The HPA Awards Committee today announced nominees for the creative categories of the 2020 HPA Awards. The HPA Awards have been the standard bearer for recognizing creative accomplishment and technical innovation, honoring outstanding achievement and artistic excellence by the individuals and teams who help bring stories to life. The winners of the creative categories will be announced in a live virtual gala on November 19^th, 2020.  The gala is free to attend with prior registration.

Launched in 2006, the 2020 HPA Awards will be a celebration of fifteen years of recognizing outstanding achievement in color grading, editing, sound, and visual effects for work in episodic, spots, and feature films. Despite the difficulties inherent to producing an awards show during a pandemic, the HPA Awards Committee and the HPA Board of Directors were committed to recognizing the remarkable work produced in the previous year and bringing together the community in a spirit of celebration.

The 2020 HPA Awards Creative Category nominees are:

Outstanding Color Grading – Theatrical Feature

“Ad Astra”

Gregory Fisher // Company 3

 

“Gretel & Hansel”

Mitch Paulson // EFILM, Company 3

 

“Jojo Rabbit”

Tim Stipan // Company 3

 

“Joker”

Jill Bogdanowicz // Company 3

 

“Mulan”

Natasha Leonnet // EFILM, Company 3

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Episodic or Non-theatrical Feature

“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness – Last Exit to Brooklyn”

Juan Cabrera, Fran Lorite // LightBender

 

“Altered Carbon – Payment Deferred”

Bill Ferwerda // Deluxe Toronto, Company 3

 

“Catherine the Great – Episode 1”

Aidan Farrell // The Farm Group

 

“Greyhound”

Bryan Smaller // Company 3

 

“Watchmen – It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice”

Todd Bochner // Sim International

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Commercial 

BMW – “A Mirror Into the Future”

Sofie Borup // Company 3

 

BMW – “This is Option 2”

Tom Poole // Company 3

 

Diet Coke – “Drink What Your Mama Gave Ya”

Dave Hussey // Company 3

 

NFL – “Next 100”

Stefan Sonnenfeld // Company 3

 

Ralph Lauren – “Deep Blue”

Tom Poole // Company 3

 

Outstanding Editing – Theatrical Feature

Sponsored by Blackmagic Design

“Ford v Ferrari”

Michael McCusker, ACE; Andrew Buckland, ACE

 

“Jojo Rabbit”

Tom Eagles, ACE

 

“Joker”

Jeff Groth, ACE

 

“Parasite”

Jinmo Yang, ACE

 

“The Two Popes”

Fernando Stutz

 

Outstanding Editing – Episodic or Non-theatrical Feature (30 Minutes and Under)

Sponsored by Blackmagic Design

“Insecure – Lowkey Happy”

Mark Sadlek

 

“Insecure – Lowkey Losin’ It”

Daysha Broadway, Lucky Justice Productions Inc.

 

“Insecure – Lowkey Trying”

Nena Erb, ACE

 

“The Righteous Gemstones – But the Righteous Will See Their Fall”

Craig Hayes

 

“What We Do in the Shadows – Resurrection”

Yana Gorskaya, ACE, Dane McMaster, FX Networks

 

Outstanding Editing – Episodic or Non-theatrical Feature (Over 30 Minutes)

Sponsored by Blackmagic Design

“Mrs. America – Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc”

Emily Greene, FX Networks

 

“Seven Worlds, One Planet: Asia”

Angela Maddick, BBC Studios Natural History Unit

 

“Seven Worlds, One Planet: Australia”

Nigel Buck, BBC Studios Natural History Unit

 

“Watchmen – It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”

David Eisenberg, HBO

 

“Watchmen – This Extraordinary Being”

Anna Hauger

 

Outstanding Sound – Theatrical Feature

Sponsored by DTS

“An American Pickle”

Michael Babcock, Jeremy Pierson, Brandon Spencer, Jeff Sawyer, Dan Kenyon // Sony Pictures

 

“IT: Chapter Two”

Bill R. Dean, Nancy Nugent, Michael Keller, Tim LeBlanc, Erick Ocampo, Randy Torres // Warner Bros.

 

“Joker”

Alan Robert Murray, Dean Zupancic, Tom Ozanich, Jason Ruder, Tod A. Maitland // Warner Bros.

 

“Les Misérables”

Jérôme Gonthier, Arnaud Lavaleix, Matthieu Autin, Marco Casanova // Srab Films

 

Outstanding Sound – Episodic or Non-theatrical Feature

Sponsored by DTS

“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness – Belly of the Beast”

Matthew Skelding, Lindsey Alvarez, Ali Hawkins, Al Sirkett, Tom Jenkins

 

“Away – Negative Return”

Jonathan Greasley, Darren King, Shaughnessy Hare, Dan Gamache, Jeffrey Dyal // King Soundworks

 

“Locke and Key – Welcome to Matheson”

Chris Cooke, Eric Apps, J.R. Fountain, Dustin Harris // Deluxe Toronto, Company 3

 

“Seven Worlds, One Planet: Australia”

Graham Wild, Tim Owens // BBC Studios Natural History Unit

 

“Star Trek: Picard – ET in Arcadia Ego Part 2” 

Matthew E. Taylor, Todd Grace, Ed Carr, Tim Farrell, Sean Heissinger, Peter Devlin // Warner Bros.

 

Outstanding Visual Effects – Theatrical Feature

Sponsored by ZEISS

“The Aeronauts”

Louis Morin, Annie Godin, Christian Kaestner, Ara Khanikian // Amazon Studios

 

“IT: Chapter Two”

Fabrice Vienne, Vincent Desjardins, Christopher Nix, Jonathan Fleming-Bock, Dawid Borkiewicz // Rodeo FX Inc.

 

“Mulan”

Sean Faden, Diana Giorgiutti, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury, Hubert Maston // Walt Disney Motion Picture Production

 

“1917”

Guillaume Rocheron, Sona Pak, Greg Butler, Vijay Selvam, Richard Little // MPC

 

“The One and Only Ivan”

Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Aghdami, Ben Jones, Santiago Colomo Martinez // Walt Disney Motion Picture Production

 

Outstanding Visual Effects – Episodic (Under 13 Episodes) or Non-theatrical Feature

Sponsored by ZEIS

 

“His Dark Materials – The Fight to the Death”

Russell Dodgson, James Whitlam, Dan May, Danny Hargreaves, William Todd-Jones // Bad Wolf

 

“Lost in Space – Ninety-Seven”

Troy Davis, Niklas Jacobson, Jenn Taylor, David Anastacio, Rafael Solórzano // Legendary TV

 

“Lost in Space – Shipwrecked”

Aladino Debert, Suzanne Foster, Victor Grant, Paul Chapman // Digital Domain

 

“The Umbrella Academy – Right Back Where We Started”

Everett Burrell, Jeff Campbell, Phillip Hoffman, Neishaw Ali, Carrie Richardson // Spin VFX

 

“The Umbrella Academy – Valhalla”

Everett Burrell, R. Christopher White, Libby Hazell, Aidan Martin, Paul Raeburn // Weta Digital

 

Outstanding Visual Effects – Episodic (Over 13 Episodes)

Sponsored by ZEISS

“The Flash – Grodd Friended Me”

Armen V. Kevorkian, Shirak Agresta, Christopher Grocock, Tanya Kevorkian // Encore VFX

 

“Grey's Anatomy – It's Raining Men”

Tim Carras, Andie Eikenberg, Bill Parker, Nick Chamberlain, Casi Blume // Barnstorm FX

 

“NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service – The Arizona”

Matt Von Brock, Javier Gallego, Carrie Smith, Erik O'Donnell, Del Depierro, Bob Minshall // Picture Shop, Ghost VFX

 

“9-1-1 – Sink or Swim”

Jon Massey, Tony Pirzadeh, Bryant Reif, Brandon Criswell, David Rand // Fuse FX

 

“Supergirl – Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One”

Armen Kevorkian, Brian Reiss, Kris Cabrera, Fabian Jimenez, Alex Schade // Encore VFX

 

Winners of the coveted Engineering Excellence Award, announced previously, include EIZO, Eluvio, Moxion, and SBE Carl ZEISS.  Frame.io (in collaboration with Teradek) and Sohonet received honorable mention. The recipient of the Judges Award for Creativity and Engineering, a juried honor, will be announced in the coming weeks. All awards will be bestowed during the HPA Awards gala, online.

More information about the HPA Awards and the Hollywood Professional Association can be found at www.hpaonline.com. The HPA Awards take place with the support of Diamond Title Sponsor Blackmagic Design, Registration Sponsor Picture Shop; Event Sponsors Avid, DTS, and ZEISS; Foundation Members Avid, Company 3 and Dolby; and Show Sponsors The Alex Theater, Deluxe, Jump!, Keycode Media, MTI, Pixelogic, Post Pro Media, Stephen Arnold Music, and Wipster.

About the HPA® Awards
The HPA Awards were created to foster awareness and recognize the achievements of the individuals and companies that have contributed to groundbreaking technologies and creative excellence within the professional media content industry and build involvement in the Hollywood Professional Association. The HPA is a partner of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®). Information about the HPA Awards is available at www.hpaonline.com. The HPA Awards will be presented with generous support from Foundation Members and sponsors.

About the Hollywood Professional Association
Hollywood Professional Association (HPA®) serves the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, digital media and other dynamic media content. Through their partnership with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), the leader in the advancement of the art, science and craft of the image, sound, and metadata ecosystem, the HPA continues to extend its support of the community it represents. Information about the HPA is available at www.hpaonline.com.

About the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®)
For more than a century, the people of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE, pronounced "simp-tee") have sorted out the details of many significant advances in media and entertainment technology, from the introduction of "talkies" and color television to HD and UHD (4K, 8K) TV. Since its founding in 1916, the Society has received an Oscar® and multiple Emmy® Awards for its work in advancing moving-imagery engineering across the industry. SMPTE has developed thousands of standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines, more than 800 of which are currently in force today. SMPTE Time Code™ and the ubiquitous SMPTE Color Bars™ are just two examples of the Society's notable work. As it enters its second century, the Society is shaping the next generation of standards and providing education for the industry to ensure interoperability as the industry evolves further into IT- and IP-based workflows.

SMPTE's global membership today includes more than 7,000 members: motion-imaging executives, creatives, technologists, researchers, and students who volunteer their time and expertise to the Society's standards development and educational initiatives. A partnership with the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) connects SMPTE and its membership with the businesses and individuals who support the creation and finishing of media content. Information on joining SMPTE is available at  www.smpte.org/join. 

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