Up until the world turned upside down and we started sheltering in place, the annual BJO AWARDS were awarded live at the TREKLANTA convention in Atlanta, GA. Last year, however, Treklanta was virtual, and the Bjo Awards didn’t happen. This left the 2020 Bjo Awards for eligible Star Trek fan films released in 2019 in a kind of limbo.
But Treklanta Chairman ERIC L. WATTS made the decision to still have the 2020 Bjo Awards…even if they happened a year late. And so, in the latter half of this year, eleven judges watched a total of 27 qualifying Star Trek fan films with a total run-time for all the films combined of 9 hours, 54 minutes, and 19 seconds. That’s a LOT of fan film binge-watching!
Although Treklanta was virtual once again this year (back in August), the winners were still announced live, but this time it was on the evening of December 11 at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS (home to the amazing STARSHIP FARRAGUT/STAR TREK CONTINUES TOS sets) during their fan appreciation weekend.
Although I typically don’t review Star Trek fan films, I do rate them here on a scale from DECENT EFFORT to PRETTY GOOD to HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to MUST SEE. This year, of the many, many Bjo Awards finalists, five fan films from 2019 made it to my highest MUST SEE level. Of those, three pretty much swept every category in this year’s Bjos—so the judges weren’t crazy (unless I’m crazy, too…a possibility that can’t be completely ruled out, of course).
As it happened, three individual fan filmmakers—British CGI Sensei SAMUEL COCKINGS, the fan film Wonder from Down Under AARON VANDERKLEY, and Arkansas Avalon Admin JOSH IRWIN were all “in attendance” to accept awards either on behalf of themselves or members of their team who weren’t there. In the case of the latter, Josh had driven down with Team Avalon members NEAL BILBE and PIXI NEREID (the latter co-hosting the awards with Eric Watts—see photo above). Sam and Aaron joined in via Zoom from their respective continents.
Speaking honesty, I would have preferred a bit more diversity in the winners, as only three fan films won everything. But when eleven judges are each working separately (and they were), if the majority really likes certain fan films more than others, those can become prominent in the judges’ scoring, and then you have the likelihood of runaway winners.
That said, I don’t feel that any winner did not deserve to win (although I am scratching my head a bit that Samuel Cockings won for the VFX in LINE OF DUTY (which had only a few space shots) and not for TEMPORAL ANOMALY (which had more than 50 starship shots and nearly all else was green screen compositing against gorgeous virtual CGI backgrouonds). But judges work in mysterious ways, I guess.
Anyway, I congratulate all of the winners as well as the finalists. I also congratulate everyone who qualified for the Bjos because, hey, YOU MADE A FAN FILM! That’s not an easy thing to do, so be proud.
A video of the zoom call live presentation can be viewed here on the Neutral Zone Studios Facebook page…
https://www.facebook.com/neutralzonestudios/videos/237296941819676
And finally, those nice plaques don’t pay for themselves…or cover their own international shipping costs. If you’d like to help keep the annual Bjo Awards living long and prospering, please consider becoming a patron with a dollar or two-a-month donation…
https://www.patreon.com/bjoawards
And now, without further ado, let’s get to the finalists and winners…
BEST SPECIAL & VISUAL EFFECTS
FINALISTS
AVALON LOST
Samuel Cockings, Joshua Michael Irwin
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Samuel Cockings, Joshua Michael Irwin
THE HOLY CORE
David Combe, Jim Riker, Gary O’Brien
LINE OF DUTY
Samuel Cockings
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Samuel Cockings
WINNER
LINE OF DUTY
Samuel Cockings
BEST SOUND DESIGN, EDITING & MIXING
FINALISTS
AVALON LOST
Joshua Michael Irwin
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Joshua Michael Irwin
THE HOLY CORE
Gary O’Brien
TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE: “The Looking Glass” (parts 1 and 2)
Cliff Stoner, Dan Scanlan, Michael Heath, Jr.
TO HAVE BOLDLY GONE (parts 1 and 2)
Dan Scanlan
WINNER
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Joshua Michael Irwin
BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC
FINALISTS
ALL ROADS LEAD TO HOME
Adam Mullen
AVALON LOST
Nicholas McFarland
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Nicholas McFarland
THE FEDERATION FILES: “The Equinox Effect”
Kevin McLeod
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Matt Milne
WINNER
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Nicholas McFarland
BEST HAIRSTYLING & MAKEUP
FINALISTS
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Emmanuel J. Rodriguez, Leah French, Victoria Fox, Heather Meré
BATTLECRUISER KUPOK: “A Matter of Trust”
Randall Landers, Ann Elliott Drew
THE FEDERATION FILES: “The Equinox Effect”
Leah French, Stephania Masco, Michelle Reynolds, K. T. Blessing
LINE OF DUTY
Sankari Sivaramalingam
WINNER
LINE OF DUTY
Sankari Sivaramalingam
BEST COSTUMING
FINALISTS
AVALON LOST
Joshua Michael Irwin, Victoria Fox
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Victoria Fox, Glen L. Wolfe
THE FEDERATION FILES: “The Equinox Effect”
Glen L. Wolfe, Emma Patricia Roberts
LINE OF DUTY
Gina Vanderkley
TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE: “The Looking Glass” (parts 1 and 2)
Stephanie Mann
WINNER
LINE OF DUTY
Gina Vanderkley
BEST GUEST ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
David Butler Agrinsonis as Excalibur Helmsman
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Lillian Cole as Captain Gaia Starr
BATTLECRUISER KUPOK: “A Matter of Trust”
Tracie Frank as Lt. Commander Pyper
DREADNOUGHT DOMINION: “Redemption at Red Medusa”
John Laws as James Laws
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Glen L. Wolfe as Captain Harris
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
WINNER
John Laws as James Laws
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
Victoria Archer as Engineer Jamie Archer
AVALON LOST
Victoria Fox as Bartley/T’Xi
BREAK FREE
Victoria Fox as Lt. Mary Bartley
SHAKEDOWN
Emma Long as Commander Eleanor
STAR TREK: UNITY – “The Lewis Inquiry”
Jessica Niven as Fletcher
LINE OF DUTY
Sankari Sivaramalingam as Doctor
LINE OF DUTY
Gill Sutton as President Jillian / Laura Lee
Emma Long as Commander Eleanor
STAR TREK: UNITY – “The Lewis Inquiry”
Paul Walenkamp as Captain
LINE OF DUTY
WINNER
Paul Walenkamp as Captain
LINE OF DUTY
BEST LEAD ACTOR OR ACTRESS
FINALISTS
Hannaj Bang Bendz as Cmdr Boltzmann
THE HOLY CORE
Mary Jane Blystone as Janessa Mitchell
ALL ROADS LEAD TO HOME
Marcus Churchill as Ensign Sam Harriman
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Victoria Fox as Commander Beck
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Juliet Godwin as Hero
LINE OF DUTY
Will Leach as Charlie
LINE OF DUTY
WINNER
Juliet Godwin as Hero
LINE OF DUTY
BEST ORIGINAL STORY OR SCREENPLAY
FINALISTS
AVALON LOST
Joshua Michael Irwin, Victoria Fox
THE HOLY CORE
Paul Laight, Gary O’Brien
LINE OF DUTY
Aaron Vanderkley
STARSHIP DEIMOS: “Children of Eberus”
Randall Landers
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Samuel Cockings
WINNER
THE HOLY CORE
Paul Laight, Gary O’Brien
BEST DIRECTOR
FINALISTS
Joshua Michael Irwin, Victoria Fox
AVALON LOST
Victoria Fox
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Aaron Vanderkley
LINE OF DUTY
Samuel Cockings
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Lawrence Fleming
TO HAVE BOLDLY GONE (parts 1 and 2)
WINNER
Aaron Vanderkley
LINE OF DUTY
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM (<30 min.)
FINALISTS
AVALON LOST
Joshua Michael Irwin, Victoria Fox
ELEVENTH HOUR
Vance Major
LINE OF DUTY
Aaron Vanderkley
STARSHIP DEIMOS: “Children of Eberus”
Randall Landers
WINNER
LINE OF DUTY
Aaron Vanderkley
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM (>30 min.)
FINALISTS
DEMONS (parts 1 and 2)
Joshua Michael Irwin, Victoria Fox
THE HOLY CORE
Alexander Mayer
TEMPORAL ANOMALY (parts 1 and 2)
Samuel Cockings, Alex Nikitin, Glen L. Wolf
WINNER
THE HOLY CORE
Alexander Maye
Absoluty fantastic results for The Holy Core. Thoroughly well deserved. Its a must see. I wish they would more.
Well done to all winners and finalists
Let me ask: you’re a fan of Sawyer’s “Starplex” (very Trek-y) novel, too? 😉
Love so many of the winners, especially Demons and Holy Core. Excellent films.
This was so fun to co-host — even I didn’t know the winners beforehand (Eric made sure to keep it a surprise!)
Congrats for all winners. Well deserved awards. Quasi-professional level of Trek making.
ps. If I can play the prophet: Bjo for Best Dramatic Presentation, or Best Story, or Best Director at last, will go to Pacific 201 (in 2021 edition), and to Squadron (in 2022) edition.
Both were excellent fan films, Kosst, and will likely be very hard to beat. But remember that Squadron will be going up against Interlude, Cosmic Stream, Agent of New Worlds, and Beyond the Sun…all of which will be tough competitors. I wouldn’t want to be a judge for the 2022 awards! 🙂