sci-tech oscars

Imocap image courtesy Animation Weekly News

Much like puberty and Ramadan, the movie awards season begins earlier and earlier each year. But this year, the nerds get to fire the opening salvo. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (emphasis on the "Sciences") has released its short list of nominees for the Science and Technical Oscars. The list includes some of the best known names in computer animation and special effects, like Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic, as well as some less famous companies that have been quietly changing the process of filmmaking.

Summer is coming, and that means robots, teleportation, antimatter bombs, dinosaurs, an elite high-tech fighting force, fictional metals with unearthly properties ... we love it!

Here’s a look at the Hollywoodified science hitting the big screen this summer, complete with our highly scientific Expected Gibberish Quotient (EGQ).

New York City has just been destroyed by a 40-foot-tall deluge. Pirates battle around a giant, violent whirlpool. Without years of work by the 2007 Scientific and Technical Oscar winners, none of those images would have made it to a computer—and then a multiplex—near you.

Each February at a modest, Joan Riversâ€free ceremony in Los Angeles, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestows a cherished set of honors: the Scientific and Technical Awards. These aren´t the Oscars of Tom, Brad, Charlize and Nicole, and that´s OK-let the jocks ride the homecoming float while the whiz kids play Dungeons & Dragons in the basement. Who needs superficial red-carpet glory when you´re leading nothing less than a revolution in filmmaking? Call it Revenge of the Nerds V: Brainiacs Take Hollywood.

Technology: Compositing Software

Nominee: David Simons | Adobe After Effects