The Academy’s annual Scientific and Technical Awards, a prestigious ceremony recognising the innovators and engineers behind the magic of the film industry, took place recently at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Hosted by actress-filmmaker Natasha Lyonne, the event celebrated the remarkable contributions of 45 individuals and witnessed the presenting of 16 awards.
In her humorous monologue, Lyonne joked about voxels and image fidelity, highlighting the technological advancements that have shaped the evolution of cinema arts.
Academy president Janet Yang, in her opening statement, praised the recipients for their specialised skills, focus and collective dedication. “You do it in a way that seems so seamless, so effortless when we know that can be very far from the truth,” she said.
Here’s the complete list of the winners.
Winners of the Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates):
- Bill Beck received recognition for his pioneering use of semiconductor lasers in theatrical laser projection systems.
- Gregory T. Niven was honoured for his groundbreaking work in utilising laser diodes for theatrical laser projection systems.
- Yoshitaka Nakatsu, Yoji Nagao, Tsuyoshi Hirao, Tomonori Morizumi, and Kazuma Kozuru were celebrated for the development and industry-wide adoption of blue and green laser modules.
- Arnold Peterson, Elia P. Popov, and John Frazier were acknowledged for their design, engineering, and the initial concept of the Blind Driver Roof Pod.
- Jon G. Belyeu received recognition for designing and engineering Movie Works Cable Cutter devices.
- James Eggleton and Delwyn Holroyd were honoured for designing, implementing, and integrating the High-Density Encoding (HDE) lossless compression algorithm within the Codex recording toolset.
- Jeff Lait, Dan Bailey, and Nick Avramoussis were commended for the continued evolution and expansion of the feature set of OpenVDB.
- Oliver Castle, Marcus Schoo, and Keith Lackey received recognition for their contributions to the design and engineering of Atlas, with Lackey acknowledged for the prototype creation and early development of Atlas.
- Lucas Miller, Christopher Jon Horvath, Steve LaVietes, and Joe Ardent were celebrated for creating the Alembic Caching and Interchange system.
Winners of the Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques):
- Charles Q. Robinson, Nicolas Tsingos, Christophe Chabanne, and Mark Vinton were honoured for creating the Dolby Atmos Cinema Sound System.
- Steve Read and Barry Silverstein received recognition for their contribution to IMAX theatrical presentation.
- Peter Janssens, Goran Stojmenovik, and Wouter D'Oosterlinck were acknowledged for designing and developing the Barco RGB Laser Projector.
- Michael Perkins, Gerwin Damberg, Trevor Davies, and Martin J. Richards were commended for designing and developing the Christie E3LH Dolby Vision Cinema Projection System.
- Ken Museth, Peter Cucka, and Mihai Aldén were celebrated for the creation of OpenVDB and its ongoing impact within the motion picture industry.
- Jaden Oh received recognition for the concept and development of the Marvelous Designer clothing creation system.
- F. Sebastian Grassia, Alex Mohr, Sunya Boonyatera, Brett Levin, and Jeremy Cowles were acknowledged for designing and engineering Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD).