OSCARS® 2015 - April

The 88th Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre^® at Hollywood & Highland Center^® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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ABOUT THE ACADEMY

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards—in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners — the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.

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ENTRY DEADLINE APPROACHING FOR 2015

ACADEMY NICHOLL SCREENWRITING COMPETITION

LOS ANGELES, CA — The regular deadline to submit entries for the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition is Friday, April 10, at 11:59 p.m. PT. In November, as many as five $35,000 fellowships will be awarded to amateur screenwriters.

Deadlines and entry fees are as follows:

Regular deadline: April 10, at 11:59 p.m. PT; entry fee US$55

Final deadline: May 1, at 11:59 p.m. PT; entry fee US$75

Online applications and complete rules are available at www.oscars.org/nicholl.

For the first time, current entrants also may purchase, for an additional $40, review comments from at least two Nicholl readers for each submitted script. For details, visit www.oscars.org/nicholl.

Since 1986, 137 Nicholl fellowships have been awarded. Past fellows include writer-director Nikole Beckwith, whose feature “Stockholm, Pennsylvania” premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival; Pat Gilfillan, who wrote “Lila & Eve,” which also premiered at Sundance; Kurt Kuenne, who co-wrote and edited the documentary “Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard around the World,” which premiered at the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival; and Robert Edwards, the writer and director of “When I Live My Life Over Again,” which will debut this month at the Tribeca Film Festival. In addition, “Dear Eleanor,” written by Nicholl fellows Cecilia Contreras and Amy Garcia, and “London Has Fallen,” co-written by Nicholl fellow Creighton Rothenberger, are slated to be released later this year.

Former Nicholl fellows currently working in television include Andrew Marlowe, who created and executive produces the series “Castle,” and Terri Miller, a writer and executive producer on the show. Rebecca Sonnenshine is a writer and producer on “The Vampire Diaries.” Annmarie Morais is a writer and story editor on the Syfy series “Killjoys.”

Other notable fellows include Doug Atchison (“Akeelah and the Bee”), Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich”) and Ehren Kruger (“Transformers: Age of Extinction”).

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition is open to any individual who has not earned a total of more than $25,000 from the sale or option of screenplays or teleplays, or received fellowships or prizes of more than $25,000 that include a "first look" clause, an option or any other quid pro quo involving the writer's work. To enter, writers must submit a completed application online, upload one PDF copy of their original screenplay in English, and pay the required entry fee before the regular deadline at 11:59 p.m. PT on April 10, or the final deadline at 11:59 p.m. PT on May 1.

Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a new feature-length screenplay during the fellowship year.

Last year's competition drew a record 7,511 submissions.

THE ACADEMY LAUNCHES “ACES” AS GLOBAL

DIGITAL PRODUCTION AND ARCHIVING STANDARD

Color management and image interchange system targets

production, mastering and long-term archiving of motion pictures

ACES Logo Program encourages industry-wide adoption

Academy exhibits ACES at 2015 NAB Show® in April – Booth C9132

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the launch of the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), a free, open, device-independent color management and image interchange system that offers a critically needed global industry standard for motion picture and television production.

From image capture through editing, VFX, mastering, public presentation, archiving and future remastering, ACES enables a consistent color experience that preserves the filmmaker’s creative vision. It addresses and solves a number of significant production, post-production and archiving problems that have arisen with the increasing variety of digital cameras and formats in use, along with the surge in the number of productions that rely on worldwide collaboration using shared digital image files.

“A decade ago, the Academy recognized the need for a new set of infrastructure standards as the industry moved from film to digital,” said Richard Edlund, Academy governor and founding member of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. “We made a deep commitment to the effort – coordinating hundreds of top industry scientists, engineers and filmmakers on years of research, testing and field trials – so we’re both proud and excited to launch ACES 1.0 as the first production-ready release of the system.”

The Academy is simultaneously launching the ACES Logo Program to encourage consistent, high-quality implementations of ACES concepts and technical specifications throughout the industry. Initially focused on production and post-production equipment such as cameras, color correctors, displays and visual effects and animation software, the Logo Program is the first step toward enabling facilities and productions to take full advantage of ACES benefits. There are 22 leading companies already in the Logo Program: ARRI, Assimilate, Autodesk, Canon U.S.A., Codex, Colorfront, Deluxe Media Creative Services, Digital Vision, Dolby Laboratories, FilmLight, FotoKem, The Foundry, FUJIFILM North America, Light Illusion, MTI Film, Panasonic, Pomfort, Quantel, RED Digital Cinema, SGO, Shotgun Digital and Sony Electronics.

ACES has been used on scores of film and television productions to date, including such features as “Chappie,” “The Lego Movie,” “Big Eyes,” “Elysium,” “Oblivion” and “Chasing Mavericks.”

As part of the ACES launch, the Academy will be exhibiting at the 2015 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show, April 13–16 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in booth C9132. The Academy also will make two ACES presentations: the first as part of the Technology Summit on Cinema, and the second in conjunction with NAB’s Creative Master Series. Science and Technology Council Managing Director Andy Maltz will make the Summit presentation “The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES): A Digital Production Infrastructure Standard,” covering the science, engineering and practical application of ACES, on Saturday, April 11, at 4:15 p.m. The panel session “Coming to You Live: ACES 1.0,” with top industry professionals discussing how ACES helped them successfully manage complex cinematography, visual effects and color correction issues on a variety of motion picture and television projects, will take place on Tuesday, April 14, at 3 p.m.

For more information about ACES or the ACES Logo Program, visit Oscars.org/ACES.

For complete information about the 2015 NAB Show, visit nabshow.com.