More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom's equivalent of the Hugo Award ® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom's Anthony Award, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Award, and so forth. Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. These Awards are decided by the fans, not by a committee.

      NEWS

Voting for the 2019 Awards has CLOSED.

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, securing a venue for the Award Presentations has become impossible. Therefore, this year's winners will be announced online only. We hope to have an interesting video done for this purpose which will be shown within a few weeks of the ballot closing. Watch for an announcement here and on Facebook or Twitter.

The 2019 Nominees

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Avengers: Endgame (Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; April 26)
• Frozen 2 (Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck; November 22)
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Directed by Rob Letterman; May 3)
• Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling (Directed by Joe Murray and Cosmo Serguson; August 9)
• Toy Story 4 (Directed by Josh Cooley; June 21)

Best Dramatic Series or Short Work
TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Aggretsuko, Season 2 (Directed by Rarecho)
• Amphibia (Directed by Bert Youn and Derek Kirk Kim)
• Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi) Episode 1, October 8, 2019 (Japan)
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (Written and Storyboarded by Phil Ahn, Allison Craig, Nathanael H. Jones, Griffith Kimmins, Alexandria Kwan, Nora Meek, Michael Moloney, Emily Oetzell, Parker Simmons, and Chris Ybarra)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 9 (Directed by Denny Lu, Mike Myhre, and Gillian Comerford)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Darwin-sensei, Kemono Musume-tachi ga Gakuen de Omochi desu!, by Daisaburo Nonoue
• Fair Trade, by Gre7g Luterman
• Nexus Nine, by Mary E. Lowd
• Off The Mark, by Bernard Doove and Jeff Hartt
• Red Skies, by GS Cole and NC Shapero

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.

• Black Out In Space, by Mary E. Lowd
• Bourbon Jack, by Linnea Capps
• Ecto-Cafe, by Mary E. Lowd
• The Move, by Kristi Brooks
• This Dog For Hire, by Mary E. Lowd, in Jove Deadly's Lunar Detective Agency

Best Other Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Fang 10, edited by Kyell Gold and Sparf
• Heat 16, edited by Alopex and Dark End
• Jove Deadly's Lunar Detective Agency, by Garrett Marco and Mary E. Lowd
• ROAR Volume 10, edited by Mary E. Lowd
• The Rabbit Dies First, edited by Ryan Campbell
• Tri-Galactic Trek, edited by Mary E. Lowd

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

• Beastars: Volume 12-16, by Itagaki Paru
• The Dreamkeepers, by David & Liz Lillie
• Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler
• Shine, by Babystar
• Slightly Damned, by Chu

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg
• Doc Rat, by Jenner
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley
• Friends You Are Stuck With, by Gabe Bold
• Housepets!, by Rick Griffin

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon
• Up Fur Review, podcast by Jaden Drackus, TJ Minde, and Mog K. Moogle
• Virginity Clan, YouTube videos
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd

Best Published Illustration
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

• Idess, Jove Deadly's Lunar Detective Agency book cover
• Moth Monarch, Furnal Equinox 2019 T-shirt design
• Moth Monarch, Surf Pacific Anthrocon 2019 banner and conbook art
• Silfoe, Off The Mark book cover
• Teagan Gavet, Tri-Galactic Trek book cover

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Blacksad: Under The Skin
• Kingdom Hearts III
• Pokémon: Sword and Shield
• Untitled Goose Game
• Winds of Change

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• e621.net
• Fur Affinity
• Inkbunny
• Newgrounds
• WikiFur

Because there were insufficient qualifying nominations, there will not be a Non-Fiction Work or Fursuit category in contention this year.

Notice: Kyell Gold has indicated that he wishes to withdraw from consideration for the Novel and Short Story categories until further notice. For full details, please read his blog on Fur Affinity.

PLEASE DONATE

The Ursa Major Awards have always been run by volunteer members, and all costs associated with it such as maintaining the website, and especially providing the physical awards to the winners, have mostly been borne by donations from the core members. In order to help us with this, and to improve the quality of the award trophies, we would like to solicit donations from the fandom.

	The easiest way to contribute is to use the PayPal link button on the left for paypal@ursamajorawards.org, and any donation would be hugely appreciated. If everyone who nominated or voted donated just one dollar, all our expenses would be covered for the year! 100% of the money received will be put towards the running costs. Thank you for your consideration.

To be eligible, a work must have been released between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year for that award, and must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical (for example the intelligent rabbits in Watership Down for the former, and Bugs Bunny for the latter.) Simply including an animal character is not sufficient to qualify. Non-animal characters such as Wall-E are also anthropomorphic.

While we have yet to do so, the ALAA reserves the right to exclude from the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, and from contention for an Ursa Major Award, any works it deems to be obscene, libelous, illegal, or otherwise detrimental to the integrity and good standing of the Ursa Major Awards and the anthropomorphics fandom that those awards represent. For example: Works of a predominantly sexual nature, or which include explicit sexual situations involving characters which may be underage or non-anthropomorphic animals.

The Ursa Major Award was administered and presented during its first two years by The ConFurence Group, a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic fandom-related events. It is now presented by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic literature and arts through such projects as this List and Award, and others which may be undertaken later. Discussions are currently taking place to improve their effectiveness and expand their presence throughout Furry fandom. All suggestions are invited.

The Ursa Major Award banner was designed and drawn by EosFoxx. The A.L.A.A. much appreciates Eos' contribution.

'Hugo Award,' 'Worldcon,' and 'World Science Fiction Society' are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.