The Pegasus Award for Excellence in Filking
The Pegasus Awards were founded by OVFF to recognize and honor excellence
in filking.
Any member of the worldwide filk community is eligible to win. Past Nominees
have hailed from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Singapore
as well as the United States.
The nomination and ballot procedure is similar to that of the Hugo, except
that one does not need to be a paid member of the convention to nominate
or vote. Anyone with an interest in Filking or Filk music can place a nomination
and/or vote.
The results are tabulated, the winners determined, and the award is presented
at the Pegasus Awards Banquet on Saturday evening at each OVFF.
On these pages you will find lists of all past Pegasus nominees and winners.
You will also find lyrics for many of the songs and biographies of many
of the nominees.
Pegasus Award Categories for 2024
There are currently six Pegasus award categories, including two floating
categories that are different each year.
Best Filk Song
Any filk song is eligible in this category so long as it has not previously
won a Pegasus Award.
Best Classic Filk Song
Any well known filk song that is at least 10 years old and has not previously
won a Pegasus Award, and has not been on the final ballot in this category
in both of the previous two years.
Best Writer/Composer
Any writer/composer of filk songs who has not won this Pegasus Award
in the past 5 years.
Best Performer
Any performer in the filk community who has not won this Pegasus Award
in the past 5 years.
Best Magic Song
The best song about, involving, or driven by magic.
Best Risque Song
This is the second time around for this category- it was last seen in 1994!
Voting for the Pegasus Award
Voting is open to anyone with an interest in Filk music. Ballots are
submitted through a form on the OVFF Pegasus Awards website. Balloting closes on the Thursday before OVFF each year.
Balloting is briefly re-opened after the Pegasus Nominees concert for OVFF attendees. All balloting is conducted through the OVFF website.
Pegasus Nominations
Nominations for the Pegasus Awards are made by the people of the filk
community.
Nominating ballots are made available online and at conventions each year
starting around the end of May (US Memorial Day). The cut-off
for nomination submissions the end of July. After the nominating ballots
are counted and the selection process is completed, the top five nominees
in each category are announced. This occurs on or before the first weekend
in September (US Labor Day). The Final Ballot is then made available online
and distributed at conventions. Voting concludes on the Friday night of
OVFF, and the Pegasus Award Winners are announced at the Saturday night
banquet.
Eligibility
Any filk song or artist is eligible for the Awards, with the following limitations:
- The artist must self-identify as a member of the filk community.
- Songs cannot appear in the same song category (Best Filk Song, Best Classic Filk Song and the floating categories) more than two years in a row.
- Songs cannot appear on the ballot more than three years in a row in multiple categories.
- Artists cannot appear more than two years in a row in the same artist category (Best Writer/Composer, Best Performer).
Songs and artists are again eligible in these categories after a one year hiatus from the ballot.
At the end of the Nomination Phase, filk artists are contacted to accept or decline their Nomination(s) in order to appear on the Final Ballot.
Pegasus Brainstorming Poll
When the Nominating Ballot is released, a list of suggested artists and
songs is attached. This list is generated by the Pegasus Brainstorming Poll,
where anyone with a connection to filking can submit suggestions for songs
and people that they think deserve to be nominated. The brainstorming poll
runs from August through mid-April.
Please note- this site is a work in progress. There is still a lot
of information to gather into the Nominees pages on this site- so the
lyric you are looking for, or bio information may not be here yet. We
are continually working on archiving bios and lyrics of all past Nominees
and Winners. Thank you for your understanding.