Start your Engines! Creative Categories Open June 1

When the lights go down and the music comes up at the Hollywood Legion on November 9, the room will be full of the artists and companies that comprise the very heart and soul of HPA. It sounds like a clich , but what is a clich but a well-documented truth? As always, we are celebrating our storytellers and are looking forward to seeing the brilliant work that comes from our community.

As the HPA Awards enter their 18th year, their evolution continues. Even as the focus on recognition has remained the Awards' singular motivation, category changes have been developed to address industry trends and changes. For example, visual effects categories have been modified based on the changes in programming like the rise of limited series and increasing differentiation between supporting and outstanding effects; similarly, last year's nonfiction categories were added in response to the growing popularity of that genre and input from the community. Surveys of submitters, ongoing conversations, and direct contact from the HPA audience guides our plans.

After the launch of a juried award for restoration in 2022 (Invaders from Mars was recognized by the jury), the interest from our industry in submitting restoration projects convinced the HPA staff and Awards Committee it was time to open this category for submission for the best restoration project. Spearheaded by Anthony Magliocco, the restoration category will honor one project and the team behind it for outstanding restoration on a title being re-released. In deference to its first year as a submittable category, the period of eligibility will be from September of 2021 to September of 2023, a 2 year window. After this year's awards, eligibility for outstanding restoration will mirror other categories with a one-year window. Judges for the new category are industry experts, as they are for the other creative categories.

One of the most consistently voiced comments in regard to color grading and visual effects centered on the need for animation to be judged as its own category, not in competition with live action. This year, that change has been made with the addition of Outstanding Color Grading in Animation (features and episodic/non-theatrical) and Outstanding Visual Effects in Animation (features and episodic). Sarah McGrail (SVP/Executive Producer VFX at Assembly) has been instrumental in guiding the changes in the visual effects category, and a subgroup of the Awards Committee (Daphne Dentz, Andre Trejo, and David Hall) advised on changes to the color grading category.

The HPA Awards creative categories are a singular honor for colorists, editors, visual effects artists, sound teams and now restoration teams that are purely based on creative excellence, judged by subject matter experts. As ever, we are looking forward to what our talented community enters this year. Take a look at the complete Rules & Procedures here, and contact awards@hpaonline.com with any questions. See you at the Hollywood Legion on November 9!

LINK:	https://hpaonline.com/start-your-engines-creative-categories-open-june...
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