CP+B Launches 2nd Annual Gif Award Show 'The .GIFYS'

The .GIFYS, the second annual award show celebrating the animated GIF, announced the start of online public voting today as they determine the best GIFs of 2015. The entire internet is encouraged to vote here. through February 24th across 11 categories, including Cats, Sports, Film & TV, News & Politics and a new one this year—“Weird”.

The .GIFYS were created in 2014 by a group of creatives and developers at advertising agency CP+B Los Angeles as a way to honor GIFs as a medium, social commentary and art form. In the shows’ second year, they’ve partnered with online database and search engine GIPHY.com to host the competition and  asked a panel of internet experts from Mashable, Reddit, AOL, New York Magazine, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, famous internet cat Lil Bub and more, to nominate the best GIFs for voting.

“In the thick of award show season, The .GIFYS are the one award show that the entire internet gets to vote on. Our expert panelists help nominate the best GIFS, but we believe the ultimate decision should lie in the hands of those who create GIFS: everyone,” said Chelsea O’Brien, The .GIFYS co-founder and Sr. Copywriter at CP+B Los Angeles.

At www.thegifys.com, everyone can vote on their favorite in each category, and the winners will be announced on February 26th. Due to the complex nature of GIF ownership, the GIFYS do not award the creator, but rather the GIF itself, immortalizing it on the internet forever. GIFs that receive a .GIFY will become permanent fixtures in an internet hall of fame, to be celebrated forever.

The 2015 .GIFYS panelist include:

· Lil Bub, Famous internet cat

· Jess Conditt, Senior Reporter, AOL

· Dan Milano, Partnership Manager, Dailymotion USA

· Jeff Petriello, Head of Mashable’s Visual Storytelling team

· Victoria Taylor, Director of Communications, Reddit

· James Dybvig, Multi-Media Animator at Mashable

· Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image

· Ann Friedman, Columnist for New York Magazine

· Ben Jones, Creative Director of Animation Domination High-Def, FoxADHD

· Zipeng Zhu, Graphic Designer + Animator, Sagmeister & Walsh

· Mallika Rao, Staff writer covering the intersection of race and art, Huffington Post

· Chelsea Marshall, Beastmaster at Buzzfeed

· Jason Roche, Founder, The Ministry of GIFS

· Ivan Perez-Armendariz, EVP/Chief Digital Officer, CP+B