Great artists with great technology create great movies

MANILA, Philippines - The role of technology in the service of great storytelling continues to evolve, and this year’s Academy Award nominees reflect the impressive artistry of the global computer graphics (CG) industry. From Best Pictures and VFX, to Best Cinematography, Animated Features and Shorts, Autodesk Inc. media and entertainment software played a supporting role in the creation of many of this year’s most acclaimed movies. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also recognized Autodesk technology with a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award (Sci-Tech Award).

“It’s an honor to contribute to such a creative community in which the Best VFX Oscar-winning movie for 20 consecutive years has used Autodesk software,” explains Chris Bradshaw, Autodesk senior vice president. “We’re also so pleased the Academy recognized Robert Bridson on our R&D team for his voxel data structures technology.”

In the Best Visual Effects category, winning film Interstellar as well as the other four film nominees – Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men: Days of Future Past – used sophisticated technology to help bring these films to audiences worldwide. The phenomenal work contained in these five movies was created by thousands of talented artists working at 25 visual effects studios on four continents with work spanning the production process from previsualization through virtual cinematography, post-production and color grading.

This year’s nominees for Best Animated Feature show off a broad range of animation styles from hand-drawn, to stop-motion to CG. Autodesk software played a role in four of the five Best Animated Feature nominees: The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya; and Oscar winner Big Hero 6. Best Animated Short winner Feast and co-nominee The Dam Keeper; and seven of the eight movies nominated for Best Picture: American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma and The Theory of Everything.