The Academy Sci-Tech Awards: Hardware and Software Innovations

The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards (April 29 at the Academy Museum, hosted by “Andor’s” Diego Luna) will honor 37 recipients in the creation of 14 achievements. These advancements encompass fire stunt safety, the synching of moving microphones, camera stabilization, improved skin and muscle simulation for digital characters, and machine learning denoisers for rendering shortcuts.

Recently, the Academy’s Science and Technology Council approved new rules regarding human creative authorship in the creation of Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools.

“As part of the Academy’s mission to celebrate artistry and innovation in filmmaking, we are honored to recognize the exceptional contributions of this year’s Scientific and Technical Awards recipients. Their work has powerfully driven advancements in our industry,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a prepared statement. “Also, we are deeply honored to present the Academy Award of Merit to the individuals who created and supported the development of captioning for films. This is an essential technology that plays a vital role in making the cinematic experience accessible to all.”

Winners of the Scientific and Engineering Awards (who will receive plaques) include:

Jayson Dumenigo for Action Factory Hydrogels, allowing for safer and longer burns at higher temperatures with quick turnaround times for fire stunt performances.

Thijs Vogels, Fabrice Rousselle, David Adler, Gerhard Röthlin, and Mark Meyer for Disney’s ML (Machine Learning) Denoiser, which saves rendering time. This was first implemented on Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” and ILM’s VFX for “Avengers: Endgame.”

Nir Averbuch, Yair Chuchem, and Dan Raviv for Auto Align Post 2, which creates seamless blending of multiple moving microphones during post-production, eliminating phase distortion.

Curt Schaller and Dr. Roman Foltyn for The ARRI Trinity 2 system, combining a traditional inertial camera stabilization system with electronic gimbal technology, allowing unprecedented freedom of camera movement.

Steve Wagner,  Garrett Brown, Jerry Holway, and Robert Orf for the revolutionary Steadicam Volt stabilization system with its advanced two-axis motorized design, creating artificial inertia and simulated friction.

Dave Freeth for the hand-held Stabileye three-axis motorized camera stabilization system, facilitating subtle and dynamic camera moves closer to actors, and in tighter quarters.

Winners of the Technical Achievement Awards (who will receive certificates) include:

Essex Edwards, James Jacobs, Jernej Barbic, Crawford Doran and Andrew van Straten for Ziva VFX, a system for simulating muscles, fat, fascia, and skin for digital characters.

Javor Kalojanov and Kimball Thurston for Wētā FX’s ML (Machine Learning) Denoiser, which prioritizes temporal filtering using innovative optical flow techniques to preserve crucial details. This has been used on “A Minecraft Movie,” “Avatar: The Way of the Water,” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” among others.

Neeme Vaino for Fireskin360 Naked Burn Gel, which allows for longer targeted burns directly on the skin, broadening the range of fire stunts.

Dustin Brooks and Colin Decker for the development of naked burn gel, where fire appears directly on the skin, enabling a new form of safe fire stunts.

Attila T. Áfra for Intel Open Image Denoise, and to Timo Aila for NVIDIA applying U-Nets to denoising. Open Image Denoise is an open-source library, whose core tech is provided by U-Net architecture, which raises the quality of CG imagery.

Mark Noel for the NACMO series of modular motion bases, which dynamically control simulated actions and provide precise movements for enhancing special effects.

Su Tie, Bei Shimen, and Zhao Yanchong for the Ronin 2 gimbal system, which achieves three-axis stabilization through multiple sensors to create more complex and dynamic camera moves.

Tabb Firchau, John Ellison, Steve Webb, David Bloomfield, and Shane Colton for Mōvi gimbals, providing single-person or collaborative remote camera operation for difficult shots without dolly or crane-supported stabilized heads.