MOSCOW, APRIL 29, 2020 — RT’s VR documentary dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the augmented reality book for #Romanovs100 historical project, as well as entries by RT’s video agency Ruptly and In The Now project are among this year’s finalists in six categories of the Webby Awards — an international competition honoring excellence on the Internet.
RT’s VR film The Lessons of Auschwitz, which pays tribute to the 75th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army, has been nominated for this year’s Webby Awards in three categories — Immersive and Mixed Reality: Volumetric / 6-Degrees of Freedom, News, Animation. The film features elements of virtual reality and volumetric video technologies. It has been produced as part of RT’s large-scale social media project #VictoryPages.
#Romanovs100 AR Family Photo Album, an augmented reality book created as part of RT’s #Romanovs100 multimedia project that was launched to mark the centenary of the execution of the last Russian royal family, is now competing for the Webby Awards in Immersive and Mixed Reality: Best Use of Augmented Reality category. Several thousand photos from the Romanovs’ own archive have been published as part of the #Romanovs100 project. At this point, it’s the most complete photo archive of the imperial family. The AR book combined photographs from the early 20th century and augmented reality, giving the audience access to over 60 AR elements featured in the book via a mobile app.
Live footage of the “Yellow Vest” protests in France filmed by RUPTLY, RT’s global multimedia news agency, has made it to the Webby Awards finals in the General Video: Events and Live streams category. An entry by In The Now social media project (Maffick) has been nominated in the Social Video: Education and Discovery category. The video tells the tragic story of a British vlogger whose life was claimed by cancer just a few days after his marriage.
RT’s entries will also compete for the annual People’s Voice Award. Winners of this award are determined by public voting which is open until Thursday, May 7th. Viewers can cast their vote on the Webby Awards official website.
Among the Webby Awards 2020 finalists in various categories are BBC, CNN, HBO, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, National Geographic and other major media outlets.
RT has previously taken home two People’s Voice Awards at the Webbys. In 2018, RT won for #1917LIVE, a “real-time” historical social media reenactment dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. In 2016, RT was chosen as the best in overall social media presence, as represented by a series of digital projects, including platforms on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Soundcloud, and Coub, as well as the RT Play Facebook portal, which offers a selection of infotainment videos with infographics elements.
The Webby Awards, “the internet’s highest honor,” according to the New York Times, annually honor the world’s best digital projects: websites, videos, mobile apps and social media campaigns. The jury includes more than 1,000 professionals within the web and media industries. This year’s winners will be announced on 19 May.