While the Oscars are behind us, the awards season is never truly over.

For science-fiction fans, attention is turned to the Hugo Awards, presented every year at the World Science Fiction Society, whose convention is being held this year in Reno, Nevada beginning Aug. 17.

The Hugo Awards, given every year since 1955, were named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of one of the first science-fiction magazines, Amazing Stories. They are presented by the WSFS in several categories, both print and multimedia.

The list of winners in the dramatic presentation categories reads like a who's who in the genre, including “Star Trek” which beat out “Fahrenheit 451” and “Fantastic Voyage” in 1967, and was the sole nominee in 1968; both “2001: A Space Odyssey” and its sequel, “2010”; “Young Frankenstein,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (two years), “Babylon 5” (two years), “Back to the Future,” “Jurassic Park,” Star Wars IV, V, and VI, and multi-year winner, “Doctor Who,” and ABC, NBC, and CBS in 1970 for their coverage of the Lunar Landing, just to name a few.

In 2003, the category was separated into separate short and long form awards, which allowed movies to be judged separately from their television counterparts. In the long form category, the Lord of the Rings movies and “Serenity,” became winners of the prized rocket trophy since that was done, with “Moon” winning last year.

In the long form category, the following films have been nominated this year:

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“Inception”
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”
“Toy Story 3”

This is going to be a toss up. Fans of the boy wizard will be pulling for him to finally win a Hugo, but frankly, I think the best bets are going to be “Inception,” especially after the snubbing it took at the Oscars, and “Toy Story 3.”

Since being separated from the movies in 2003, winners of the short form award have included “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (beating out spinoff “Angel” that year), “Battlestar Galactica,” and every year since 2006, the winner has been an episode of “Doctor Who.” That is except for 2009 when the Evil League of Evil managed to snatch the award away from the Time Lord and give it to another Doctor, in this case, "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

This year, the nominees for the short form award are:

“Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol”
“Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang”
“Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor”
“The Lost Thing”
“Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury"

This category would seen to be locked up for The Doctor to win again at first glance. Of the three, the one I think is the strongest contender is Steven Moffat's absolutely brilliant story of “A Christmas Carol” that was not only very well written, but featured absolutely wonderful performances by Matt Smith, Michael Gambon and singer Katherine Jenkins whose incredible voice was a highlight of the show.

However, along with three Tardis adventures is the 2011 Oscar winner for Best Animated Short Film, “The Lost Thing,” about a boy who befriends a fantastic red creature. I have only one thing to say about the fifth nominee in this category, “Fuck Me Ray Bradbury” -- is this someone's idea of a joke?

There are other nominees in the print form and multimedia field that you can check out by clicking this link. The voting will begin shortly, and in August we'll find out which nominee gets to take home a shiny rocket trophy home from Reno.