It’s party time again! Thanks to the World Science Fiction Society, Worldcon 2009 is about to happen, from the 6th to the 10th of August. This time around, it takes place in Montreal, Canada, and goes by the name AnticipationSF. As always, it will include presentation of the Hugo Awards and the Campbell Award, as well as the Chesley Awards (and you might enjoy reading the Crotchety Old Fan’s Hugo Winner Prediction). Since this years Worldcon is also Canvention 29, the Aurora Awards will be handed out there as well. There will be the usual world-class writers workshops, the rather insane Masquerade, and so much more I can’t decide what to mention next. So I will just do the Masquerade historical reminder; Cosplay was invented by Forrest J Ackerman and his friend Myrtle R. Jones at the very first Worldcon in 1939. He came dressed in a space suit, while she wore a gown recreated from the classic 1933 film Things to Come (written by H.G. Wells, the movie was staged for 1936, and only 6 years in the past at the point the convention occurred). Neil Gaiman is the Guest of Honor this year, and Tom Doherty is the Publisher Guest of Honor. You gotta love Worldcon!!!
The Emmy Award Nominations this year include a lot of SF/F, including 6 nominations for Battlestar Galactica, 5 for Lost, and 3 for True Blood. Also up for awards are the canceled shows Life on Mars and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as well as the ongoing Fringe, Heroes, Smallville, and Sanctuary. You can see the full listing here.
This one looks better every time I see a new trailer. You can see them all at the Planet 51 official website, so you will know if you want to see it come November. And then there is the trailer for Tokyo!, the movie William Gibson tweeted about today (or yesterday, depending on your time zone), also looking very interesting. Robert J Sawyer, who already holds a number of awards, including the Hugo and Nebula, is up for another one. The Aurora Awards has his short story collection Identity Theft and other stories on the short list for Best Long-Form Work In English. Until the voting ends, you can read it online here.
We are 3 weeks away from Comic-Con 2009, the big one in San Diego, and it is already sold out. Which means I will be watching it on TV and watching and listening to the many podcasts and vlogs. As always, they will be doing the Eisner Awards as well as a number of other awards presentations. Hollywood will be out in force promoting all the new genre related movies, and they will be running multiple film festivals. It runs the 22nd through 26th of July, with a preview night on the 22nd. Also on the 22nd will be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, and you can watch it live online. Another presentation of the IYA2009 ongoing event, this contribution is being hosted by the Chinese scientific community.
It was just announced that this years Oscars will be expanded to 10 entries for the Best Picture top prize. Hopefully that will allow room for more genre films next year. The same source (Airlock Alpha) reports that Blue Is Zod for Smallville.
The British Fantasy Society has announced the 2009 nominees for the British Fantasy Awards 2009. A few of the folks up for the competition include Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book, Interzone and SFX, both for Best Magazine, Doctor Who for best TV Program, and both Iron Man and The Dark Night are up for best movie. The awards will be presented at Fantasycon 2009 in September.