ‘Webby’ awards have been officially announced after judges and the voting public appraised some of the year’s most important and influential Web-based content.

Somewhat oddly, the extensive list of Webby winners predates the glitzy gala award ceremony in New York by some five weeks, with the event not actually scheduled to take place until June 08. However, the organisers seem keen to tell the world the news – lest they miss it – so let the role call begin.

In terms of recognisable names, actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon is to be honoured as Webby Person of the Year for utilising the Internet to, “hone his late-night-hosting chops,” for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by connecting with viewers via his blog and Twitter.

Similarly lauded is Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who scoops the award for Webby Artist of the Year after releasing 2008 studio album The Slip as a free download on nin.com, distributing HD tour content through BitTorrent, and even crafting a game to coincide with his album Zero.

Comedian and actress Sarah Silverman gets the nod for Best Actress following the huge online response that met her hilarious “I’m F**king Matt Damon” music video and Best Political Video for “The Great Schlep,” which encouraged Jewish kids to get their Florida grandparents to vote for Barack Obama during the 2008 election.

Other TV and film notables such as Lisa Kudrow and Seth MacFarlance are also to receive Webby awards, with the former scooping Outstanding Comedic Performance for starring in, co-writing and co-producing Web Therapy on LStudio.com, while MacFarlane wins Film and Video Person of the Year after his Web-centric Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy was syndicated across the Google Content Network.

In the wake of 900 percent growth over the last 12 months, micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter gets the Breakout of the Year award and follows in the footsteps of such online behemoths as YouTube, MySpace and Flickr.

“All of this year’s winners embrace the Internet as the medium where they can take risks, experiment, and share new ideas,” enthused David-Michel Davies regarding the honour roll. “Their vision and creativity, like those of all our winner, have helped make the Internet a richer, more exciting, and more vibrant experience.”

From a media and industry angle, multiple Webby awards have been secured by the likes of NPR (with seven), NYTimes.com and NBC.com (six), Next New Networks (five), PBS and the BBC (four), and The Onion, Digg, Sundance Channel, YouTube and Wired.com (all with three each).

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