PHOTO CREDIT In Photo: Mara Herron and George Gordon

Nominations have been announced for the sixth annual ECNY Awards, representing the work of the New York comedy scene over the past year.

The awards ceremony takes place March 8 at 8 p.m. at Comix NY, 353 W. 14th St, N.Y. For the third straight year, comedian Jon Friedman will host.

Nominations were announced at Comix NY by Comix's Kambri Crews and past winner Kumail Nanjiani of "Michael & Michael Have Issues."  The announcements were streamed live via USTREAM as well as on Twitter. (See a video of the announcement below.)

The nominees were selected from a voting committee of industry professionals, as well as through a public nomination process. Nominees must reside and have performed mostly in the New York City area from October 2008 to October 2009 to be eligible.

A Lifetime Achievement Award will also be presented to a comedian or group that has aided in the growth of New York comedy.

Voting for the awards is open to the general public. To vote, visit www.ecnyawards.com/vote/vote.php.

The ECNY Awards, originally known as the Emerging Comics of New York Awards, were created in 2003 by Derek Gordon to "celebrate the individuals and groups creating comedy in New York City." The current awards committee is headed by Friedman, Alex Goldberg, Carol Hartsell, Nate Sloan, and Alex Zalben.

Here is the list for the 2009 ECNY Awards: 

Best Female Stand-Up:
Claudia Cogan
Katina Corrao
Morgan Murphy
Giulia Rozzi
Brooke Van Poppelen

Best Male Stand-Up:
Hannibal Buress
Pete Holmes
Sean Patton
Rory Scovel
Baron Vaughn

Best Sketch Comedy Group:
BoF (Best of Friends)
Elephant Larry
Murderfist
New Exc!tement
Team Submarine

Best Improv Group:
Big Black Car
Death by Roo Roo
I Eat Pandas
Improvised Shakespeare Company
Stepfathers

Best Host:
Chris Gethard
Seth Herzog
Pete Holmes and Jessi Klein
Gabe Liedman, Jenny Slate, and Max Silvestri
Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkel

Best Musical Comedy Act (Solo or Group):
Adira Amram
Shayna Ferm
Leibya Rogers (Mindy Raf)
Snakes
Stuckey & Murray

Best One-Person Show:
"Big in Japan," Dave Hill
"Dead Millionaire," Jenny Slate
"Fag Life: A Conversation With Fred Phelps," Brent James Sullivan
"Supernormal," Tom Shillue
"Use It," Ann Carr

Best Short Comedic Film:
"DAMN (You Wish)," Carolyn Castiglia, Tom McCaffrey, Mara Herron, and Anya Garrett
"Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses," BriTANick
"Everyone Poops Trailer," Landline TV
"Hey That's Awesome!: 2012," Rob Lathan with Bobby Moynihan
"What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?," Elephant Larry

Best Technician:
Jon Gutierrez
Geoff Grimwood
Carol Hartsell
Frank Heijl
Rich Jones

Best Variety Show:
"Fifty First Jokes"
"Moonwork: An Evening of Original Works"
"Rejection Show"
"Risk! True Tales Boldly Told"
"Whiplash"

Outstanding Achievement in Flyer or Postcard Design:
"Agorafabulous," Mike Wang and Lauren Goldberg
"Brown Ambition," Anya Garrett
"Fag Life: A Conversation with Fred Phelps," Mindy Tucker
"Heart of Darkness," Dimitri Drjuchin
"Swords Improv," Bradford Jordan and Eric Michael Pearson

Best Website:
frontpagefilms.com
theapiary.org
thecomedynerds.com
thecomicscomic.com
urdb.com
videogum.com

Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Tweeting:
@friedmanjon
@julieklausner
@lizzwinstead
@mrdavehill
@randazzoj

Best Book:
"All Local Bands Suck (Except Ours)," Porter Mason
"And Here's the Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft," Mike Sacks
"Get Rich Cheating: The Crooked Path to Easy Street," Jeff Kreisler
"Rejected: Tales of the Failed, Dumped and Cancelled," Jon Friedman
"The Terrible, Horrible Temp-to-Perm Debacle: Book Two in the Just Make a Choice! Series," Bob Powers
"The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life," Eugene Mirman

Emerging Comic Award:
Myq Kaplan
Mike Lawrence
Kate McKinnon
Thomas Middleditch
Dan St. Germain
Brent Sullivan

Photo: Mara Herron and George Gordon in "DAMN (You Wish)"