Love Drone Videos? Check Out the Winner and Finalists from Airvuz’s 2021 Drone Video Competition

Who doesn’t love drone videos?

AirVuz—a platform made exclusively for drone videos and photos—recently announced the winner of its annual Drone Video of the Year competition. To be considered, the video had to be shot by drone and had to be made in 2021.

There were two paths to being considered for Airvuz’s competition:

• Get voted video of the month. Every week, AirVuz selects a Drone Video of the Week from all the videos uploaded to its platform. These videos are then considered for Drone Video of the Month, and any video that gets selected for the month is automatically in the running for the Drone Video of the Year competition.
• Get chosen for a wildcard spot. In addition to the 12 videos selected through the above process, AirVuz chose eight wildcard videos, making for a total of 20 videos considered for the annual competition.

After identifying the 20 videos under consideration, AirVuz opened up voting for a single week to its community, and those votes determined who won.

The winning video was announced by drone racing champion Paul “Nurk” Nurkkala, who also sponsored the contest along with Catalyst Machineworks. (Check out the interview we did with Nurk when he won DRL’s 2018 Allianz World Championship.)

In the end, one winner and four finalists were selected from the 20 videos nominated—keep reading to see all five of these impressive drone videos.

[Note: The finalists are listed in no particular order.]

Overall Winner—The Juice

Where do I start? 1 year ago during quarantine I started flying FPV in which I spent nearly everyday working on the craft while the streets were empty. I needed to take the time I had off from my airline job of 5 years and use it wisely . . . this short film is the collection of amazing projects this last year of flying and in collaboration with the wizard Preston Chen we immerse you into the world of the FPV Matrix!

Details

• Creators: Reme Morales with Preston Chen (follow them on YouTube)
• Music: Good News by Apashe; Poison for Lovers by ARTY; Trinity Infinity by Don Davis

Finalist—DUTCH 2020 | Beauty around the corner

During the Covid-19 pandemic I was forced to explore my own country. “Dutch 2020” is a breathtaking journey through all seasons of Holland.

Details

• Creator: By Ewold (follow them on YouTube)
• Drones: Mavic Air 1 and Mavic Air 2
• Camera: Panasonic GH5
• Software: Final Cut Pro X; After Effects CC 2018; Cinema 4D
• Music: Fix You featuring Jadelyn by Danny Olson

Finalist—Red Notice FPV Drone Sequences

Check out my latest shots from Netflix’s new mega movie, Red Notice.

• Creator: Johnny Schaer, aka Johnny FPV (follow them on YouTube)
• Drone: Lumenier QAV—Johnny FPV Special Edition

Johnny FPV has made some incredible videos over the last few years—check out our favorites in this blog post.

Finalist—Sights Around The World

Here’s a drone reel ⁣⁣highlighting some of my favorite drone shots from my past travels around the world.

Details

• Creator: Merr Watson (follow them on YouTube and Instagram)
• Drones: Mavic 2 Pro, Phantom 4 Pro
• Software: Edited on Final Cut Pro X

Finalist—Right Up Our Alley

• Creator: Jay Christensen (follow them on YouTube and Instagram)

When Jay Christensen released this video in March of 2021 it went viral, racking up millions of views and getting attention from the New York Times and Hollywood directors. It also seems to have ushered in a cinewhoop craze—many more cinewhoops came out in 2021 after “Right Up Our Alley” came out.

Want to see more cinewhoops? Check out our picks for the top 11 cinewhoops of 2021.