If smut, tweets about the weather and pictures of your breakfast make up fifty percent of the Internet, then cat videos and associated feline paraphernalia most certainly make up the other fifty percent. It’s a good thing then that the inaugural Internet Cat Video Film Festival (The Nyan Cat Oscars, the I Cannes Haz Cheezburger Of Cinema) was established earlier this year to highlight the best, brightest and most ridiculous in what is undoubtedly an already over-saturated field, and overnight the ICVFF chose its first winner.
Over 10,000 people turned out to watch a finely curated selection of the 10,000 cat videos submitted at the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis where The Golden Kitty People’s Choice award was given to Seattle filmmakers Will Braden’s existential nouvelle vague entry ‘Henri 2: Paw de Deux.’ Thirty-two year old Braden told The New York Times (Yes, this goes that high up) “This goes to show that the shared love of cat videos isn’t just a virtual thing, isn’t just a matter of a few clicks, but actually something people can share in real life. I think this legitimizes it.” Sure thing, Will.
The lifetime achievement award went to ‘Keyboard Cat‘ (obviously) and I’m sure Miranda July is still all kinds of cut up for not getting a nod for ‘The Future’ – surely the most expensive art house cat video of all time; that is, if you don’t include ‘Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.‘
