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

Nominations have opened for the 2022 Ursa Major Awards!

Many people use the Recommended Anthropomorphics List as a ready reference for what is eligible for Award nominations, but you are free to nominate any qualifying item not on the list. If there are insufficient nominations for a category, it will not be part of the 2022 ballot.

The Recommended List for 2022 is closed for submissions.

A special shout-out to Xanni who hosts and troubleshoots the UMA website. Your help is very much appreciated!

And a reminder that the Awards are run by an unpaid volunteer committee. Donations to cover the cost of the physical awards would be hugely appreciated. The Paypal link in the column at left is the simplest way to do this. If everyone who voted for the Awards gave just one dollar, we would easily meet our annual running costs.

The 2021 Winners

Check out the video of the presentations.

Best Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

Rocket Raccoon (Endgame Version), Maker/Owner/Wearer: Akela Taka

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Armored Lizardman, Maker: Treasure Court, Owner: xinghejieZLS
• Bash the Piñata, Maker: Kemonokapi, Owner: @TransformARTive/@BashThePinata
• Fifel, Makers: feathersOkapi and ZettaNova, Owner: GlacierClear
 

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

Fur Affinity

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• e621
• Wikifur
• Zootopia News Network
• Fuzznet Music
 

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

Deltarune: Chapter 2

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Death's Door
• F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
• Doodle Champion Island Games
 

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

Kathy Garrison Kellogg, A World Of Our Own

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Caraid, Ruxa, Patient Professor
• Lofi, Oh, Well
• Caraid, Beginnigs
• Nomax, Brothers
 

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, by Patch O'Furr

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon
• InFurNation, edited by Rod O'Riley
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd
• #ohmurr!, edited by Izzy Torres, AKA Weasel
 

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

Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Foxes in Love, by @foxes_in_love on Twitter
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley
• The Whiteboard, by Doc N.
• Friends You Are Stuck With, by Gabe Bold
 

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

Shine, by Babystar

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Found Retake, by Toddlergirl
• Blades of Furry, by Deya Muniz and Emily Erdos
• 24/7, by Hladilnik
• Isla Aukate, by Foxena
 

Best Non-Fiction Work
TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

This furry scientist won't let Twitter's COVID pessimists kill her vibe, by Chris Stokel-Walker

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• How Furries Are Making Virtual Reality Worth Visiting, by Matt Baume
• The otter who became an accidental VTuber star, by Patricia Hernandez
• Furry Fiction Is Everywhere: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Anthropomorphic Characters, by Ian Madison Keller & Mary E. Lowd
• The Zoo Files, by Toad McKinley
 

Best Other Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, and serialized online stories.

Awoo!: Volume 1, by AC Stuart

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Difursity Vol. 2, edited by Weasel
• Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory, by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, illustrated by Benjamin Dewey, lettering by Nate Piekos
• Sam Digger: Beaver Detective, by Ian Madison Keller
• Shark Week: An Ocean Anthology, edited by Ian Madison Keller
 

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

Where Have All The Mousies Gone, by Mary E. Lowd

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Dance of Wood and Grace, by Marie Croke
• Too Cuddly, by Mary E. Lowd
• Crystal Fusion, by Mary E. Lowd
• The Arsenal of Obsolescence, by Mary E. Lowd
 

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

The Captain's Oath, by Rick Griffin

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Interesting Times, by George Cole and N.C. Shapero
• Starwhal in Flight (The Entangled Universe, Book 3), by Mary E. Lowd
• The Entropy Fountain (The Entangled Universe, Book 2), by Mary E. Lowd
• The Bee's Waltz: A Labyrinth of Souls Novel, by Mary E. Lowd
 

Best Dramatic Series
TV, streaming, or YouTube series.

Helluva Boss (Created by Vivienne Medrano; Season 1 episode 3 to episode 6)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Beastars, Season 2 (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi; January 7 to March 25)
• Centaurworld (Created by Megan Nicole Dong; July 30 to December 7)
• Chikn Nuggit (by Chikn Nuggit; videos January 1 to December 31)
• Odd Taxi (Directed by Mugi Kinoshita; episode 1 to 13, April 6 to June 29)
 

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.

Nobody Does It Better, Musical interlude by Princess Katre (Video production by Frank Berhring, artwork and concept by K. Garrison; from the comic strip Carry On.)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Fuelled by The Home Guardsmen (Directed by Michelle Hao and Fawn Chan; December 1)
• Fossils (Directed by Directed by Piti Yindee; June 3)
• The Mandrake (Directed by Quincy Baltes; August 8)
• Katrina the Fuzzy Princess (Directed by Charles Brubaker; September 9)
 

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

Raya and the Last Dragon (Directed by Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada, Paul Briggs and John Ripa)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Luca (Directed by Enrico Casarosa)
• My Little Pony: A New Generation (Directed by Robert Cullen and Jose Ucha)
• Sing 2 (Directed by Garth Jennings)
• Wish Dragon (Directed by Chris Appelhans)
 

For the full results and voting statistics, go to the 2021 tally page.

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.