It was the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2012, they’ve become our preferred way to communicate instead of “expressing” our “feelings” like “real human beings”, and once your parents figure out how to use them in emails your life will be ruined forever. We are, of course, talking about the .GIF; the most-loved file type on the internet that now has its own version of the Grammy’s. Introducing The .GIFYs: the world’s first award’s show dedicated to the Graphics Interchange Format.

According to HuffPost, The .GIFYs were curated by a self-proclaimed “elite panel of internet experts” made up of writers from Buzzfeed and Gawker who nominated their top 10 .GIFs of 2013 to cull down to the final nominations list. There’s five nominees across 11 categories, which include Can’t Look Away, Film + TV and Animals (plus a whole separate category for Cats), and the winners get voted for by the public. The booths are open now, so make sure you head to The GIFYs’ official website to have your say in the most important democratic election in internet history.

We went through each category and decided our personal favourites that truly stole our very, very short attention spans and reduced us to moths on a flame. Can’t. Stop. Watching.:

Animals
Literally me when I’m at Hungry Jacks at 4am and can’t afford my own chips.

Can’t Look Away
If you look carefully, the sunglasses somehow manage to bounce back into the boat. Yellow bikini girl gets a happy ending.

Cats
A scarily accurate depiction of my sporting ability.

Film + TV
*Emotions by Destiny’s Child plays softly in the distance*

Mashup
Like all memes hijacked by pre-teens on Facebook, Doge has become a little bit stale but that’s not to say it doesn’t deserve its rightful recognition. So 2013, wow, etc.

Nature + science
Were fish-related .GIFs the most under-appreciated trend of 2k13?

News + Politics
The middle guy’s face, tho.

Sports
Knowshon Monero puts all dramatic mascara-running-down-cheek crying scenes to shame. And Yung Lean thinks he’s a sad boy?

WTF
Filed under: how it feels to use public transport. (Or, for Melburnians, how it feels to use myki.)

GIF of the Year
2013: The Year of Yoncé. She came (from nowhere and possibly on a surfbort), she saw, she conquered. Bow down, bitches.

More .GIFs

.GIF recap: Golden Globe Awards 2014
Romain Laurent’s animated portraits
Visual art: Zach Dougherty’s .GIFs