Academy Scientific and Technical Award

The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season.^[1][2] The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards in November 1931, to recognize original developments resulting in significant improvements in motion picture production and exhibition.^[2] The Awards are presented at a formal dinner ceremony a couple weeks before the principal Academy Awards ceremony.^[2] The 2025 awards will take place April 29, two months after the 97th Academy Awards.

These awards recognize significant milestones in the development of technology for motion pictures and are conferred by vote of the Academy Board of Governors. Potential nominations for awards are investigated by a special committee within the Academy, "The Scientific and Technical Awards Committee", which presents a written report and recommendation to the Board of Governors.^[3]

Additionally, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, given for "outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy", and the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, both also considered Honorary Awards, are usually also chosen by the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee and conferred at this annual presentation dinner ceremony.^[4][5]

Three kinds of Scientific and Technical Awards

Innovations in motion pictures technology are recognized with the following awards:

1. Academy Award of Merit^[1] – an Academy statuette (an Oscar);
2. Scientific and Engineering Award^[1] – an Academy bronze tablet;^[6] and
3. Technical Achievement Award^[1] – an Academy certificate.

^[7]

Award of Merit

From the 4th Academy Awards in 1931 through the 50th Academy Awards in 1978 the award was originally called the "Class I Scientific and Technical Award." The award is non-competitive. Winners receive an Oscar statuette.^[1] As of 2018^[update], 50 achievements have been recognized with an Award of Merit.

Sci-Tech Award of Merit Recipients ^[8]

Year	Recipient(s)
1930/1931 (4th)	To Electrical Research Products, Inc., RCA-Photophone, Inc., and RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., for noise reduction recording equipment To Dupont Film Manufacturing Corp., and Eastman Kodak Company for super-sensitive panchromatic film
1936 (9th)	To Douglas Shearer and the MGM Studio Sound Department "for the development of a practical two-way horn system and a biased Class A push-pull recording system"
1937 (10th)	To Agfa Ansco Corporation for Agfa Supreme and Agfa Ultra Speed pan motion picture negatives
1940 (13th)	To 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. for the design and construction of the 20th Century Silenced Camera, developed by Daniel Clark, Grover Laube, Charles Miller, and Robert W. Stephens
1949 (22nd)	To Eastman Kodak Company "for the development and introduction of an improved safety base motion picture film"
1952 (25th)	To Eastman Kodak Company for the introduction of Eastman color negative and Eastman color print film To Ansco Film Division of General Aniline and Film Corporation for the introduction of Ansco color negative and Ansco color print film
1953 (26th)	To Professor Henri Chretien and Earl Sponable, Sol Halprin, Lorin Grignon, Herbert Bragg, and Carl Faulkner of 20th Century Fox-Studios "for creating, developing, and engineering the equipment, processes, and techniques known as CinemaScope" To Fred Waller "for designing and developing the multiple photographic and projection systems which culminated in Cinerama"
1954 (27th)	To Paramount Pictures, Inc., Loren L. Ryder, John R. Bishop, "and all the members of the technical and engineering staff for developing a method of producing and exhibiting motion pictures known as VistaVision"
1955 (28th)	To the National Carbon Co. "for the development and production of a high efficiency yellow flame carbon for motion picture color photography"
1957 (30th)	To the Todd-AO Corp. and Westrex Corp. "for developing a method of producing and exhibiting wide-film motion pictures known as the Todd-AO system" To the Motion Picture Research Council "for the design and development of a high efficiency projection screen for drive-in theaters"
1964 (37th)	To Petro Vlahos, Wadsworth E. Pohl, and Ub Iwerks "for the conception and perfection of techniques for Color Traveling Matte Composite Cinematography"
1968 (41st)	To Philip V. Palmquist of Minnesota Mining and Manufacture Co., to Herbert Meyer of the Motion Picture and Television Research Center, and to Charles D. Staffell of the Rank Organization "for the development of a successful embodiment of the reflex background projection system for composite cinematography" To Eastman Kodak Company "for the development and introduction of a color reversal intermediate film for motion pictures"
1977 (50th)	To Garrett Brown and the Cinema Products Corporation Engineering Staff "under the supervision of John Jurgens for the invention and development of Steadicam"
1978 (51st)	To Eastman Kodak Company "for the research and development of a Duplicating Color Film for motion pictures" To Stefan Kudelski of Nagra Magnetic Recorders, Incorporated, "for the continuing research, design, and development of the Nagra Production Sound Recorder for Motion Pictures" To Panavision, Incorporated, "and its engineering staff under the direction of Robert E. Gottschalk, for the concept, design, and continuous development of the Panaflex Motion Picture Camera System"
1979 (52nd)	To Mark Serrurier "for the progressive development of the Moviola from the 1924 invention of his father, Iwan Serrurier, to the present Series 20 sophisticated film editing equipment"
1980 (53rd)	To Linwood G. Dunn, Cecil D. Love, and AcmeTool and Manufacturing Company "for the concept, engineering, and development of the Acme-Dunn Optical Printer for motion picture special effects"
1981 (54th)	To Fuji Film Photo Company, Ltd. "for the research, development, and introduction of a new Ultra-high-speed color negative film for motion pictures"
1982 (55th)	To August Arnold and Erich Kastner of Arnold & Richter, GmbH, "for the concept and engineering of the first operation 35mm, hand-held, spinning-mirror reflex, motion picture camera"
1983 (56th)	To Kurt Larche of Osram GmbH "for the research and development of xenon short-arc discharge lamps for motion picture projection"
1987 (60th)	To Bernard Kuhl, and Werner Block, and to the Osram GmbH Research and Development Department "for the invention and continuing improvement of the Osram HMI light source for motion picture photography"
1988 (61st)	To Ray Dolby and Ioan Allen of Dolby Laboratories Incorporated "for their continuous contributions to motion picture sound through the research and development programs of Dolby Laboratories"
1990 (63rd)	To Eastman Kodak Company "for the development of T-Grain technology and the introduction of EXR color negative films which utilize this technology"
1992 (65th)	To Chadwell O’Connor of the O'Connor Engineering Laboratories "for the concept and engineering of the fluid-damped camera head for motion picture photography"
1993 (66th)	To Panavision for the Auto Panatar anamorphic photographic lens To Manfred G. Michelson of Technical Film Systems, Incorporated, "for the design and development of the first sprocket-driven film transport system for color print film processors which permits transport speeds in excess of 600 feet per minute"
1994 (67th)	To Petro Vlahos and Paul Vlahos "for the conception and development of the Ultimatte Electronic Blue Screen Compositing Process for motion pictures To the Eastman Kodak Company for the development of the Eastman EXR Color Intermediate Film 5244"
1996 (69th)	To IMAX Corporation "for the method of filming and exhibiting high-fidelity, large-format, wide-angle motion pictures"
1997 (70th)	To Gunnar P. Michelson "for the engineering and development of an improved, electronic, high-speed, precision light valve for use in motion picture printing machines"
1998 (71st)	To Avid Technology, Inc., "for the concept, system design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer for motion picture editing"
2000 (73rd)	To Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter, and Ed Catmull "for their significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering exemplified in Pixar’s Renderman" [9]
2002 (75th)	To Alias/Wavefront "for the development of a 3D animation, dynamics, modeling, and rendering production tool known as Maya" To Arnold & Richter Cine Technik and Panavision, Inc., "for their continuing development and innovation in the design and manufacturing of advanced camera systems specifically designed for the motion picture entertainment industry"
2003 (76th)	To Digidesign "for the design, development, and implementation of the ProTools digital audio workstation" To Bill Tondreau of Kuper Controls "for his significant advancements in the field of motion picture control technology for motion picture visual effects"
2004 (77th)	To Horst Burbulla "for the invention and continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane" To Jean-Marie Lavalou, Alain Masseron, and David Samuelson "for the engineering and development of the Louma Camera Crane and remote system for motion picture production"
2007 (80th)	To the Eastman Kodak Company "for the development of photographic emulsion technologies incorporated into the Kodak Vision2 family of color negative films"
2011 (84th)	To Franz Kraus. Johannes Steurer, and Wolfgang Riedel "for the design and development of the ARRILASER film recorder"
2012 (85th)	To Cooke Optics Limited "for their continuing innovation in the design, development and manufacture of advanced camera lenses that have helped define the look of motion pictures over the last century."
2013 (86th)	To all those who built and operated film laboratories, "for over a century of service to the motion picture industry"
2014 (87th)	To Larry Hornbeck "for the invention of digital micromirror technology as used in DLP cinema projection"
2017 (90th)	To Mark Elendt and SideFX Software for the creation and development of the Houdini visual effects and animation system

Scientific and Engineering Award

The Scientific and Engineering Award is given for scientific achievements that produce a definite influence on the advancement of the motion picture industry. Achievements need not have been developed and introduced during the award year.

Scientific and Engineering Award Recipients

Year	Recipient(s)
1986 (59th)[10]	To William L. Fredrick and Hal Needham for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane.
2005 (78th)[11]	To Anatoliy Kokush for the concept and development of the Cascade series of motion picture cranes. To Anatoliy Kokush, Oleksiy Zolotarov for the concept and development of the Russian Arm gyro-stabilized camera crane and the Flight Head. To David Baraff, Michael Kass, Andy Witkin for their pioneering work in physically based computer-generated techniques used to simulate realistic cloth in motion pictures. To Garrett Brown for the original concept of the Skycam flying camera system - the first use of 3D volumetric cable technology for motion picture cinematography. To Laurie Frost, Peter Hannan for the development of the remote camera head known as the Hot-Head. To David Grober, for the concept and mechanical design of the Perfect Horizon camera stabilization head. To Scott Lewallen, for the electronic and software design of the Perfect Horizon camera stabilization head.
2024 (96th)	To Charles Q. Robinson, Nicolas Tsingos, Christophe Chabanne, Mark Vinton and the team of software, hardware and implementation engineers of the Cinema Audio Group at Dolby Laboratories for the creation of the Dolby Atmos Cinema Sound System. To Steve Read and Barry Silverstein for their contributions to the design and development of the IMAX Prismless Laser Projector. To Peter Janssens, Goran Stojmenovik and Wouter D’Oosterlinck for the design and development of the Barco RGB Laser Projector. To Michael Perkins, Gerwin Damberg, Trevor Davies and Martin J. Richards for the design and development of the Christie E3LH Dolby Vision Cinema Projection System, implemented in collaboration between Dolby Cinema and Christie Digital engineering teams. To Ken Museth, Peter Cucka and Mihai Aldén for the creation of OpenVDB and its ongoing impact within the motion picture industry. To Jaden Oh for the concept and development of the Marvelous Designer clothing creation system. To F. Sebastian Grassia, Alex Mohr, Sunya Boonyatera, Brett Levin and Jeremy Cowles for the design and engineering of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD).
2025 (97th)	To Curt O. Schaller for the concept, design and development of the Trinity 2 system[12][13] To Roman Foltyn for the software and hardware design of its motorized stabilized head[14][15]

Technical Achievement Award

Main article: Academy Award for Technical Achievement

See also

• List of engineering awards