Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both works of film and of television but since 2003, it has been split into two categories: "Best Dramatic Presentation " and "Best Dramatic Presentation ". The Dramatic Presentation Awards are part of the broader Hugo Awards, which are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. The award has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction".
History
The award was first presented in 1958, and with the exceptions of 1964 and 1966 was given annually through 2002 when it was retired in favor of the newly created Dramatic Presentation and Dramatic Presentation categories, which divided the category depending on whether the work was longer or shorter than 90 minutes. In the 1964 and 1966 awards there were insufficient nominations made to support the category. Prior to 1971, the category was defined as including works from "radio, television, stage or screen", and thereafter was expanded to "any medium of dramatized science fiction or fantasy", resulting in the nomination of recorded songs and other works. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years prior in which no awards were given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have been awarded for 1939, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1951, and 1954; the 1946 and 1951 awards were for the Best Dramatic Presentation category while the 1939 and 1954 awards were for the Short Form category. There were insufficient nominations to support an award in the Long Form category for those years. The 1941 and 1944 awards were for both Long and Short Form.Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees, except in the case of a tie. The works on the ballot are the six most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of works that can be nominated. The 1958 awards did not include any recognition of runner-up magazines, but since 1959 all six candidates were recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works; it was changed that year to six, with each initial nominator limited to five nominations, and no more than two works per series allowed on the final ballot. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year. Members are permitted to vote "no award", if they feel that none of the nominees is deserving of the award that year, and in the case that "no award" takes the majority the Hugo is not given in that category. This has happened in the Dramatic Presentation category four times, in 1959, 1963, 1971, and 1977.
The award is typically for television and film presentations, but occasionally rewards works in other formats: in 1970 it was awarded to news coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, while in 1971 a concept album and a comedy album were nominated. Another comedy album was nominated the following year, and a slideshow was nominated in 1976. A radio play was nominated in 1979, and all of the 1939 Retro Hugo awards were for radio plays. In 2004, an acceptance speech from the 2003 MTV Movie Awards won the award, while in 2006, the ceremony for the Victor Hugo Award was nominated. An audiobook was nominated in 2009, another acceptance speech was nominated in 2012, a concept album was nominated in 2017, and a song was nominated in 2018.
During the 70 nomination years, 43 awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, 19 awards each for Short Form and Long Form, and 11 Retro Hugo awards have been given. The individual franchises with the most awards are the revived 2000s-era Doctor Who with 6 Short Form awards out of 34 nominations, The Twilight Zone with 3 Best Dramatic Presentation awards out of 4 nominations, Game of Thrones with 3 wins out of a long form and 5 short form nominations, and The Good Place with 2 wins out of 5 short form nominations. Other shows or series with multiple awards or nominations include the original Star Trek series with 2 wins out of 8 nominations, with 2 wins out of 3 nominations, and Babylon 5 with 2 wins out of 4 nominations. Less successful were Buffy the Vampire Slayer with 1 out of 6, Battlestar Galactica with 1 of 5, and Harry Potter with no awards after 7 nominations. The members of the hip hop group Clipping are the only musical artists to have earned two nominations for their works, first for their 2016 album Splendor & Misery and then for their 2017 song "The Deep".
Winners and nominees
In the following tables, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk next to the work's name have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list. Entries with a gray background and a plus sign mark a year when "no award" was selected as the winner. In the case of television presentations, the award is generally for a particular episode rather than for a program as a whole; however, sometimes, as in the case of The Twilight Zone, it was given for the series' body of work that year rather than for any particular episode.1958–2002
* Winner+ No winner selected
| Year | Work | Creator | Publisher | Ref. |
| 1958 | The Incredible Shrinking Man* | Jack Arnold, Richard Matheson | Universal Studios | |
| 1959 | + | |||
| 1959 | The 7th Voyage of Sinbad | Nathan Juran, Ken Kolb, Ray Harryhausen | Morningside Movies/Columbia Pictures | |
| 1959 | Dracula | Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster, Bram Stoker | Hammer Film Productions | |
| 1959 | The Fly | Kurt Neumann, James Clavell, George Langelaan | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1960 | The Twilight Zone* | Rod Serling | CBS | |
| 1960 | Men into Space | CBS | ||
| 1960 | Murder and the Android | Alex Segal, Alfred Bester | NBC | |
| 1960 | The Turn of the Screw | John Frankenheimer, James Costigan, Henry James | NBC | |
| 1960 | The World, the Flesh and the Devil | Ranald MacDougall, Ferdinand Reyher, M. P. Shiel | HarBel/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1961 | The Twilight Zone* | Rod Serling | CBS | |
| 1961 | The Time Machine | George Pal, David Duncan, H. G. Wells | Galaxy Films/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1961 | Village of the Damned | Wolf Rilla, Stirling Silliphant, Ronald Kinnoch | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1962 | The Twilight Zone* | Rod Serling | CBS | |
| 1962 | Thriller | NBC | ||
| 1962 | The United States Steel Hour: "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon" | James Yaffe, Daniel Keyes | CBS | |
| 1962 | Village of the Damned | Wolf Rilla, Stirling Silliphant, Ronald Kinnoch | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1962 | The Fabulous World of Jules Verne | Karel Zeman, František Hrubín, Jules Verne | Warner Bros. | |
| 1963 | + | |||
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Rod Serling | CBS | |
| 1963 | Last Year at Marienbad | Alain Resnais, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Adolfo Bioy Casares | Argos Films | |
| 1963 | The Day the Earth Caught Fire | Val Guest, Wolf Mankowitz | British Lion Films/Pax | |
| 1963 | Night of the Eagle | Sidney Hayers, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, George Baxt, Fritz Leiber | Anglo-Amalgamated/Independent Artists | |
| 1965 | Dr. Strangelove* | Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George | Hawk Films/Columbia Pictures | |
| 1965 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao | George Pal, Charles Beaumont, Charles G. Finney | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1967 | ': "The Menagerie |The Menagerie"* | Marc Daniels, Gene Roddenberry | Desilu Productions | |
| 1967 | ': "The Corbomite Maneuver" | Joseph Sargent, Jerry Sohl | Desilu Productions | |
| 1967 | ': "The Naked Time" | Marc Daniels, John D. F. Black | Desilu Productions | |
| 1967 | Fahrenheit 451 | François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, Helen G. Scott, Ray Bradbury | Anglo Enterprises/Vineyard | |
| 1967 | Fantastic Voyage | Richard Fleischer, Harry Kleiner, David Duncan, Jerome Bixby, Otto Klement | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1968 | ': "The City on the Edge of Forever"* | Joseph Pevney, Harlan Ellison | Desilu Productions | |
| 1968 | ': "Amok Time" | Joseph Pevney, Theodore Sturgeon | Desilu Productions | |
| 1968 | ': "Mirror, Mirror |Mirror, Mirror" | Marc Daniels, Jerome Bixby | Desilu Productions | |
| 1968 | ': "The Doomsday Machine |The Doomsday Machine" | Marc Daniels, Norman Spinrad | Desilu Productions | |
| 1968 | ': "The Trouble with Tribbles" | Joseph Pevney, David Gerrold | Desilu Productions | |
| 1969 | '* | Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1969 | The Prisoner: "Fall Out" | Patrick McGoohan | Everyman/ITC Entertainment | |
| 1969 | Charly | Ralph Nelson, Stirling Silliphant, Daniel Keyes | ABC Pictures/Selmer | |
| 1969 | Rosemary's Baby | Roman Polanski, Ira Levin | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1969 | Yellow Submarine | George Dunning, Al Brodax, Roger McGough, Jack Mendelsohn, Lee Minoff, Erich Segal | Apple Corps/Hearst/King Features Syndicate | |
| 1970 | News coverage of Apollo 11* | Multiple sources | Multiple publishers, NASA | |
| 1970 | The Bed Sitting Room | Richard Lester, John Antrobus, Charles Wood, John Antrobus, Spike Milligan | Oscar Lewenstein Productions | |
| 1970 | The Illustrated Man | Jack Smight, Howard B. Kreitsek, Ray Bradbury | SKM | |
| 1970 | The Immortal | Allen Baron, Joseph Sargent, Lou Morheim, Robert Specht, James Gunn | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1970 | Marooned | John Sturges, Mayo Simon, Martin Caidin | Columbia Pictures | |
| 1971 | + | |||
| 1971 | Blows Against the Empire | Paul Kantner | RCA Records | |
| 1971 | ' | Joseph Sargent, James Bridges, D. F. Jones | Universal Studios | |
| 1971 | Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers | The Firesign Theatre | Columbia Records | |
| 1971 | Hauser's Memory | Boris Sagal, Adrian Spies, Curt Siodmak | Universal Studios | |
| 1971 | No Blade of Grass | Cornel Wilde, Sean Forestal, Jefferson Pascal, John Christopher | Theodora/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1972 | A Clockwork Orange* | Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess | Hawk Films/Polaris/Warner Bros. | |
| 1972 | The Andromeda Strain | Robert Wise, Nelson Gidding, Michael Crichton | Universal Studios | |
| 1972 | I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus | The Firesign Theatre | Columbia Records | |
| 1972 | The Name of the Game: "L.A. 2017" | Steven Spielberg, Philip Wylie | Universal Studios/NBC | |
| 1972 | THX 1138 | George Lucas, Walter Murch | Warner Bros./American Zoetrope | |
| 1973 | Slaughterhouse-Five* | George Roy Hill, Stephen Geller, Kurt Vonnegut | Universal Studios | |
| 1973 | Between Time and Timbuktu | Fred Barzyk, Kurt Vonnegut | NET Playhouse/Public Broadcasting Service | |
| 1973 | The People | John Korty, James M. Miller, Zenna Henderson | American Zoetrope/ABC | |
| 1973 | Silent Running | Douglas Trumbull, Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, Steven Bochco | Universal Studios | |
| 1974 | Sleeper* | Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman | Rollins-Joffe/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists | |
| 1974 | Genesis II | John Llewellyn Moxey, Gene Roddenberry | Norway/Warner Bros. | |
| 1974 | The Six Million Dollar Man | Richard Irving, Tom Greene, Howard Rodman, Martin Caidin | Universal Studios | |
| 1974 | Soylent Green | Richard Fleischer, Stanley R. Greenberg, Harry Harrison | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1974 | Westworld | Michael Crichton | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1975 | Young Frankenstein* | Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Mary Shelley | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1975 | Flesh Gordon | Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm | Graffiti Productions | |
| 1975 | Phantom of the Paradise | Brian De Palma | Harbor/20th Century Fox | |
| 1975 | The Questor Tapes | Richard A. Colla, Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry | Universal Studios | |
| 1975 | Zardoz | John Boorman | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1976 | A Boy and His Dog* | Directed by L. Q. Jones, Wayne Cruseturner, Harlan Ellison | LQ/JAF | |
| 1976 | Dark Star | John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon | USC | |
| 1976 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Terry Gilliam Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin | Python Pictures | |
| 1976 | Rollerball | Norman Jewison, William Harrison | Algonquin/United Artists | |
| 1976 | The Capture | Robert Asprin, Phil Foglio | Boojums Press | |
| 1977 | + | |||
| 1977 | Carrie | Brian De Palma, Lawrence D. Cohen, Stephen King | Redbank/United Artists | |
| 1977 | Logan's Run | Michael Anderson, David Zelag Goodman, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1977 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Nicolas Roeg, Paul Mayersberg, Walter Tevis | British Lion Films | |
| 1977 | Futureworld | Richard T. Heffron, George Schenk, Mayo Simon | American International Pictures | |
| 1978 | Star Wars* | George Lucas | Lucasfilm | |
| 1978 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Steven Spielberg | Columbia Pictures/EMI Films | |
| 1978 | ' | Shelley Torgeson, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Roy Torgeson | Alternate Worlds Recordings | |
| 1978 | Wizards | Ralph Bakshi | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1978 | The Hobbit | Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr., Romeo Muller, J. R. R. Tolkien | Rankin/Bass | |
| 1979 | Superman* | Richard Donner, Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, Mario Puzo, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster | Alexander Salkind | |
| 1979 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Philip Kaufmann, W. D. Richter, Jack Finney | Solofilm/United Artists | |
| 1979 | The Lord of the Rings | Ralph Bakshi, Peter S. Beagle, Chris Conkling, J. R. R. Tolkien | Fantasy Films | |
| 1979 | Watership Down | Martin Rosen, Richard Adams | Nepenthe Productions | |
| 1979 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams, Geoffrey Perkins | BBC Radio 4 | |
| 1980 | Alien* | Ridley Scott, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1980 | The Black Hole | Gary Nelson, Jeb Rosebrook, Gerry Day, Bob Barbash, Richard H. Landau | The Walt Disney Company | |
| 1980 | The Muppet Movie | James Frawley, Jack Burns, Jerry Juhl | The Jim Henson Company/ITC Entertainment | |
| 1980 | ' | Robert Wise, Harold Livingstonn, Alan Dean Foster, Gene Roddenberry | Century/Paramount Pictures | |
| 1980 | Time After Time | Nicholas Meyer, Karl Alexander, Steve Hayes | Warner Bros. | |
| 1981 | The Empire Strikes Back* | Irvin Kershner, Leigh Bracket, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas | Lucasfilm | |
| 1981 | ' | Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | KCET/Public Broadcasting Service | |
| 1981 | Flash Gordon | Mike Hodges, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., Michael Allin, Alex Raymond | 20th Century Fox/De Laurentiis | |
| 1981 | The Lathe of Heaven | Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton, Diane English, Roger Swaybill, Ursula K. Le Guin | WNET/Public Broadcasting Service | |
| 1981 | The Martian Chronicles | Michael Anderson, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury | BBC/NBC | |
| 1982 | Raiders of the Lost Ark* | Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman | Lucasfilm | |
| 1982 | Dragonslayer | Matthew Robbins, Hal Barwood | Paramount Pictures/The Walt Disney Company | |
| 1982 | Excalibur | John Boorman, Rospo Pallenberg, Thomas Malory | Warner Bros. | |
| 1982 | Outland | Peter Hyams | Outland/The Ladd Company | |
| 1982 | Time Bandits | Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin | HandMade Films | |
| 1983 | Blade Runner* | Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher, David Peoples, Philip K. Dick | Blade Runner Partnership | |
| 1983 | The Dark Crystal | Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Gary Kurtz, David Odell | The Jim Henson Company/ITC Entertainment/Universal Studios | |
| 1983 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Steven Spielberg, Melissa Mathison | Amblin Entertainment/Universal Studios | |
| 1983 | Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior | George Miller, Terry Hayes, Brian Hannant | Kennedy Miller/Warner Bros. | |
| 1983 | ' | Nicholas Meyer, Jack B. Sowards, Harve Bennett, Samuel A. Peeples | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1984 | Return of the Jedi* | Richard Marquand, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas | Lucasfilm | |
| 1984 | Brainstorm | Douglas Trumbull, Philip Frank Messina, Robert Stitzel, Bruce Joel Rubin | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1984 | The Right Stuff | Philip Kaufmann, Tom Wolfe | The Ladd Company | |
| 1984 | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Jack Clayton, Ray Bradbury | Bryna/The Walt Disney Company | |
| 1984 | WarGames | John Badham, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1985 | 2010* | Peter Hyams, Arthur C. Clarke | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1985 | Dune | David Lynch, Frank Herbert | De Laurentiis/Universal Studios | |
| 1985 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis | Black Rhino/Columbia Pictures | |
| 1985 | The Last Starfighter | Nick Castle, Jonathan R. Betuel | Lorimar Productions/Universal Studios | |
| 1985 | ' | Leonard Nimoy, Harve Bennett | Cinema Group/Paramount Pictures | |
| 1986 | Back to the Future* | Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale | Amblin Entertainment/Universal Studios | |
| 1986 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown, Tom Stoppard | Embassy/Universal Studios | |
| 1986 | Cocoon | Ron Howard, Tom Benedek, David Saperstein | 20th Century Fox/Zanuck/Brown | |
| 1986 | Enemy Mine | Wolfgang Petersen, Edward Khmara, Barry B. Longyear | 20th Century Fox/King's Road | |
| 1986 | Ladyhawke | Richard Donner, Edward Khmara, Michael Thomas, Tom Mankiewicz, David Peoples | 20th Century Fox/Warner Bros. | |
| 1987 | Aliens* | James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1987 | The Fly | David Cronenberg, Charles Edward Pogue, George Langelaan | Brooksfilms/20th Century Fox | |
| 1987 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson, Terry Jones, Dennis Lee | Delphi/The Jim Henson Company/Lucasfilm/TriStar Pictures | |
| 1987 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz, Howard Ashman, Charles B. Griffith | The Geffen Film Company | |
| 1987 | ' | Leonard Nimoy, Harve Bennett, Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1988 | The Princess Bride* | Rob Reiner, William Goldman | Act III/20th Century Fox | |
| 1988 | Predator | John McTiernan, Jim Thomas, John Thomas | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1988 | RoboCop | Paul Verhoeven, Michael Miner, Edward Neumeier | Orion Pictures | |
| 1988 | ': "Encounter at Farpoint" | Corey Allen, D. C. Fontana, Gene Roddenberry | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1988 | The Witches of Eastwick | George Miller, Michael Cristofer, John Updike | Guber-Peters/Kennedy Miller/Warner Bros. | |
| 1989 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit* | Robert Zemeckis, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, Gary K. Wolf | Amblin Entertainment/Touchstone Pictures | |
| 1989 | Alien Nation | Graham Baker, Rockne S. O'Bannon | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1989 | Beetlejuice | Tim Burton, Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, Larry Wilson | Geffen/Warner Bros. | |
| 1989 | Big | Penny Marshall, Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1989 | Willow | Ron Howard, Bob Dolman, George Lucas | Imagine/Lucasfilm/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 1990 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* | Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Boam, George Lucas, Menno Meyjes | Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures | |
| 1990 | The Abyss | James Cameron | 20th Century Fox/Lightstorm/Pacific Western | |
| 1990 | The Adventures of Baron Munchausen | Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown, Rudolf Erich Raspe, Gottfried August Bürger | Allied Artists International/Columbia Pictures/Laura/Prominent | |
| 1990 | Batman | Tim Burton, Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren, Bob Kane | Guber-Peters/PolyGram/Warner Bros. | |
| 1990 | Field of Dreams | Phil Alden Robinson, W. P. Kinsella | Gordon/Universal Studios | |
| 1991 | Edward Scissorhands* | Tim Burton, Caroline Thompson | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1991 | Back to the Future Part III | Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale | Amblin Entertainment/Universal Studios | |
| 1991 | Ghost | Jerry Zucker, Bruce Joel Rubin | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1991 | Total Recall | Paul Verhoeven, Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Gary Goldman, Jon Povill, Philip K. Dick | Carolco Pictures/TriStar Pictures | |
| 1991 | The Witches | Nicolas Roeg, Allan Scott, Roald Dahl | The Jim Henson Company/Lorimar Productions | |
| 1992 | '* | James Cameron, William Wisher, Jr. | Carolco Pictures/Lightstorm/Pacific Western | |
| 1992 | The Addams Family | Barry Sonnenfeld, Caroline Thompson, Larry Wilson, Charles Addams | Orion Pictures/Paramount Pictures | |
| 1992 | Beauty and the Beast | Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Linda Woolverton | Silver Screen Partners/The Walt Disney Company | |
| 1992 | The Rocketeer | Joe Johnston, Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, William Dear, Dave Stevens, Denny Martin Flinn, Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1993 | ': "The Inner Light |The Inner Light"* | Peter Lauritson, Peter Allan Fields, Morgan Gendel | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1993 | Aladdin | Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio | The Walt Disney Company | |
| 1993 | Alien 3 | David Fincher, David Giler, Walter Hill, Larry Ferguson, Vincent Ward | 20th Century Fox/Brandywine | |
| 1993 | Batman Returns | Tim Burton, Daniel Waters, Sam Hamm, Bob Kane | PolyGram/Warner Bros. | |
| 1993 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Francis Ford Coppola, James V. Hart, Bram Stoker | American Zoetrope/Columbia Pictures | |
| 1994 | Jurassic Park* | Steven Spielberg, David Koepp, Michael Crichton | Universal Studios/Amblin Entertainment | |
| 1994 | Addams Family Values | Barry Sonnenfeld, Paul Rudnick, Charles Addams | Orion Pictures/Paramount Pictures | |
| 1994 | Babylon 5: "" | Richard Compton, J. Michael Straczynski | Babylonian Productions | |
| 1994 | Groundhog Day | Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin | Columbia Pictures | |
| 1994 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Henry Selick, Caroline Thompson, Michael McDowell, Tim Burton | Skellington Productions/Touchstone Pictures | |
| 1995 | ': "All Good Things... |All Good Things..."* | Winrich Kolbe, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1995 | Interview with the Vampire | Neil Jordan, Anne Rice | The Geffen Film Company | |
| 1995 | The Mask | Chuck Russell, Mike Werb, Michael Fallon, Mark Verheiden | Dark Horse Entertainment/New Line Cinema | |
| 1995 | Stargate | Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin | Carolco Pictures/Centropolis | |
| 1995 | Star Trek Generations | David Carson, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga, Rick Berman | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1996 | Babylon 5: "The Coming of Shadows"* | Janet Greek, J. Michael Straczynski | Babylonian Productions | |
| 1996 | Apollo 13 | Ron Howard, William Broyles, Jr., Al Reinert, Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger | Imagine Entertainment/Universal Studios | |
| 1996 | ': "The Visitor |The Visitor" | David Livingston, Michael Taylor | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1996 | Toy Story | John Lasseter, Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft | The Walt Disney Company/Pixar | |
| 1996 | 12 Monkeys | Terry Gilliam, David Peoples, Janet Peoples, Chris Marker | Atlas/Universal Studios | |
| 1997 | Babylon 5: "Severed Dreams"* | David J. Eagle, J. Michael Straczynski | Babylonian Productions | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin | 20th Century Fox/Centropolis | |
| 1997 | Mars Attacks! | Tim Burton, Jonathan Gems, Len Brown, Woody Gelman, Wally Wood, Bob Powell, Norman Saunders | Warner Bros. | |
| 1997 | ' | Jonathan Frakes, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga, Rick Berman | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1997 | ': "Trials and Tribble-ations" | Jonathan West, Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria, Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, Robert Hewitt Wolfe | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1998 | Contact* | Robert Zemeckis, James V. Hart, Michael Goldenberg, Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan | SouthSide Amusement/Warner Bros. | |
| 1998 | The Fifth Element | Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen | Gaumont Film Company/Columbia Pictures | |
| 1998 | Gattaca | Andrew Niccol | Columbia Pictures/Jersey | |
| 1998 | Men in Black | Barry Sonnenfeld, Ed Solomon, Lowell Cunningham | Amblin Entertainment/Columbia Pictures/McDonald/Parkes | |
| 1998 | Starship Troopers | Paul Verhoeven, Edward Neumeier, Robert A. Heinlein | Touchstone Pictures/TriStar Pictures | |
| 1999 | The Truman Show* | Peter Weir, Andrew Niccol | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1999 | Babylon 5: "Sleeping in Light" | J. Michael Straczynski | Babylonian Productions | |
| 1999 | Dark City | Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer | New Line Cinema | |
| 1999 | Pleasantville | Gary Ross | New Line Cinema | |
| 1999 | ' | Jonathan Frakes, Michael Piller, Rick Berman | Paramount Pictures | |
| 2000 | Galaxy Quest* | Dean Parisot, David Howard, Robert Gordon | DreamWorks | |
| 2000 | Being John Malkovich | Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman | Gramercy Pictures/Propaganda Films/Single Cell | |
| 2000 | The Iron Giant | Brad Bird, Tim McCanlies, Ted Hughes | Warner Bros. | |
| 2000 | The Matrix | Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski | Silver Pictures | |
| 2000 | The Sixth Sense | M. Night Shyamalan | Hollywood Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment/Kennedy/Marshall | |
| 2001 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* | Ang Lee, Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus, Tsai Kuo Jung, Wang Dulu | China Film Group Corporation | |
| 2001 | Chicken Run | Peter Lord, Nick Park, Kary Kirkpatrick, Randy Cartwright | Aardman Animations/Allied Artists International/DreamWorks | |
| 2001 | Frank Herbert's Dune | John Harrison, Frank Herbert | New Amsterdam | |
| 2001 | Frequency | Gregory Hoblit, Toby Emmerich | New Line Cinema | |
| 2001 | X-Men | Bryan Singer, David Hayter, Tom DeSanto | 20th Century Fox/Marvel Studios | |
| 2002 | * | Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, J. R. R. Tolkien | New Line Cinema/The Saul Zaentz Company/WingNut Films | |
| 2002 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Chris Columbus, Steve Kloves | 1492 Pictures/Heyday Films/Warner Bros. | |
| 2002 | Monsters, Inc. | Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich, Dan Gerson, Andrew Stanton, Jill Culton, Ralph Eggleston Jeff Pidgeon | Pixar/The Walt Disney Company | |
| 2002 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Once More, with Feeling" | Joss Whedon | Fox Television Studios/Mutant Enemy Productions | |
| 2002 | Shrek | Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, Roger S. H. Schulman, Edmund Fong, Ken Harsha | DreamWorks/Pacific Data Images |
2003–present
Starting with the 2003 awards, the Dramatic Presentation award was split into two categories: Best Dramatic Presentation and Best Dramatic Presentation. The Long Form award is for "a dramatized production in any medium, including film, television, radio, live theater, computer games or music. The work must last 90 minutes or longer " in the official Hugo Award rules. The Short Form award is for "a dramatized production in any medium, including film, television, radio, live theater, computer games or music. The work must last less than 90 minutes " in the official Hugo Award rules. An individual work such as a television show can be nominated for a season in the Long Form category or for individual episodes in the Short Form, though not for both in the same year; as of 2017, a single show is additionally limited to two nominations in the Short Form category per year.Long Form
Short Form
Retro Hugos
Beginning with the 1996 Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Society created the concept of "Retro Hugos", in which the Hugo award could be retroactively awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years in which a Worldcon was hosted, but no awards were originally given. The 1939, 1941, and 1943—1945 awards were given 75 years later; the other three awards were given 50 years later. In 1946 and 1951, an award was given for Best Dramatic Presentation, as the category had not yet been split, while in 1939, 1943, 1945, and 1954 an award was given for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. The Long Form category did not receive enough nominations for an award to be given in those years. The 1941 and 1944 Retro Hugos awarded both Long and Short Forms.| Year | Year awarded | Work | Creator | Publisher | Ref. | |||
| 1939 | 2014 | The War of the Worlds* | Orson Welles, H.G. Wells | The Mercury Theatre on the Air/CBS | ||||
| 1939 | 2014 | Around the World in Eighty Days | Orson Welles, Jules Verne | The Mercury Theatre on the Air/CBS | ||||
| 1939 | 2014 | A Christmas Carol | Orson Welles, Charles Dickens | The Campbell Playhouse/CBS | ||||
| 1939 | 2014 | Dracula | Orson Welles, John Houseman, Bram Stoker | The Mercury Theatre on the Air/CBS | ||||
| 1939 | 2014 | R.U.R. | Jan Bussell, Karel Čapek | BBC | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Fantasia* | Samuel Armstrong et al., Joe Grant, Dick Huemer | Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Dr. Cyclops | Ernest B. Schoedsack, Tom Kilpatrick | Paramount Pictures | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe | Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor, George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, Barry Shipman | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | One Million B.C. | Hal Roach, Hal Roach, Jr., Mickell Novack, George Baker, Joseph Frickert | United Artists | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | The Thief of Bagdad | Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan, Lajos Bíró, Miles Malleson | London Films, United Artists | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Pinocchio* | Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Ted Sears et al. | Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | The Adventures of Superman: "The Baby from Krypton" | Frank Chase, George Ludlam | WOR | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | The Invisible Man Returns | Joe May, Kurt Siodmak, Lester Cole | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Looney Tunes: "You Ought to Be in Pictures" | Friz Freleng, Jack Miller | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1941 | 2016 | Merrie Melodies: "A Wild Hare" | Tex Avery, Rich Hogan | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | Bambi* | David Hand et al., Perce Pearce, Larry Morey et al., Felix Salten | The Walt Disney Company | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | Cat People | Jacques Tourneur, DeWitt Bodeen, Val Lewton | RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | The Ghost of Frankenstein | Erle C. Kenton, W. Scott Darling | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | I Married a Witch | René Clair, Robert Pirosh, Marc Connelly, Thorne Smith | Cinema Guild Productions / Paramount Pictures | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | Invisible Agent | Edwin L. Marin, Curtis Siodmak | Frank Lloyd Productions / Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1943 | 2018 | Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book | Zoltan Korda, Laurence Stallings, Rudyard Kipling | Alexander Korda Films / United Artists | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Heaven Can Wait* | Ernst Lubitsch, Samson Raphaelson | 20th Century Fox | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Batman | Lambert Hillyer, Victor McLeod, Leslie Swabacker, Harry L. Fraser | Columbia Pictures | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Cabin in the Sky | Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley, Joseph Schrank | MGM | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | A Guy Named Joe | Victor Fleming, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Dalton Trumbo | MGM | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Münchhausen | Josef von Báky, Erich Kästner, Rudolph Erich Raspe | UFA | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Phantom of the Opera | Arthur Lubin, Eric Taylor, Samuel Hoffenstein, Hans Jacoby | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man* | Roy William Neil, Curt Siodmak | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | The Ape Man | William Beaudine, Barney A. Sarecky | Banner Productions | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Der Fuehrer's Face | Jack Kinney, Joe Grant, Dick Huemer ) | The Walt Disney Company | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | I Walked With a Zombie | Jacques Tourneur, Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray | RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | The Seventh Victim | Mark Robson, Charles O'Neal, DeWitt Bodeen | RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1944 | 2019 | Merrie Melodies: "Super-Rabbit" | Charles M. Jones, Tedd Pierce | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1945 | 2020 | The Canterville Ghost | Jules Dassin, Edwin Harvey Blum, Oscar Wilde | 2020 | The Curse of the Cat People | Gunther V. Fritsch, Robert Wise, DeWitt Bodeen | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| 1945 | 2020 | Donovan's Brain | William Spier, Robert L. Richards, Curt Siodmak | CBS Radio Network | ||||
| 1945 | 2020 | The House of Frankenstein | Erle C. Kenton, Edward T. Lowe Jr., Curt Siodmak | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1945 | 2020 | The Invisible Man's Revenge | Ford Beebe,, Bertram Millhauser | Universal Pictures | ||||
| 1945 | 2020 | It Happened Tomorrow | René Clair, Dudley Nichols | Arnold Pressburger Films | ||||
| 1946 | 1996 | The Picture of Dorian Gray* | Albert Lewin, Oscar Wilde | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | ||||
| 1946 | 1996 | Blithe Spirit | David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame, Noël Coward | United Artists | ||||
| 1946 | 1996 | The Body Snatcher | Robert Wise, Philip MacDonald, Val Lewton, Robert Louis Stevenson | RKO Radio Pictures | ||||
| 1946 | 1996 | The Horn Blows at Midnight | Raoul Walsh, Sam Hellman, James V. Kern | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1946 | 1996 | House of Dracula | Erle C. Kenton, Edward T. Lowe, Jr. | Universal Studios | ||||
| 1951 | 2001 | Destination Moon* | Irving Pichel, Alford Van Ronkel, James O'Hanlon, Robert A. Heinlein | George Pal Productions | ||||
| 1951 | 2001 | Cinderella | Clyde Geronimi Wilfred Jackson Hamilton Luske Ken Anderson, Homer Brightman, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Harry Reeves, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Charles Perrault | The Walt Disney Company | ||||
| 1951 | 2001 | Harvey | Henry Koster, Oscar Brodney, Myles Connolly, Mary Chase | Universal Studios | ||||
| 1951 | 2001 | Looney Tunes: "Rabbit of Seville" | Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1951 | 2001 | Rocketship X-M | Kurt Neumann, Dalton Trumbo, Orville H. Hampton | Lippert Pictures | ||||
| 1954 | 2004 | The War of the Worlds* | Byron Haskin, Barré Lyndon, H. G. Wells | Paramount Pictures | ||||
| 1954 | 2004 | The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms | Eugène Lourié, Louis Morheim, Fred Freiberger, Ray Bradbury | Mutual Pictures/Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1954 | 2004 | Merrie Melodies: "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" | Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese | Warner Bros. | ||||
| 1954 | 2004 | Invaders from Mars | William Cameron Menzies, Richard Blake, John Tucker Battle | National Pictures/20th Century Fox | ||||
| 1954 | 2004 | It Came from Outer Space | Jack Arnold, Harry Essex, Ray Bradbury | Universal Studios |