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18th Annual Webby Awards Celebrate the Internet’s Greatest Pioneers, Disruptors and Champions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anne Muscarella
(212) 918-2044

anne@high10media.com

 

18TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS CELEBRATE THE INTERNET’S GREATEST PIONEERS, DISRUPTORS AND CHAMPIONS
De La Soul: Testing one, two. Check, one, two.

Orange is the New Black’s Taylor Schilling: I now have a Webby!

Banksy: Somebody painted over it.

NASA: We’re taking this to Mars.

Lawrence Lessig: I’m not dead yet.

Watch The Webby’s On Demand: youtube.com/webby: www.webbyawards.com

NEW YORK, May 20, 2014 – The Webby Awards celebrated excellence on the Web last night at Cipriani Wall Street at the 18th Annual Awards honoring pioneers of a free and open Internet. Webby Winners, Special Achievement Honorees and Presenters included legendary hip-hop trio De La Soul, Orange is the New Black stars Taylor Schilling and Natasha Lyonne, street artist Banksy, legendary musician Patti Smith, NBA player Jason Collins, esteemed journalist Charlie Rose, and intellectual property activist Lawrence Lessig.

The star-studded awards show not only celebrated this year’s winners, but commemorated the Web’s 25th anniversary. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee gave an impassioned speech about the hotly debated topic of net neutrality declaring, The internet has got to be free and open and neutral. He brought the audience to their feet with three simple words, Up to us.

The 18th Annual Webby Awards were hosted by critically acclaimed comedian, writer, and actor Patton Oswalt, who offered a few suggested 5-Word Speeches including, I think therefore I am, and That weed isn’t mine, officer.

Last night we honored the digital innovators who continue to revolutionize the Web, said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. Each year we recognize the Internet’s most significant breakthroughs and accomplishments, which have never been more relevant than they are today as we celebrate the Web’s 25th anniversary.

Notable 5-Word speeches include:

George Takei – Shatner, eat your heart out.

The Onion – Too many died for this.

Huff Post Live President Roy Sekoff – Anyone can come on us.

The Guardian NSA Files Decoded – More privacy, less NSA surveillance.

Airbnb – We’re sleeping in your bed.

Ogilvy Paris – The secret of success is…

Highlights of this year’s Webby Awards include:

DJ Questlove observed, There’s me, myself and I, but there is no me, myself and iTunes, presenting hip-hop group De la Soul with the award for Webby Artist of the Year. They accepted their award saying, Testing one, two. Check one, two. (wbby.co/delavideo)

Orange is the New Black’s Natasha Lyonne presented her co-star Taylor Schilling with the award for Best Actress. Schilling accepted the honor for her outstanding performance in Netflix’s hit Web series saying, I now have a Webby! To which host Oswalt responded with, I almost wore that top.

Presenting street artist Banksy with the award for Webby Person of the Year, legendary musician Patti Smith quipped, I have a confession to make. I am Banksy. Banksy received the top Webby honor for having captivated New York via the Internet and the world at large with his New York residency, Better Out Than In. Accepting the award on his behalf, Oswalt read Banksy’s self-written speech, Somebody painted over it.

NBA player Jason Collins presented members of the Jamaican Bobsled Team with the Webby Athlete of the Year Award to celebrate the inspired use of the Web to achieve their Olympic dreams.

Political activist Lawrence Lessig took the stage to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Accepting the honor, Lessig declared I’m not dead yet.

The Webby’s also bid farewell to the selfie with Selfie in Memoriam, a video compilation of popular selfie memes that took social media by storm over the past year, including: #slothselfie, #funeralselfie, #teacherinlaborselfie, and #duckface. (wbby.co/RIPselfies)

Actor Fred Armisen took the stage as his British punk alter-ego Ian Rubbish, the lead singer of the rock band Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros, performing Hey Policeman!

Kickstarter CEO & Co-founder Yancey Strickler took the stage to accept the award for Breakout of the Year for building the world’s largest funding platform to fuel creative projects.

Links to Post-Event Footage:
High-res photos are available for your post-event coverage at this link (Photo credit: Getty/The 18th Annual Webby Awards):

Red Carpet: http://wbby.co/r0aA

Inside: http://wbby.co/s0aI

Embeddable video highlights from the evening are available here: watch.webbyawards.com

** PLEASE CREDIT THE 18th ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS WITH ALL VIDEO AND PHOTO USE***

About The Webby Awards
Hailed as the Internet’s highest honor by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, Mobile & Apps, and Social. Established in 1996, The Webby Awards received nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide this year. The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Microsoft, Dell, Vitamin T, Leica, MailChimp, Engine Yard, Funny or Die, AdAge, Percolate, BuzzFeed, Mashable, HLN, Business Insider, Creative Bloq, Lurzer’s Archive, Tubefilter, Internet Week New York and Guardian News and Media.

To Join the conversation
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