2022 Drone Video of the Year Honorable Mentions

The best drone pilots share their videos on AirVuz, and 2022, we were thrilled to have so many to be able to celebrate!  Not only are we celebrating the amazing flights, the creative edits, and the edgy content, we're also celebrating the great personalities, representatives of the hobby / profession, and generally great friends to all in our community.  This reel shows off these pilots and hopefully inspires them to keep on creating the content and energy that makes our job at AirVuz so much fun. Cheers to these Honorable Mentions! 

Prepare to be blown away by these stunning drone views from the massive North Atlantic island of Greenland, compliments of former DVOW Winner haussmannvisuals.  The video was filmed over the area around the iceberg-filled Ilulissat Icefjord, a large fjord system located on the island's western coast, just south of the fjord's namesake town (and the Danish-controlled island's third-largest settlement).   Due to the ecological importance of the fjord and the Jakobshavn Glacier that feeds it, it's part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

Top AirVuz contributor Freeway Prod is one of the top aerial videography firms in France.  They regularly perform some of the highest-profile and most challenging work in the country, including shoots for the Tour de France, various French TV shows, and more.  In this amazing reel, you will see some of the highlights of their work from the year 2021.  The action-packed reel will take you across France, from the Eiffel Tower to the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame to the South of France. 

Prepare to be amazed by this stunning first person view (FPV) drone reel from top contributor and FPV pilot Mauro Pagliai.  Shot in Rome and other spots throughout Italy, the fast-moving video features a wide variety of FPV sequences, ranging from the ancient Colosseum to the skyscrapers and stadiums of modern Rome to some incredible movie-quality "cinewhoop" style scenes.  Brilliantly edited, this video was picked by the AirVuz editorial staff as the FPV Video of the Month for May of 2022.  

This brilliant drone video compilation by Drone Photography Ireland focuses on a series of mythical spots on the Emerald Isle.  It opens with shots of some of the country's ancient ruins, including the Loughcrew megalith in County Meath.  At the :16 mark, you'll see the remains of the 7th century Fore Abbey in County Westmeath.  At the :38 mark, you'll see the tower of Doonagore Castle, which lies on the Wild Atlantic Way in County Clare.  The video concludes with shots of the Dún Aonghasa fortress on the island of Inishmore.    

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot fpv_kuskov earned a spot on the AirVuz FPV Pilots to Watch list in November, 2022 with this fantastic piece from the fabled Indonesian province of Bali.  The video was filmed on the coast of Nusa Penida, which is a small "satellite" island just to the southeast of the larger island of Bali, across the body of water known as the Bandung Strait.  Nusa Penida is in turn surrounded by about a dozen smaller islands, which you'll see in the video.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner FrameworkFilms brings us this stunning aerial footage of some blue whales off the coast of Southern California.  The graceful creatures can reach lengths of up to just under 100 ft. (about 30 m) and can weigh up to 400k pounds (about 180k kg), making them the largest animals to have ever lived on Earth.  They generally spend their summer months near the poles and their winter months in the tropics; sightings such as what you'll see in the video usually occur during migration periods.    

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot David L brings us this excellent drone video of Boynton Beach Inlet on Florida's Gold Coast.  Also known as the South Lake Worth Inlet, the waterway is an artificial cut in the barrier island that separates the Lake Worth Lagoon from the Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.  Constructed during the waning days of Florida's great 1920's land boom, it's the second opening into the lagoon, the first (northern) cut having been completed roughly sixty years earlier .  

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner Richard Beresford Harris brings us this stunning drone video from one of the most iconic scenes in the Alps: the Tre Cime di Lavaredo mountain formation in northeastern Italy.  Also known (in German) as the Drei Zinnen, the three peaks are located on the border between the province of South Tyrol in the Trentino-Algo-Adigion region and the province of Belluno in the neighboring region of Veneto.  The tallest of the three peaks stands 9.8k ft. above sea level or about 3k m.  

Take a first-person view (FPV) tour of one of the world's most famous football (soccer) stadiums, compliments of top AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot Ivan Merino.  Camp Nou is located in Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city after Madrid.  Opened in 1957, it's the home of professional football team FC Barcelona, which competes in the top-flight Spanish league La Liga.  With a seating capacity of just under 100k, it's the largest football stadium in Europe as of 2021 and the fourth-largest in the world as of that time.  

Explore Portugal in this highly creative and cinematic piece by former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Migo-Studios.  The video combines footage from a (gimbal-stablized) DJI Air 2S drone and first person view (FPV) footage from a DJI Avata quad.  Some of the featured locations in the video include the Serra da Lousã nature preserve in the Leira District of the Centro Region, as well as the Galé Beach (Praia Galé), which is located on a long, narrow peninsula near Setúbal, a bit to the south of the city of Lisbon.  

Top AirVuz contributor Bumble Bee Productions brings us this excellent drone video of the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta.  Located just south of Downtown Atlanta, the structure was completed on 1889 on land which had previously been the site of Atlanta's first city hall.  In addition to housing the state's two legislative chambers, the offices of the governor and lieutenant-governors, and other administrative functions, the Capitol is also home to a museum.   The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark.  

Top AirVuz contributor scientik won the Drone Video of the Week contest with this spectacular drone video from one of the world's highest mountains: Nepal's Manaslu.  The video was shot with both the DJI Air 2S and FPV drones at flying altitudes of over 20k ft. above sea level (over 7k m).  Located in the Gorkha District in the west-central part of the country, the mountain has a summit elevation of almost 26.8k ft. above sea level (just under 8.2k meters), making it the world's eighth-highest peak.  

Take a tour of Scotland via first person view (FPV) drone with this excellent piece by AirVuz contributor and pilot seb-depp.  The video was filmed over the course of a trip which began in Edinburgh, going south to Dumfries and then north to the Isle of Skye and almost to John o'Groats, returning back to the south via the east coast. The piece features footage from many of Scotland's most iconic castles: Tantallon, Crichton, Hermitage, Caerlaverock, Stalker, Keiss, Girnigoe and Sinclair, Dunnottar, and Red Castles.

Explore the ancient Forum of Rome in this fantastic first person view (FPV) video by top AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot CataFpv.  Along with the adjacent Colosseum, the Forum was the heart of  ancient Imperial Rome, and one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.  The video was filmed with a single take, in which the quad flew through the Forum on a roughly southeast heading towards the Colosseum.  The video ends with an overhead glimpse of the Colosseum, the world's largest amphitheater to the present day.  

Top contributor wesselbabtist was picked as a Drone Video of the Week Finalist for his first AirVuz upload, and won with this, his second: a fantastic piece from the Faroe Islands, a Danish archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean.  Fast-moving and beautifully edited, the video will take you over some of the spectacular scenery of the group of islands, which is increasingly being compared to Iceland as a destination for adventurous travelers which are located roughly between Norway and Iceland.

To understand why first person view (FPV) drone are becoming more and more commonly used for high speed chase footage, check out this fantastic piece by AIrVuz contributor LiftedMedia.  They worked with legendary FPV pilot NurkFPV to film a cigarette boat cruising on Lake Conroe in southeastern Texas.  The boat has a top speed well in excess of 160 km (around 100 mph), and as you'll see this talented pilot has no trouble keeping up with it.  This video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in December, 2021.  

Top AirVuz contributor Enrico Pescantini brings us this fantastic drone video of the aftermath of a large volcanic eruption in Spain's Canary Islands.  The eruption occurred in the last months of 2021 on the volcanic ridge of Cumbre Vieja on the island of La Palma, the northwesternmost of this archipelago located off the coast of North Africa.  The eruption, the longest in the recorded history of the island, forced the evacuation of 7k people and covered about four square mi. (around 10 square km) with molten lava.  

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot beto.fpv shows us some of his best work from 2022 in this amazing FPV reel, a Finalist for 2023 FPV Video of the Year.  Primarily shot around the city of Houston, Texas, the video features some one-of-a-kind footage from Minute Maid Pak, home of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros.  You'll also chase drift cars, fly over a music concert, follow a "corkscrew" type rollercoaster, fly through Toyota Center (home of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball League), and more.  

French drone pilot and former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Thibault Menu does high end commercial aerial videography work throughout the country.  His extensive portfolio includes work for TV commercials, documentaries, and other technically complex jobs.  He uses a DJI Inspire 2 drone with a Zenmuse X7 camera as first person view (FPV) drones, depending on client needs.  This demo reel shows the range of his work, including a broad mix of landscape, "people" shots, and action- oriented (FPV) views.  

Take a moment to enjoy a tour with WillyWonka around Italy's Pyramids of Postalesio Natural Reserve, a place he likened to Middle Earth from the famed Lord of the Rings series. These incredible boulders are formed by the erosive action of rain water, which washed away the surrounding land and then exposed these impressive formations. The entire scene, as much as it is beautiful, provides for a fantastic FPV playground full of gaps, craggy turns, and plenty of vertical relief to keep any drone pilot fully engaged!