AirVuz Announces Winners of Second Annual Drone Video Awards

February 27, 2019

Minneapolis, Minnesota – 02-26-2019 (PRDistribution.com) — Leading drone video sharing community AirVuz announced the winners for its second annual Drone Video Awards (“DVA’s”) contest. Over $15,000 in cash and prizes were awarded for videos in 18 different categories, plus a Drone Video of the Year, a First Person View (FPV) Video of the Year, and a People’s Choice award. The winning videos were drawn from over 30,000 drone videos uploaded to the AirVuz website during the calendar year 2018. Winners were announced via a Facebook Live broadcast.

The Drone Video of the Year was awarded to Mike Bishop for his video Kingdom of the Wild: Wildlife in Namibia, Africa, which also won the Drones for Good category. His video, which was undertaken in collaboration with leading drone manufacturer DJI and the Cheetah Conservation Fund, was filmed at the country’s Erindi game preserve. At the inaugural Drone Video Awards last year, Bishop won the Countries category with his video “Awaken” Iceland. The California-based photographer has won numerous other accolades and awards, both at drone film festivals and also at other film award venues.

The FPV Video of the Year was awarded to Johnny Schaer for his video “Saudi Arabia – JohnnyFPV,” which also won the FPV Freestyle – Cinematic category. Shot at the Mada’in Saleh archaeological site in the Arabian Desert, his video features social media star Jay Alvarrez. Better known by his pilot handle, JohnnyFPV is one of the world’s top FPV pilots. He is particularly well known for his FPV freestyle video content, which is created by mounting an HD camera atop an FPV racing drone and flying to create immersive content rather than in racing competition. Schaer also won the Extreme Sports category for his FPV video “A New Perspective,” in which he used an FPV drone to film the Audi Nines ski event at the Sölden resort in the Austrian Alps. Schaer also won one of the FPV categories at the first annual Drone Video Awards last year.

The People’s Choice prize was awarded to Spanish drone pilot David Aguilar for his video “Magic Iceland.” The video was shot with a DJI Mavic Air drone and was taken over the course of a ten-day trip through the North Atlantic island.

Other highlights of the second annual DVA’s included:

Russian drone piloting company Timelab.pro won the Cities/Urban category for the second year, taking the prize with their video “St. Petersburg: City of White Nights.” At the first AirVuz Drone Video Awards last year, they won the category and the Drone Video of the Year award for their video Moscow Aerial 5k, which was also shot with a DJI Inspire 2 drone.

U.S. FPV pilot Paul Nurkkala, who goes by the handle nurkfpv, won the Micro Drone Acro Mode category for his video “Envelopment.” The video was shot with a tiny camera-equipped racing drone at the City Museum in St. Louis. Nurkkala was recently crowned the winner of the third Drone Racing League (DRL) World Championship, broadcast on ESPN. His video Flight of the Year won the FPV Video of the Year at the first annual DVA’s.

Gabriel Kocher, also known as Gab707, won the FPV Freestyle Flow category for his video “The Cold Edge of the World,” which was filmed flying a racing drone over the Swiss Alps. A Swiss-born FPV pilot who now lives in Canada, Kocher has also competed on multiple DRL seasons on ESPN and finished second to Nurkkala in the deciding race of the third DRL championship.

The German professional drone piloting company Aero Circus won the Reel category for their compilation 2018 Showreel, which featured some of their highlights of their work from last year. The Munich-based firm is one of the top professional drone piloting companies in Europe; their work ranges from TV commercials for global brands such as Porsche to aerial work for major motion picture studios such as Disney.

Norwegian pilot Espen Hatleskog won the Nature & Landscapes category for his film “Epic North.” The video was shot across Iceland, Norway, and the Faroe Islands. Hatleskog, who goes by PilotViking, is one of the top aerial videographers on Instagram. His video “Dream” won the Sports category at the first Drone Video Awards.

Chris Castor won the Dronie category for his video “The Last Dronie,” in which he used a DJI Phantom 4 Professional drone to film a mock zombie film sequence. His video “Cardboard Cadet” won the Originality category at the first annual Drone Video Awards. The Oklahoma-based drone pilot and videographer has won numerous drone film festival awards, including the New York City Drone Film Festival.

In addition to the two noted above, two other category award winners featured the landscape of Iceland. New Zealand pilot Brendon Dixon won the Countries & Regions category with his video “Icelandic Drone Adventure.” Also, the Game of Drones category award went to drone pilot Snorri Þór Tryggvason for his video “The Ice Cave,” which was shot on a glacier in Iceland that has been used as a filming location for the HBO TV series Game of Thrones.

Finalists in each category were selected by the staff at AirVuz and sponsors from within the drone industry: Horizon Hobby, Polar Pro, GetFPV, Rotor Riot, Tiny Whoop, The Drone Girl, DroneLife, Women and Drones, and Women Who Drone. Just under 90 videos were picked, out of the 30,000 videos uploaded to AirVuz during the year. Award winners in each category were determined by vote of the AirVuz contributors, and the People’s Choice award was determined by public voting.

A rundown of all categories and nominees can be found here. To see the entire awards program, which was broadcast on Facebook Live, click here.

For more information, contact Tyler Mason, Director of Public Relations, at [email protected].

About AirVuz

Since its launch in 2015, AirVuz has become the world’s leading drone video and photography sharing platform and global community for drone pilots and aerial media enthusiasts. Drone enthusiasts worldwide can upload and share videos and photos in unlimited quantity and at no cost. Site users have free access to an ever-growing library of drone media content including easily browsable curated collections grouped into easy-to-navigate groupings such as Landmarks, Cities, People, Transportation, and Nature. AirV?z users also have access to original AirV?z content, such as AirV?z News coverage of new drone industry applications and drone regulation.