NEW YORK -- The Webby Awards announced its honorees Tuesday, with Michel Gondry named as the film and video person of the year.

The director received the nod for his film "Be Kind Rewind," which the Webbys acknowledged as "a celebration of low budget do-it-yourself filmmaking."

Other special achievement honorees include Stephen Colbert, who was named Webby person of the year. The star of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" launched comedic campaigns based around Google and Wikipedia and started a Facebook group dedicated to his presidential bid.

Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas was honored as Webby artist of the year in recognition of his pro-Barack Obama music video, "Yes We Can." (Watch the video below.)

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim -- the stars and creators of Adult Swim's "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" -- were honored as best actor for their work on TimAndEric.com.

Multiple winners in the online film and video categories include the Onion News Network, which won five awards, My Damn Channel, which won three awards for "You Suck at Photoshop" and one for director David Wain's ("Wet Hot American Summer") "Wainy Days," and NYTimes.com and PBS' Frontline/World, which each took two awards.

National Geographic, G4TV, Discovery Channel and TomGreen.com also were awarded in online video categories.

The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The awards ceremony for the film and video categories is June 9 in New York.

There also are categories for Web sites, interactive advertising and mobile offerings. Those awards will be presented June 10 at the 12th annual Webby Awards Gala.

Stephen Colbert, will.i.am get Webbys

Michel Gondry named film, video person of the year

By Alex Woodson

May 6, 2008, 01:31 PM