AirVuz has been celebrating the most effective drone video content material because it launched in Minneapolis in 2015, and The Drone Lady has been alongside for the journey nearly for the reason that starting — from judging the annual contest to attending the dwell awards ceremony in particular person again when it was nonetheless a Minneapolis winter occasion. And as soon as once more, I used to be a choose for the AirVuz 2025 Drone Video of the 12 months contest, and the outcomes are in.
The 2025 area displays two clear developments: the continued dominance of cinematic journey footage, and the regular rise of FPV as a severe inventive self-discipline slightly than only a area of interest sport.
AirVuz is a aerial video-focused web site that has grown to grow to be one of many largest drone video communities on the earth. Its annual Video of the 12 months contest is among the key benchmark for what’s potential in aerial filmmaking. Listed here are the winners, how they have been chosen and the way you would possibly win subsequent yr.
How the competition works
Each video you add to AirVuz.com is routinely entered into the weekly Drone Video of the Week contest — no further steps required. Every week, 5 movies are chosen and one wins $250. That weekly winner advances to a month-to-month contest, the place one other spherical of voting awards an extra $500. Month-to-month winners routinely earn a spot within the year-end contest.
From there, the AirVuz group opinions high-ranking movies from all year long and selects 30 extra wild playing cards to spherical out the sector. This yr’s pool was 42 nominated movies, judged by an exterior panel together with yours really. Different judges included my associates Elena Buenrostro of Ladies Who Drone, prolific author and photographer Kara Murphy and Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE.com. All of us voted utilizing star score throughout a number of standards.
Based on AirVuz, seven of the 9 acknowledged movies have been wild playing cards — which means the judges continuously diverged from the inner group’s preferences. Entry is totally free.
Oh, and by the best way, the 2026 contest is already underway, which means something you add now might win subsequent subsequent.
The 2025 AirVuz winner
Muhamad AbuShakra took high honors for the AirVuz 2025 drone contest with “Namibia | Land of Contrasts”, an aerial portrait of the southwest African nation filmed over 14 days. The video strikes from the Namib Desert (one of many oldest on Earth) to the Atlantic shoreline the place the desert runs straight into the ocean, to the rusted shipwreck Zella half-buried within the sand at Henties Bay, to safari wildlife footage that rounds out the portrait of a rustic that doesn’t get almost sufficient consideration from drone pilots.
The runners-up
Jay Christensen of JayByrd Movies earned a runner-up spot with “When You Fly – JayByrd Movies Reel”. Christensen is among the pioneers of cinematic FPV content material creation, and his resume consists of main consumer names such because the MLB All-Star Recreation, the White Home and U2 concert events contained in the Las Vegas Sphere. His bowling alley video stays one of many most-watched drone movies ever made. Should you haven’t seen his work earlier than, this reel is an efficient place to begin.
Makhorov took the second runner-up spot with “The North Pole Journey”, which was filmed from a Russian icebreaker at one of the vital distant places on Earth. The North Pole sits atop an Arctic Ocean almost 14,000 toes deep, lined by constantly-shifting ice.
The finalists
Timelab.professional introduced a drone tour of Kazan, Russia — a reputation Drone Lady readers will acknowledge, as Timelab.professional received the very first AirVuz Drone Video of the 12 months again in 2017 with aerial footage of Moscow. Practically a decade later, they’re nonetheless within the finals.
Different finalists included:
- FADAH_FPV, who captured Greenland’s icebergs.
- Eneour, who filmed Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago with a Purple Komodo, a DJI Mavic 3 Professional, and a GoPro on an FPV drone.
- onlythenico created “Iceland: A Symphony of Seasons” — hitting Gullfoss waterfall, the Dynjandí waterfall, the Vatnajökull icecap, the Dyrhólaey rock arch, the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, and an erupting volcano throughout 5 minutes.
- Skynamic — one other returning title from the 2023 contest — delivered an FPV flythrough of the Thyssenkrupp metal manufacturing facility in Duisburg, Germany, one of many nice heavy industrial websites in Europe.
- zimydakid rounds out the finalists with “The Nice Open air.”
What’s value watching on this yr’s area
The AirVuz 2025 contest is proof that FPV has matured from a racing pastime right into a respectable cinematic device. And I anticipate 2026 to be much more attention-grabbing. The Antigravity A1 — the world’s first 360-degree FPV drone — launched in late 2025.
After which after all, the DJI Avata 360 arrived in March 2026. Each drones seize full spherical footage in flight and permit pilots to reframe any perspective in publish.
Filmmakers who enter contests like this one can have widespread entry to a completely new inventive device versus the same old slate of recent drones that are usually nothing greater than a small spec improve. With these new drones, which supply the power to seize each angle concurrently then select your framing after the actual fact, anticipate to see extra prospects that weren’t obtainable to any of this yr’s finalists. Whether or not that interprets into higher contest entries or simply completely different ones is an open query, however anticipate the 2026 area to look meaningfully completely different from what we’ve seen earlier than.
For now, congratulations to Muhamad AbuShakra, Jay Christensen, Makhorov, and all of the finalists and nominees. You possibly can watch all of the profitable movies on AirVuz’s web site right here.
And simply keep in mind, each add to AirVuz.com is routinely within the operating for subsequent yr’s contest — and it’s free.
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