Celebrating The Best Of The Best
The HPA Awards exist to honor and recognize the accomplishments of the talented HPA community and to support their efforts with increased awareness and celebration. In acknowledgement of talent, skill and dedication, the awards unfurled for the 19th time on November 7th at the glorious TV Academy. On that evening, the HPA Awards honored the super stars of our business; colorists, editors, visual effects artists, sound teams, restoration experts and technologists who give dreams their shape and emotion. For a panorama of pictures, visit the gallery of images from the event to get a peek at the evening’s festivities.
The winners in all categories are chosen from hundreds of submissions, all of which are vetted and judged by industry experts. That process requires a lot of work from the team, committee and members. Determining the nominations is a massive undertaking, highly competitive with many submissions of the most outstanding work. Congratulations to all who entered, all who were nominated and those who won. You’re the center of our universe! Check out the creative category winners here. Powering the vision of creative filmmakers are the brilliant innovators and technologists and this year’s Engineering Excellence honors went to three companies: Adobe for Enhance Speech in Premiere Pro, Disguise and Cuebric for AI-Driven 2.5D Workflow and, and Evercast for Evercast for Apple Vision Pro.
And, yes, Taylor Swift did make an appearance – via video – at the HPA Awards. Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour was selected as the recipient of the Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation. In a surprising reveal during the show, Swift appeared in video to accept the award, filmed backstage on a stop on the Eras Tour. Recognizing her talented and extensive team, she was delighted to see the entire production and tour honored by HPA for the incredible accomplishment of the film and the tour. The C&I jury included Alice Brooks, ASC, Paul Debevec, Renard Jenkins, Karen Raz and co-chairs of the C&I committee, Carolyn Giardina and Joachim Zell.
The Charles S. Swartz Award honored FotoKem. The Charles S. Swartz Award is a revered distinction that is only bestowed when the HPA Awards Committee and Board are compelled by the accomplishment of a company or individual. This award has only been given seven times (including this year) in the past 19 years. FotoKem has played a critical role in keeping film alive as a viable option for filmmakers from indies to icons, while they continue to innovate throughout the post production pipeline. Oscar winners Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas presented the honor to FotoKem, via taped presentation from a distant location. Standing with members of the FotoKem team on stage, Bill and Mike Brodersen accepted the award on behalf of their customers, colleagues in the industry and their valued staff.
Esteemed presenters at this year’s awards ceremony included Alice Brooks, ASC (Wicked), Tom Cross, ACE (LaLa Land), Ned Price, Lindsey Alvarez, CAS (The Blue Angels), Janelle Croshaw Ralla (John Wick: Chapter 4) and Phedon Papamichael, ASC/GSC (A Complete Unknown). Zell handled the Engineering presentations with usual flair and humor. Seth Hallen, President of HPA, appeared in his final public showing as he hands the baton of leadership to president elect Kari Grubin. Before Hallen shared his heartfelt remarks upon his next chapter, a purpose-produced video was introduced by Leon Silverman, and closed the with enthusiastic thank yous from many who have worked with Seth over the past nine years of his presidency.