Bricks in Motion Awards

The Bricks In Motion Awards (commonly abbreviated to BiMA or BiMAs) is an annual event held on Bricks In Motion to recognize notable brickfilms that excel in animation, storytelling, visual design, entertainment and artistic quality. The winners of each category are awarded with a (virtual) Bricks In Motion Award.

The BiMAs are similar in style to film industry award shows such as the BAFTAs or Oscars with films being nominated for a category in advance and then the winner being announced to a live audience. The 'live' winner's announcement of the BiMAs is usually done via IRC chat which has sometimes been accompanied with a video stream.

The Bricks in Motion Awards replaced the Brick Award for Film Arts (BAFAs) which ran for one year in 2008 starting on Brickfilms.com and later on Bricks in Motion (then known as ILoveBrickfilming.com), which in turn was a replacement for the Brickfilming Achievement in Motion Picture Arts awards (BAMPAs) which ran in 2006 and 2007 on Brickfilms.com.

2005 Brickfilming Achievement in Motion Picture Arts
The 2005 BAMPAs were created by Brickfilms.com member Scott Dombert. The winners were announced on March 19, 2006. The last reported judging panel was David West, Scott Dombert, Logan Wright, Toph Beach, "Watson Films", Loïc Desjardins, Saul Goode, Jay Silver, Rachel Dew, Nick Maniatis and Matthew Gray.

2006 Brickfilming Achievement in Motion Picture Arts
The 2006 BAMPAs were once again hosted by Scott Dombert. Nominees were announced on April 9, 2007 and winners were announced June 9, 2007. Changes from 2005 include: Best Overall Film was renamed to Best Film and Best Debut was replaced by Best Score. The last reported judging panel consisted of Michael J. Green, David West, Rachel Dew, Scott Dombert, Jay Silver, James Morr, Lewis Chen, Robert Graff, "Pip the Mighty", Stefan van Zwam and "Watson Films".

2007 Brick Award for Film Arts
The BAFA Awards, officially called the Brick Award for Film Arts 2008 but covering films released in 2007, the only one of its kind, was created by Mathew Buck to be a successor to the BAMPAs. Changes from the 2006 BAMPAs include: adding Best Director, splitting Best Visual Elements into Best Set Design and Best Visual Effects, renaming Best Score to Best Music, renaming Best Voice Acting Performance to Best Vocal Performance, and adding Best Ensemble Cast. Winners were announced March 22nd, 2008.

2008 Bricks in Motion Awards
The BAFA Awards were originally intended to return in 2009. Mathew Buck announced his intention in January 2009 to hand control of the awards over to a new host. Nathan Wells was selected as the new host soon afterwards. A thread was soon posted for forum users to suggest potential nominees for the forthcoming BAFAs. In February, Wells said the BAFAs were progressing slowly and could be months late, but would still happen. This was the last official word heard about the 2008 BAFAs. A successor to them, the Bricks in Motion Awards, was run in their place.

The Bricks in Motion Awards were created by Dylan Woodley as a successor to the BAFAs. They were announced on August 2, 2009, later in the year compared to preceding ceremonies owing to the aborted BAFAs earlier in the year. The members of the judging panel were Philip Heinrich, Jonathan Vaughan, Nikolas Jaeger, Evan Linsey, Jordan Harris, Dustin Finstrom, Zach Macias, Anthony D'Angelo, David Pagano and Dylan Woodley. The results were posted August 9, 2009.

2009 Bricks in Motion Awards
Dylan Woodley continued to host the 2009 Bricks in Motion Awards. Two new categories, Best Series and Viewers' Choice, were added. There was no specific judging panel. Instead, all members of the Bricks in Motion staff were allowed to submit a ballot for the awards. The nominations were announced on February 23, 2010 and the final results were announced on April 18, 2010.

The cancelled 2010 Bricks in Motion Awards
The 2010 Bricks in Motion Awards did not take place because its organizer Dylan Woodley only received 5 nomination ballots from the staff members of the site, and because of the lack of eligible voters. The lack of a 2010 awards came as a surprise to many users because Woodley had already announced the 2010 awards as happening and produced a short list of films for the Viewers Choice Award. It took 5 months after the closing of Viewer's Choice voting for official confirmation that the event was not happening.

The Viewers' Choice shortlist was:

2011 Bricks in Motion Awards
The Bricks in Motion Awards were momentarily revived for 2011 by Aaron Bulger. The nominees were announced on June 4, 2012 and the winners announced on June 23, 2012.

The Bricks in Motion Awards Hiatus
There were no Bricks in Motion Awards for 2012 and 2013.

2014 Bricks in Motion Awards
The 2014 Bricks in Motion Awards were run by Nathan Wells and Zach Macias. They were judged by Zach Macias, Nathan Wells, Seán Willis, Rachel Dew, Joseph Hayden and Graeme Allen, with additional help from Christian Colglazier and Philip Heinrich. The nominees were announced on March 23, 2015 and the winners were announced on June 13, 2015. Changes include the addition of the Best Editing category and the removal of the Best Series category, and removing the requirement that nominees must have been posted in the Bricks in Motion Releases forum. Viewer's Choice was not held due to time constraints.

2015 Bricks in Motion Awards
The 2015 Bricks in Motion Awards were again run by Nathan Wells and Zach Macias and were judged by Zach Macias, Nathan Wells, Seán Willis, Rachel Dew, Joseph Hayden and Jorden Davis, with additional help from Philip Heinrich. The nominees were announced on Februrary 29, 2016 and the winners were announced on April 30, 2016. The Viewers' Choice category returned in this year.