In August, Minneapolis cat owner Will Braden took home the 2012 grand prize at the Internet Cat Film Festival for his creation, Henri 2, Paw de Deux. For his stunning piece of genre work, Braden nabbed The Golden Kitty Award over 10,000 other submissions from cat lovers with cameras.

This week, not to be outdone, reigning national pet food distributor Friskies announced they are now accepting cat videos for their own national cat video competition.

"Movies have The Oscars, TV has The Emmys and Internet cat videos now have The Friskies," their submission website proudly declares below a trophy of a golden happy cat statue. (The official trophy is called "The Cat-uette.")

The annual awards competition will offer a grand prize of $15,000 as well as $2,500 prizes for four different categories: Catness (capturing the essence of cat spirit), Cat Com (funniest comedic moment), Catventure (indoor adventure time) and Catch All (etcetera moments).

The submitted cat videos must be no longer than three minutes and will be judged on the criteria of: originality, artisitic expression, technical production, emotional appeal and "portraying a cat's perspective."

A panel of celebrity judges has been recruited to watch all of the submissions and decide the 12 finalists. Comedian Michael Showalter, folk artist Wayne White, Mousebreath Magazine editor Karen Nichols and Austin's own Alamo Drafthouse owner Tim League have all dutifully agreed to serve as the ajudicators for this year's inaugural Friskies.

Submissions will remain open until Oct. 12, and the 12 finalists will be announced in November. They each will win a year's supply of Friskies products and their own Cat-uette. Then it's up to the voting public to pick their favorite homemade cat video to earn the top prize.

Additionally, for every submitted video or vote for any of the submissions received, Friskies will also donate five cans of their product to one of the 25 cat charities or shelters they have chosen as partners for The Friskies.

We all can agree that the most important contribution the Internet has brought in to our lives is the collection of hilarious cat videos available on YouTube, right?

For all that Lolcats and I Can Has Cheezburger have done to help us through our otherwise droll workdays, it's time to show our appreciation for the finest examples of cute inspiration found in today's contemporary feline cinema.

“We love cat videos because they showcase the imagination of both cats and their owners,” said Shaun Belongie, Friskies brand manager, in a press release Wednesday. “Some may say that there are too many cat videos on the Internet already. We don’t think so. We’re launching ‘The Friskies’ because we think the next great cat video is just waiting to be discovered.”

With each vote helping to feed cats in need, there's no better time to tune in and and do your part. The cats will thank you for it.