The Shorty Awards, also known as the Shorties, are an awards event that honors top short-form content creators on the micro-blogging website Twitter. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is the primary sponsor of the awards. The awards are organized by the co-founders of the Brooklyn-based startup company Sawhorse Media.

The first Shorties were held on February 11, 2009, at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY. Approximately 300 people attended the event and dozens were turned away. The event was hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez and featured in-person guest appearances by prominent Twitter users MC Hammer and Gary Vaynerchuk and a video appearance by Shaquille ONeal. The awards, which were voted on by Twitter users, were distributed in 26 categories, ranging from Advertising to Weird.

Voting in the second Shorties opened on January 5, 2010. The second Shorty Awards competition introduced a panel of judges, the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences whose members include Craig Newmark, David Pogue, Kurt Andersen, Caterina Fake, Joi Ito, Frank Moss (technologist), Alberto Ibarg�en, Sreenath Sreenivasan, MC Hammer and Alyssa Milano. The second Shorty Awards were held at the Times Center in the New York Times building in Manhattan. Awards were presented in 26 official categories, as well as a special humanitarian award and an award for Real-Time Photo of the Year, recognizing the best photo posted to services such as Twitpic, Yfrog, or Facebook.