A feature video produced by RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service has been nominated for the prestigious Webby and Webby People’s Voice Awards.
Watch This Disabled Boy's World Change In Two Minutes is among five finalists in the Online Video/General Film/Reality category. Produced by Ulanbek Egizbaev, it comprises two videos filmed three months apart telling the story of a disabled teenager who relies on his friends to push him in his wheelchair everyday along the rugged path to school. In the second video, Egizbaev filmed the boy’s elation when he was surprised with a mechanized four-wheeler provided by an NGO to ease his journey.
RFE/RL’s digital team repackaged the video for social media and localized it in both English and Russian. The Russian version was shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook and the English version was picked up by numerous Western media.
As a nominee for the Webby official jury award, the video is also a contender for the Webby People’s Voice Award, selected by the voting public. Votes may be cast here until April 21 at 11:59 p.m./PST.
Two other RFE/RL entries were selected as Official Honorees in the 2016 competition. Desperate Honeymoon, a multimedia package by Multimedia Producer Ray Furlong, follows Syrian newlyweds as they make the arduous trek across the Balkans in search of a better life in Europe. RFE/RL’s Pangea Team, which manages the company’s content management system, was honored in the Mobile/News category for its responsive design.
Nearly 13,000 entries from 65 countries were submitted to this year’s Webby Awards and were judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, an organization based in New York that presents the prize. Winners will be announced April 26.
The Webby Awards are the leading international awards honoring excellence on the Internet.