New York - The traditional crop of New Year award nominations have been announced, including those for the Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, the Visual Effects Society awards, and Imagina. Framestore CFC appears in all four honor rolls.
For the second successive year, a Framestore CFC project has been short listed for an Oscar. The Golden Compass is one of the three nominees for this year's Academy Award for Achievement in Visual Effects, which were announced January 22. Framestore CFC's film team created the film's acclaimed CG polar bears and their environments, and VFX Supervisor Ben Morris, who led our team, is one of four names on the nomination.
2007's short list saw another Framestore CFC project, Superman Returns, among the short-listed films. The other contenders for this year's award are Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers. The 80th Annual Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on February 24.
This year's BAFTA nominations, announced on January 16, also include a Special Visual Effects nomination for The Golden Compass. Ben Morris, one of the four named nominees, led the Framestore CFC team. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to which Framestore CFC also contributed, was among the other SFX nominees. In additional BAFTA news, the director of The Killing of John Lennon, an independent feature which was graded in Framestore CFC's Digital Lab, is a nominee for the Carl Foreman Award (given for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer, or Producer in their First Feature Film). The BAFTAs will take place on February 10.
One of the industry's top awards, the VES (Visual Effects Society) announced its nominees on January 9. Once again The Golden Compass was recognised, receiving a nomination for the major Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture award.
On the television front, Primeval's CG creature work was saluted, with a nomination for 'Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial'. Among the tough competition it faces in that category comes from another Framestore CFC project, the Chemical Brothers promo for The Salmon Dance, for which our Commercials, 3D team created some amazing, funny and beautiful hip-hop tropical fish. Finally, Smirnoff Sea received a nomination in the top commercials category, 'Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial'. This year's awards will be presented on February 10th in LA.
Finally, this year's Imagina Award nominations were also announced recently, including three for Framestore CFC projects. The Best Commercial category is dominated this year by work posted at Framestore CFC, as two of the three nominations go to Smirnoff Sea and the C'mons Red Viral spot for Opel/Vauxhall. The Chemical Brothers Salmon Dance gets another nod with a nomination for Best Video Clip. Imagina's European 3D Community Event takes place from January 30 to February 1 in Monte Carlo.