UK Filk Awards
| Award | |
|---|---|
| Name: | UK Filk Awards |
| Date(s): | 1999-present |
| Frequency: | Every year at the UK Filk con. |
| Format: | Voted by convention members |
| Type: | Filk |
| Associated Community: | The UK Filk community |
| Fandom: | Filk |
| URL: | The UK Filk Awards |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Sams
The Sams[1] are a set of awards presented every year at the UK February Filk Convention[2]. They have been run every year since 1999, although they not awarded in 2021, as the virtual convention was not run as a solo event and it would have been too complicated to administer.
The awards themselves are artist mannequins personalised to the theme of that year's convention (as far as possible). These are made by Ωmega.
Nominations are made over the course of the convention and then voted on over a few hours on the Sunday. They are then presented at the end of the convention, followed by a concert of the winners.
Between 1999 and 2003 the Sams were administered by Phil Allcock, before Melusine took over in 2004. She is still currently the administrator.
Categories
There are four awards given at the Sams:
- Best Silly (for a humorous or silly song written in the past four years)
- Best Serious (for a straight-forward or serious song written in the past four years)
- Filk Gold (any filk song written more than 4 years ago)
- At Con (for the best/more entertaining performance over the course of the convention)
The 'At Con' award is the only one given to a performer, all others are given to the song writer/s. It is also the only award that can allow a song to win more than once: once a song wins Best Silly, Best Serious, or Filk Gold it becomes ineligible in all of those categories moving forward.
Past Awards
The UK Filk Awards
Before the Sams, awards were presented at three UK Filk Conventions as 'The UK Filk Awards'. These were presented in 1990[3] and 1994[4], administrated by Valerie Housden, and 1998[5], administered by Erica Neely.
The Filklore Award
Between 2000 and 2003 the Filklore award[6], also known as the "Nellie" was awarded by Chris Malme for the best set of lyrics posted to the Filk UK email mailing list. After this point, the number of lyrics posted to the mailing list died down and there were no longer enough for it to be awarded.