Yesterday marked the 73rd WorldCon, an annual assemblage of science fiction and fantasy fans and writers that hosts the prestigious Hugo Awards. Named after science fiction editor Hugo Gernsback, the Hugos are awarded every year to groundbreaking genre fiction and proudly include legends like Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick among their winners. This year’s ceremony was steeped in controversy after anti-diversity groups flooded the nomination process to block submissions by and about people of different races and gender identities, and voters responded by, well, just not giving out some of the awards this time. (Probably an appropriate response!)
Among the many awards for short stories and novellas, the Hugos also honor “dramatic presentations,” usually films and television shows. This year’s crowns went to Guardians of the Galaxy and, for the first time, BBCs Orphan Black. As with the rest of the Hugos, the winners in both the Short Form and Long Form categories have a remarkable pedigree, though we’ll quibble with some of the choices over the years. No win for Last Year at Marienbad in 1963?
Below, we’ve assembled a sample of Hugo-winning titles in our collection. It’s not everything, but it’s a good representation of what the Hugos tends to honor. There’s a lot of obvious major names (of course Star Wars won), which if anything is a great indication of how often they get it right. Congrats to the Hugos on their weird but successful year, and we look forward to seeing what joins these annals in 2016!
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – HU DVD 480
The Lord of the Rings trilogy – HU DVD 808 – 810
Blade Runner – HU DVD 1067
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – HU DVD 1096
Star Wars original trilogy – HU DVD 1643 – 1646
Pan’s Labyrinth – HU DVD 2770
Slaughterhouse-Five – HU DVD 5727
Star Trek: “The Menagerie” – HU DVD 6201, Disc 4
Inception – HU DVD 8000
The Incredible Shrinking Man – HU DVD 8968
Game of Thrones, Season 1 – HU DVD 10021
Doctor Who: “Blink” – HU DVD 10803, Disc 4
A Boy and His Dog – HU DVD 11420
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Conversations with Dead People” – HU DVD 14011, Disc 2
The Twilight Zone (television) – HU DVD 14063 – 14067
Star Trek: The Next Generation: “All Good Things…” – HU DVD 14209, Disc 7