18th Annual Webby Awards Winners & Highlights

Photo Credit: Getty/Webby Awards

The Webby Awards celebrated excellence on the Web last night at Cipriani Wall Street at The 18th Annual Awards honoring pioneers of a free and open Internet. Webby Winners, Special Achievement Honorees and Presenters included legendary hip-hop trio De La Soul, Orange is the New Black stars Taylor Schilling and Natasha Lyonne, street artist Banksy, legendary musician Patti Smith, NBA player Jason Collins, esteemed journalist Charlie Rose, and intellectual property activist Lawrence Lessig.

The star-studded awards show not only celebrated this year’s winners, but commemorated the Web’s 25th anniversary. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee gave an impassioned speech about the hotly debated topic of net neutrality declaring, “The Internet has got to be free and open and neutral.” He brought the audience to their feet with three simple words, "Up to us."

The 18th Annual Webby Awards were hosted by critically acclaimed comedian, writer, and actor Patton Oswalt, who opened the night reminding winners to stick to the mandatory 5-Word Speech structure, giving his own examples which included: “I think therefore I am,” and “That weed isn’t mine, officer.”

“Last night we honored the digital innovators who continue to revolutionize the Web,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “Each year we recognize the Internet’s most significant breakthroughs and accomplishments, which have never been more relevant than they are today as we celebrate the Web’s 25th anniversary.”

Other notable 5-Word Speeches include:

· The Onion - “Too many died for this.”

· Huff Post Live President Roy Sekoff - “Anyone can come on us.”

· The Guardian NSA Files Decoded - “More privacy, less NSA surveillance.”

· Airbnb - “We’re sleeping in your bed.”

· Ogilvy Paris - “The secret of success is…”

Highlights of this year’s Webby Awards include:
· DJ Questlove observed, “There’s me, myself and I, but there is no me, myself and iTunes,” presenting hip-hop group De La Soul with the award for Webby Artist of the Year. They accepted their award saying, “Testing one, two. Check one, two.”

· Orange is the New Black’s Natasha Lyonne presented her co-star Taylor Schilling with the award for Best Actress. Schilling accepted the honor for her outstanding performance in Netflix’s hit Web series saying, “I now have a Webby!” to which host Oswalt responded, “I almost wore that top.”

· Presenting street artist Banksy with the award for Webby Person of the Year, legendary musician Patti Smith quipped, “I have a confession to make. I am Banksy.” Banksy received the top Webby honor for having captivated New York via the Internet and the world at large with his New York residency, “Better Out Than In.” Accepting the award on his behalf, Oswalt read Banksy’s self-written speech, “Somebody painted over it.”

· NBA player Jason Collins presented members of the Jamaican Bobsled Team with the Webby Athlete of the Year Award to celebrate the inspired use of the Web to achieve their Olympic dreams.

· Political activist Lawrence Lessig took the stage to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Accepting the honor, Lessig declared “I’m not dead yet.”

· The Webby’s also bid farewell to the selfie with “Selfie in Memoriam,” a video compilation of popular selfie memes that took social media by storm over the past year, including: #slothselfie, #funeralselfie, #teacherinlaborselfie, and #duckface.

· Actor Fred Armisen took the stage as his British punk alter-ego Ian Rubbish, the lead singer of the rock band Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros, performing “Hey Policeman!”

· Kickstarter CEO & co-founder Yancey Strickler took the stage to accept the award for Breakout of the Year for building the world’s largest funding platform to fuel creative projects.