AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Declares Winners for Scientific and Technical Achievements
The 2025 Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, hosted by Diego Luna, took place on April 29, 2025, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The event honoured 14 significant achievements that have contributed valuable innovations to the filmmaking industry.
Among the recognised achievements, the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) stood out as a globally adopted open-source color management framework. ACES 2.0, the latest version, offers improved color rendering, more consistent display across dynamic ranges, enhanced transform invertibility, and increased custom output device support. This technology ensures a consistent color experience and protects creative vision in major films such as Captain America: Brave New World, The Wild Robot, and Wicked.
Another notable honour was the Academy Award of Merit, presented collectively to all individuals who have developed and supported captioning technologies for film accessibility. Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences will greatly benefit from this technology, making cinematic experiences more inclusive. Actress Marlee Matlin accepted the award on behalf of the developers and advocates, emphasising the inspirational impact and call for broader inclusion.
The Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee conducts thorough evaluations of the innovation and impact of technologies developed for the motion picture industry. This year's awards encompass a wide range of film production advancements, including fire stunt safety, stabilized hand-held camera operation, animation, post-production innovations in dialogue capture, and CG imagery rendering systems.
Other recognised innovations include the Ronin 2 gimbal system, developed by Su Tie, Bei Shimen, and Zhao Yanchong, which utilises three-axis stabilization through multiple sensors for broad industry adoption. The Mōvi gimbals, developed by Tabb Firchau, John Ellison, Steve Webb, David Bloomfield, and Shane Colton, provide handheld stabilized camera operation.
Neeme Vaino developed Fireskin360 Naked Burn Gel, allowing longer targeted burns directly on the skin for fire stunts. Mark Noel adapted and enhanced the safety and reliability of transportable six-degrees-of-freedom motion base technology for motion picture use.
Attila T. Áfra and Timo Aila were recognised for the creation of Intel Open Image Denoise, an open-source library improving efficiency and preserving detail in CG imagery. Thijs Vogels, Fabrice Rousselle, David Adler, Gerhard Röthlin, and Mark Meyer created Disney's ML Denoiser, a sophisticated machine learning denoiser featuring a ground-breaking kernel-predicting convolutional network.
Javor Kalojanov and Kimball Thurston were honoured for the creation of Wētā FX's ML Denoiser, a denoiser prioritizing temporal filtering using innovative optical flow techniques. Essex Edwards, James Jacobs, Jernej Barbic, Crawford Doran, and Andrew van Straten received an award for the design and development of Ziva VFX, a system for constructing and simulating muscles, fat, fascia, and skin for digital characters.
Dustin Brooks and Colin Decker developed a naked burn gel for Fire for Hire, first publicly demonstrating a "naked burn," where fire appears directly on the skin for safe fire stunts.
The achievements to be honoured represent 37 individual award recipients, each contributing significantly to the visual possibilities of cinema and creating new and compelling experiences for moviegoers. More information about these innovations can be found on the official Oscars website or future detailed announcements from the AMPAS.
- The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) 2.0, a significant achievement, offers improvements in color rendering, dynamic range consistency, transform invertibility, and custom output device support for the digital media industry.
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences will benefit from the Academy Award of Merit, presented to individuals who have developed and supported captioning technologies for film accessibility.
- The Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee recognized innovations in various aspects of movie-making, including fire stunt safety, camera operation, animation, post-production, and CG imagery rendering systems.
- Su Tie, Bei Shimen, and Zhao Yanchong developed the Ronin 2 gimbal system, which uses three-axis stabilization for broad industry adoption.
- Tabb Firchau, John Ellison, Steve Webb, David Bloomfield, and Shane Colton created the Mōvi gimbals, providing handheld stabilized camera operation.
- Neeme Vaino's Fireskin360 Naked Burn Gel allows for longer targeted burns directly on the skin for safe fire stunts.
- Mark Noel adapted and enhanced transportable six-degrees-of-freedom motion base technology for motion picture use, while Attila T. Áfra and Timo Aila created Intel Open Image Denoise, an open-source library improving efficiency and preserving detail in CG imagery, and Disney's ML Denoiser is a sophisticated machine learning denoiser featuring a ground-breaking kernel-predicting convolutional network.
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