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ILM’s Chief Creative Officer, John Knoll was among those honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at this year’s Sci Tech Awards.
Watch David Oyelowo present Scientific and Engineering Awards to Thomas Knoll and John Knoll for the original architecture, design and development, and to Mark Hamburg for his continued development and engineering of Adobe Photoshop:

Congratulations to John, Thomas, Mark and all of those honored this year.

Early this morning the Academy announced the nominees for the 91st Oscars and we’re so excited that ILM artists worked on three of the five films in the Achievement in Visual Effects Category.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Dan DeLeeuw
Kelly Port
Russell Earl
Dan Sudick
READY PLAYER ONE
Warner Bros. Pictures
Roger Guyett
Grady Cofer
Matthew E. Butler
David Shirk
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Rob Bredow
Patrick Tubach
Neal Scanlan
Dominic Tuohy
Other nominated films:
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
Christopher Lawrence
Michael Eames
Theo Jones
Chris Corbould
FIRST MAN
Paul Lambert
Ian Hunter
Tristan Myles
J.D. Schwalm
And here are some early reactions from a few of our newly-minted nominees:
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Rob Bredow, Overall VFX Supervisor – “We pretty much freaked out! All of us were gathered around the TV. It was pretty exciting. It’s such a great list of nominees, so it was amazing to see us on the list.”
Patrick Tubach, VFX Supervisor – “I’m incredibly excited to be nominated for the VFX work on Solo. Like many, I’ve been waiting to hear this story ever since some hot shot pilot bragged about it over a table in a seedy backwater cantina, but there’s a extra special thrill in being one of the lucky group of artists who finally got to tell it. Seriously- never tell me those odds!”
Ready Player One 
Roger Guyett, VFX Supervisor – “I’m really thrilled about the nomination – we worked so hard and had an incredible team working on the project. I’m sharing this with our huge crew who put so much love into this project. Its an honour and great recognition from our peers for the work we did on RPO.”
Grady Cofer, VFX Supervisor – “I’m delighted to hear that Ready Player One has been nominated for Best Visual Effects. It’s a testament to all the hard work that went into it. From day one this has been a dream project. Steven’s passion for the story, fueled by his endless creative energy, made it all possible. I am honored to join my fellow nominees and represent this film at the Oscars.”
Avengers: Infinity War  
Russell Earl, VFX Supervisor – “I’m just really happy to be nominated and feel lucky to be able to represent the whole team that worked on the film. It’s been a really exciting morning.”
The Oscars are February 24th. Congratulations to all the nominees!

In today’s employee spotlight we’re highlighting Color & Imaging Scientist, Carol Payne from our San Francisco studio.
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The Visual Effects Society released the nominations for the 17th Annual VES Awards this morning, and we’re thrilled to have been nominated for seventeen awards for our work in 2018. We’d like to congratulate all the nominees and thank our teams for their hard work.

Our nominations include:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Ready Player One
Roger Guyett
Jennifer Meislohn
David Shirk
Matthew Butler
Neil Corbould

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Rob Bredow
Erin Dusseault
Matt Shumway
Patrick Tubach
Dominic Tuohy

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
12 Strong
Roger Nall
Robert Weaver
Mike Meinardus

Bird Box
Marcus Taormina
David Robinson
Mark Bakowski
Sophie Dawes
Mike Meinardus

Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Indoraptor
Jance Rubinchik
Ted Lister
Yannick Gillain
Keith Ribbons

Ready Player One; Art3mis
David Shirk
Brian Cantwell
Jung-Seung Hong
Kim Ooi

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Ant-Man and the Wasp; Journey to the Quantum Realm
Florian Witzel
Harsh Mistri
Yuri Serizawa
Can Yuksel

Aquaman; Atlantis
Quentin Marmier
Aaron Barr
Jeffrey De Guzman
Ziad Shureih

Ready Player One; The Shining, Overlook Hotel
Mert Yamak
Stanley Wong
Joana Garrido
Daniel Gagiu

Solo: A Star Wars Story; Vandor Planet
Julian Foddy
Christoph Ammann
Clement Gerard
Pontus Albrecht

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Aquaman; Third Act Battle
Claus Pedersen
Mohammad Rastkar
Cedric Lo
Ryan McCoy

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Gyrosphere Escape
Pawl Fulker
Matt Perrin
Oscar Faura
David Vickery

Ready Player One; New York Race
Daniele Bigi
Edmund Kolloen
Mathieu Vig
Jean-Baptiste Noyau

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Ready Player One; DeLorean DMC-12
Giuseppe Bufalo
Kim Lindqvist
Mauro Giacomazzo
William Gallyot

Solo: A Star Wars Story; Millennium Falcon
Masa Narita
Steve Walton
David Meny
James Clyne

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Avengers: Infinity War; Wakanda
Florian Witzel
Adam Lee
Miguel Perez Senent
Francisco Rodriguez

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
John Galloway
Enrik Pavdeja
David Nolan
Juan Espigares Enriquez

Nominees in 24 categories were selected by VES members via events hosted by 11 of our Sections, including Australia, the Bay Area, Germany, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, New Zealand, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington. The VES Awards will be held on February 5th at the Beverly Hilton.

This morning BAFTA announced the nominees for their annual awards ceremony on February 10th and we’re thrilled that ILM worked on three of the five films that made the list!

Congratulations to our artists Russell Earl (VFX Supervisor, Avengers: Infinity War), Craig Hammack (VFX Supervisor, Black Panther), Roger Guyett (Visual Effects Supervisor, Ready Player One), Grady Cofer (VFX Supervisor, Ready Player One), and David Shirk (Animation Supervisor, Ready Player One).

Films ILM contributed to:

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Kelly Port, Dan Sudick

BLACK PANTHER
Geoffrey Baumann, Jesse James Chisholm, Craig Hammack, Dan Sudick

READY PLAYER ONE
Matthew E. Butler, Grady Cofer, Roger Guyett, David Shirk

Also nominated:

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD
Tim Burke, Andy Kind, Christian Manz, David Watkins

FIRST MAN
Ian Hunter, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, J.D. Schwalm

We’d like to congratulate all the nominees on this honor and thanks to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Ten films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 91st Academy Awards, and we’re thrilled to have contributed to six of them.
All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 5, 2019. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
ILM contributed to:
Ant-Man and the Wasp – ILM VFX Supervisor, Russell Earl
Avengers: Infinity War – ILM VFX Supervisor, Russell Earl
Black Panther – ILM VFX Supervisor, Craig Hammack
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Overall VFX Supervisor, David Vickery
Ready Player One – Overall VFX Supervisor, Roger Guyett
Solo: A Star Wars Story – Overall VFX Supervisor, Rob Bredow
Other Semi-finalists:
Christopher Robin
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Welcome to Marwen
Congratulations to all the semi-finalists!

This article originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter

Nine technical achievements, represented by 27 individual award recipients including ILM’s John Knoll, will be honored at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Feb. 9 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.

Also during the evening, cinematographer Curtis Clark (The Draughtsman’s Contract), who chairs the American Society of Cinematographers’ Motion Imaging Technology Council, will receive the John A. Bonner Medal for service.

Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques) will be presented to David Simons, Daniel Wilk, James Acquavella, Michael Natkin and David Cotter for Adobe After Effects; Oscar-winning VFX supervisor John Knoll, Thomas Knoll and Mark Hamburg for Adobe Photoshop; and Pixar’s leader Ed Catmull, Tony DeRose and Jos Stam for their subdivision surfaces science.

The recipients of the Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates) are Eric Dachs, Erik Bielefeldt, Craig Wood and Paul McReynolds for the PIX System for distributing media; Per-Anders Edwards for the MoGraph toolset in motion graphics software Cinema 4D; and Paul Miller and Marco Paolini for their work on the Silhouette rotoscope and paint system.

Technical achievement awards also will be presented to Paul Debevec, Tim Hawkins and Wan-Chun Ma for the Polarized Spherical Gradient Illumination facial appearance capture method; Xueming Yu for the related Light Stage X capture system; and Charles Loop for his subdivision surfaces research.

Thabo Beeler, Derek Bradley, Bernd Bickel and Markus Gross are also being honored for the conception, design and engineering of the Medusa Performance Capture System. Medusa captures exceptionally dense animated meshes without markers or makeup, pushing the boundaries of visual fidelity and productivity for character facial performances in motion pictures.

“Each year, the Academy forms a diverse committee made up of nearly 60 experts on the technology of filmmaking tasked with examining the tools that artists use to create films,” Doug Roble, chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, said Wednesday in a statement. “This year, the committee is recognizing nine technologies from around the world. These extraordinary contributions to the science of filmmaking have elevated our art form to incredible new heights.”

Industrial Light & Magic expanding its offering of best-in-class visual effects and animation services to include the streaming and episodic television market with a new division: ILM TV. The division will be based out of ILM’s new 47,000 square foot London studio and supported by the company’s global locations in San Francisco, Vancouver and Singapore.

The ILM TV team will be lead by Visual Effects Supervisors Hayden Jones and Jonathan Privett alongside Executive Producers, Louise Hussey and Stefan Drury. Previously, the team set up and oversaw DNEG’s television division; winning a BAFTA for Special, Visual and Graphic Effects for their work on BLACK MIRROR.

ILM TV’s first projects will be Lucasfilm’s eagerly anticipated live action series based in the Star Wars universe, THE MANDALORIAN, being developed by Jon Favreau and Superman prequel series KRYPTON, now in its second season, based on DC characters from Warner Horizon Scripted Television for SYFY.

“It’s not often you get to create a new division at Industrial Light & Magic”, explained Rob Bredow, Executive Creative Director and Head of ILM, “We are seeing a real convergence in our creative approach used on films and in our immersive entertainment division ILMxLAB, and now we’re proud to be able to offer these ILM innovations in a way that’s suitable for streaming and television work to creatives around the world.”

ILM’s legacy in television dates back to the studio’s revolutionary and Emmy award-winning work for THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, which brought feature film quality effects to an episodic series for the first time.“We are extremely excited to be re-igniting ILM’s involvement in this market and to showcase the team’s expertise, unrivaled technology and production management globally.” adds VFX Supervisor Hayden Jones, “The television and streaming segments have grown exponentially in recent years and we are seeing substantial demand for high calibre visual effects that can be delivered on schedule and within budget, all of which lie at the core of our teams expertise and proven track record.”

ILM TV will offer producers and showrunners access to Industrial Light & Magic’s legendary VFX talent, infrastructure and technology combined with a fresh approach to visual effects, designed to suit the condensed production schedules and rapid turnaround times that episodic series and online streaming programs demand.