2025 VCA Updates, Questions & Feedback Thread

[Kireblue]

Nominated Videos + Semifinalists + Finalists

What are the VCAs?

For over 20 years, the A-M-V.org Viewers Choice Awards have been an annual opportunity to showcase and acknowledge the videos that stand out above the rest. It's a way for fans to say “Thank you” to the creators who put the extra effort into creating truly exceptional videos. And so every year, we let the community vote on what videos they thought were the very best from the previous year. There are awards for Best Action, Most Artistic, Editor of the Year, and many more! If you want to see what has won in previous VCAs you can go here to click through the years!

What can compete?
Fandom Music Videos that premiered online in 2024 are eligible to participate in the VCAs (even videos that aren't cataloged on A-M-V.org). Premieres are defined as a video's first upload to either a streaming platform (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) or a catalog site (AMVOrg, AMVNews). Videos that were only uploaded to file-sharing sites like Google Drive or were only made available to watch as a collection of submissions (as opposed to individual uploads) do not count as premieres.

Traditionally, the VCAs have been exclusive to fan-made music videos that primarily use animation from Japan, but in recent years, we've decided to open the competition up to all forms of animation. We've also added a "Best Use of Live Action Source" category to recognize fan-made music videos that use Live Action movies and shows.

How do I nominate videos?
To nominate a video, post a link to it in a nomination thread that you feel it is eligible for. The moderation team will then auto-nominate that video for every other category that we feel it fits in. When posting a link to a video, the original YouTube upload is highly preferred. Also, please ensure that the video first premiered in 2024. Each person's Nominations will be limited to 10 per category, and can't be revoked once submitted. Also, users will be limited to a maximum of 3 posts per category thread. Nominations after either your 3rd post or 10th video in a category thread will be discarded.

How do I vote?
Once the Nomination period is over, all nominated videos will be added to a Google form. To vote, you need to be logged into a Google account (YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, etc), and the voting form will use your profile to submit your responses anonymously. You can also return to the form as often as you like to update or change your vote. As long as you click the "SUBMIT" button, your responses will be recorded and remembered if you need to edit them later.

You can use the Google sheet links in each of the nomination threads to watch whatever videos were nominated for that category. To make finding videos as easy as possible, the document contains separate sheets sorted by each category. If you notice that a video is missing from the sheet or voting list, please let us know as soon as possible.

Nomination Categories
Videos must be nominated for these categories to be eligible for Round 1 voting

• Best Action, Most Artistic, Best Character Profile, Best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Fun, Best Use of Instrumental Music, Best Use of Live Action Source, Best Use of Multiple Sources, Most Original, Best Parody or Commercial, Best Romance, Best Rhythm & Dance, Best Sentimental, Best Short, Best Use of Special Effects, Best Storytelling, Best Thriller, Best Trailer

Non-nomination Categories
All videos and editors nominated for any category will be automatically eligible for Round 1 voting

• Video of the Year
• Editor of the Year

New for 2025:

• The maximum duration for videos nominated in the Shorts category has been reduced to 90 seconds.
• In addition to a maximum of 10 videos, users will be limited to a maximum of 3 posts per category thread.

VCA Schedule
Nominations: 02/06 - 02/19
Round 1 Voting: 02/21 - 03/05
Round 2 Voting: 03/07 - 03/19
Final Round Voting: 03/21 - 03/31

LIVE Stream of Results: 04/05 @ 8PM EST

All rounds will end on the scheduled day at 11:59 pm EST.

[Kireblue]

The Nomination Threads have been unlocked!
You're now able to start posting all of your favorite AMVs that premiered in 2024. The nomination period will end at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, February 19th.

[PerkyPastry]

Suggestion for next year, for the purpose of clarity, to amend the description for the instrumental category to:

"In this video, the editor shows their ability to interpret music by editing an outstanding video without depending on lyrics or spoken words."

I think this would help to minimize wrongful nominations because taking spoken lines of dialogue from the video footage's source material and placing it on top of an instrumental track is a very common editing style that I don't think the average person connects with the concept of "lyrics", and this addition would further clarify the spirit of the instrumental category.

[Kireblue]

Suggestion for next year, for the purpose of clarity, to amend the description for the instrumental category to:

"In this video, the editor shows their ability to interpret music by editing an outstanding video without depending on lyrics or spoken words."

I think this would help to minimize wrongful nominations because taking spoken lines of dialogue from the video footage's source material and placing it on top of an instrumental track is a very common editing style that I don't think the average person connects with the concept of "lyrics", and this addition would further clarify the spirit of the instrumental category.

Your suggestion has been accepted and the description for Instrumental has been amended.

[Kireblue]

Round 1 voting has officially begun!

To vote, you need to be logged into a Google account (YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, etc), and the voting form will use your profile to submit your responses anonymously. You can also go back to the form as many times as you like to update or change your votes. As long as you click the "SUBMIT" button, your responses will be saved and recorded if you need to edit them later. Voting will end on March 5th at 11:59 PM EST

Voting Form

Spoiler :

[Kireblue]

Round 1 voting is over......
and so the 2025 VCA Semifinals can now begin!

To vote, you need to be logged into a Google account (YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, etc), and the voting form will use your profile to submit your responses anonymously. You can also go back to the form as many times as you like to update or change your vote. As long as you click the "SUBMIT" button, your responses will be recorded and remembered if you need to edit them later.

Note: Due to the potential of votes accidentally being erased while using the "skip to" page function, the feature has been disabled.

All Semifinalists
Information/ Update Thread

Spoiler :

Voting Ends: 3/19
@ 11:59 PM ET

Voting Form

[Kireblue]

Round 2 voting is over......
and so the 2025 VCA Finals can now begin!

To vote, you need to be logged into a Google account (YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, etc), and the voting form will use your profile to submit your responses anonymously. You can also go back to the form as many times as you like to update or change your vote. As long as you click the "SUBMIT" button, your responses will be recorded and remembered if you need to edit them later.

Note: Due to the potential of votes accidentally being erased while using the "skip to" page function, the feature has been disabled.

All Finalists
Information/ Update Thread

Voting Ends: 3/31
@ 11:59 PM ET

Voting Form

[Kireblue]

We're watching the Finalists!
Join us today, March 29th @ 4 PM ET for a watch party of the VCA finalists.

Watch2Gether Room

[Kireblue]

The votes are in!

Tune in tomorrow (Saturday, 4/5) at 8PM ET to find out the winners of the 2025 Viewers' Choice Awards!