Digital Media FX News Archives

Monday - June 25, 2001
- Rules for Academy Award Best Animated Feature Released
- Shrek and Atlantis Estimates
- Release Charts: Animated, Anime, and FX DVDs
- News Link of the Day - CNN Sunday Morning TV: High Tech Animation

Rules for Academy Award Best Animated Feature Released
(press release) The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (6/19) approved final rules for the new Best Animated Feature Film Award and further tightened rules governing who is eligible to accept an Oscar® statuette.

In an eligibility rule that applies to all awards, the governors made explicit the organization's long-term principle that "the Academy shall not be bound by any contract or agreement relating to the sharing or giving of credit and reserves the right to make its own determination of credit for purposes of award consideration."

Clauses have been making their way into employment contracts lately specifying that if a film receives an Academy Award® nomination for achievement in the contractor's area of expertise, he or she has to be included among the nominees, Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis said. "We want to make it clear that we aren't bound by any such contract. The Academy makes the ultimate determination of who its nominees are."

Another change in the 2001 rules further restricts who can be named as a nominee or accept a statuette for Best Picture. The governors added a sentence stating that "Studio executives and personal managers with producer credit are likewise ineligible for Best Picture nominations and statuettes unless they have fully functioned as producers on the picture."

In other rules changes, the Academy specified that:

* in addition to the traditional film formats, exhibition by a non-videotape digital process also will qualify a motion picture for Academy Award consideration;

* a second set decorator might, in some instances, be eligible for award consideration;

* Documentary Short Subjects may also qualify for awards consideration by winning a best documentary short award from one of nine designated film festivals;

Other modifications of the rules include normal date changes and minor "housekeeping" changes, Davis said.

Rules for the new Best Animated Feature Film Award define an animated feature film as "a motion picture of at least 70 minutes in running time where a significant number of the major characters in the film are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75% of the picture's running time."

A recommendation on whether or not to activate the category in a given year will be made by the executive committee of the Short Films and Feature Animation branch, which will review all of the animated feature films released in Los Angeles County during the year to determine their eligibility.

If eight or more are found to be eligible, the committee may choose to recommend to the Board of Governors that there be an animated feature award given for that year. If the governors accept the committee's recommendation, the nomination process will be set in motion.

A screening committee will be recruited from among Los Angeles-area members from all branches. Committee members will be required to see all of the eligible films and will vote to determine the nominated films in the category. All Academy voting members will be eligible to vote to select the film that will receive the Oscar.

The Oscar for the new category will be presented to "the key creative talent most clearly responsible for the overall achievement," normally a single individual, on behalf of the entire production. In no case will more than two statuettes be presented.

The Short Films and Feature Animation branch will have the right to resolve all questions of eligibility, rules interpretation and the designation of award recipients. As with all awards, the Board of Governors will make the final determination if an award is to be presented in the category in any given year.

Films submitted in the Best Animated Feature category may qualify for Academy Awards® in other areas, including Best Picture, provided they meet the rules criteria governing those categories.

The official "74th Annual Academy Award Rules" booklet will be ready for distribution to Academy members during the first week of August.

Academy Award rules are reviewed annually by branch and category committees, and submitted to the Awards Rules Committee, which then reviews all proposed changes and presents its recommendations to the Board of Governors.

Academy Award nominations for the year 2001 will be announced at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 12, 2002, at the Academy. The 74th Annual Academy Awards Presentation will be telecast live from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland by the ABC Television Network at 5:30 p.m., PST, on Sunday, March 24, 2002.

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Shrek and Atlantis Estimates
(by digitalmediafx.com) Atlantis: The Lost Empire made an estimated $13.2 at the box office to bring its total to $44.3 million to date. Meanwhile, Shrek made an estimated $11 million to bring its total to $215.8 million.

Final numbers will be published tomorrow.

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Release Charts: Animated, Anime, and FX DVDs
(by digitalmediafx.com) Akira fans - your DVD is here! See this listing and several more in today's update which lists animated, anime, and FX DVDs becoming available starting tomorrow. Here's the list:

Akira (anime)
Akira: Limited Special Edition (anime)
Arc the Lad: Wanted (anime)
Ranma 1/2 Random Rhapsody - V.3 (anime)
Shadow Raiders - Brave New Worlds - Vol. 5 (animated)
Sci-Fi Collector's Pack - Capricorn One - Stargate - Millenium (FX)

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News Link of the Day - CNN Sunday Morning TV: High Tech Animation

According to CNN:

"High-tech fantasy movies are gobbling up millions of dollars at the box office. Computer generations are becoming state-of-the-art. So what happened to the old tradition of drawing those animations by hand?

CNN's Paul Vercammen takes a look…"

Click here for the full story.

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