Academy Selects Scientific Achievement Short List

The Motion Picture Academy's scientific and technical awards committee has selected 15 achievements for further awards consideration. Now anyone else with similar devices or prior claims can offer their achievements to the committee, by August 31.

After investigating each entry, the committee meets in early December to vote on recommendations to the Academy's Board of Governors, which will make the final decisions. Certificates, plaques and actual Oscars---sometimes given over the years for the same achievement, says Variety tech editor David S. Cohen--will be awarded at the 2010 Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, February 12, 2011. These are the tech advances we see in such big-budget animation and FX movies as How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3 and Avatar. They are not necessarily awarded on the year that the film came out or was eligible for other Oscars.

Here's the list, mostly from the top VFX and animation houses, indie and studio, which appeals to my wonky side:

OBQ/DOALL (Industrial Light & Magic)
Queue (Rhythm & Hues)
Race Render Queue System (Digital Domain)
Qube (PipelineFX)
Misterd (Pixar Animation Studios)
RQS/Depgraph Render Management System (DreamWorks Animation)
Cue3 (Sony Pictures Imageworks)
Alfred – Job Queuing and Distributing Rendering System (Pixar Animation Studios)
XGen – Arbitrary Primitive Generator (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Expression Analysis for Facial Motion Capture (Weta Digital)
Efficient Global Illumination System for Computer Graphic Films (PDI/DreamWorks Animation)
cineSync (Rising Sun Research Pty. Ltd.)
Timecode Slate (Entertainment Technology)
NAC Servo Winches (NAC Company)
Cannon-Less Turnover System (Performance Picture Vehicles)