The Hollywood Post Alliance hosted its seventh annual HPA Awards Thursday night in the Cotsen Auditorium at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Hundreds of professionals in the industry were present to be honored by colleagues and to praise deserving award winners.
Ray Dolby received a standing ovation as he accepted the Charles S. Swartz award in recognition of his decades of innovation and invention. Academy Award-winning film editor and sound designer, Walter Murch presented the award to Dolby after sharing a few of the numerous ways Dolby’s technology has affected the industry over the years. Murch recalled one of his first experiences of Dolby-quality sound when he attended an ordinary cinema. The film used Dolby’s noise reduction technology and reached “deep mono” with an expansiveness that made him want to get his hands on this new invention. That was in 1974, and now, nearly 40 years later, Dolby continues to advance sound and film with products such as Dolby Atmos.
One of the first awards of the night went to Chris Franklin for outstanding editing of his Mastercard ad, “Tango.” Franklin was unable to attend, however, his producer, when accepting the award on his behalf, was sure to thank herself for all her help.
Thelma Schoonmaker won for her outstanding editing of the feature film, Hugo. She was unable to accept the award herself because she has been working in New York where the weather prevented her attendance. Her representative said there were plans to present a recorded acceptance by Schoonmaker, but “it got tied up in visual effects.”
The winners of the 2012 Hollywood Post Alliance Awards are:
Outstanding Color Grading – Sponsored by Dolby Laboratories
Outstanding Color Grading using a DI process – Feature Film
The Iron Lady
Rob Pizzey – Company 3
Outstanding Color Grading – Television
Game of Thrones – The Prince of Winterfell
Joe Finley – Modern VideoFilm
Outstanding Color Grading – Commercial
Chrysler “Halftime in America”
Siggy Ferstl – Company 3
Outstanding Editing – Sponsored by Avid Technology
Outstanding Editing – Feature Film
Hugo
Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E. – Sikelia Productions
Outstanding Editing – Television
Downton Abbey – Series 2 Episode 7
John Wilson, A.C.E. – Carnival Film & Television
Outstanding Editing – Commercial
MasterCard “Tango”
Chris Franklin – Big Sky Editorial
Outstanding Sound – Feature Film
The Adventures of Tin Tin
Chris Ward, Brent Burge, Michael Hedges, Christopher Boyes and Andy Nelson – Park Road Post Production
Outstanding Sound – Television
Grimm – Pilot
Mark Lanza, Larry Mann, Alan Decker and Nello Torri – Universal Sound
Outstanding Sound – Commercial
Nissan Leaf “Gas Powered Everything”
Jimmy Hite – Margarita Mix Santa Monica
Outstanding Compositing – Feature Film
The Avengers
Nelson Sepulveda, Alan Travis, Peter Demarest and Chris Bayz – Industrial Light & Magic
Outstanding Compositing – Television
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service – Rekindled
Bob Minshall, Mark Intravartolo, Jeremy Jozwik and Carrie Smith – Encore
Outstanding Compositing – Commercial
Chevy “2012 Silverado”
Benjamin Walsh, Dominik Bauch and Nicholas Kim – Method Studios
A number of special awards, which had been announced earlier, were bestowed during the evening including:
The Charles S. Swartz Award for Outstanding Contribution in the field of Postproduction:
* Ray Dolby, Dolby Laboratories
Engineering Excellence Award
* Cinnafilm – Tachyon(tm)
* Crossroads Systems – StrongBox
* Dolby Laboratories – Dolby(r) Atmos(tm)
* Sony Electronics – F65 Camera
HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation in Postproduction
* Gradient Interactive – Sandbox
