GSCA Announces 2012 Award Winners

IMAX Best Booth Award, Courtesy Tech Museum

Sacramento, CA, USA (September 19, 2012) -- The Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2012 Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in giant screen filmmaking, marketing, and lifelong learning. The awards were presented last night as part of the GSCA International Conference and Trade Show, hosted this year by the Esquire IMAX Theatre in Sacramento, California. The Achievement Awards gala was sponsored by IMAX Corporation. The following awards were presented by GSCA:

Best Film, Short Subject (tie):
To the Arctic, MacGillivray Freeman Films, IMAX Corporation, Warner Bros.
Rocky Mountain Express, The Stephen Low Company

Best Film for Lifelong Learning:
To the Arctic 3D
Produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films, IMAX Corporation, Warner Bros.

Best Film, Feature Length:
Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol: The IMAX Experience
Distributed by Paramount Pictures and IMAX Corporation

Best Original Score:
The Last Reef
Original Score by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas
Produced by Giant Screen Films, Yes/No Productions, Liquid Pictures
Distributed by Giant Screen Films

Best Cinematography:
Rocky Mountain Express
Cinematography by Stephen Low, Mark Poirier, and Ralph Mendoza
Produced and distributed by The Stephen Low Company

Best Sound Design:
The Last Reef
Sound Design and Mix by Mike Roberts and Brian Eimer
Produced by Giant Screen Films, Yes/No Productions, Liquid Pictures
Distributed by Giant Screen Films

Best Film Launch by a Theater:
Montreal Science Centre for its launch of Born to Be Wild

Best Educational Program:
Science Centre Singapore
Born to Be Wild Program and Children’s Day Program

Best Marketing Campaign by a Distributor:
National Geographic Entertainment, Flying Monsters

Best Theater Marketing Campaign:
Digicel IMAX Theatre Trinidad

Big Idea Award:
The Henry Ford, which staged a Quidditch match to promote Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: The IMAX Experience

Big Shoe Award (given to an exemplary volunteer):
Dick Vaughan, National Media Museum
GSCA also presented a Special Recognition Award to the team behind the IMAX film The Dream Is Alive, members of which participated in a panel discussion before the award was presented to share stories from the production: Producer/Director Graeme Ferguson; Producer/Director, Writer, and Editor Toni Myers; Director of Photography James Neihouse; Director and Sound Designer Ben Burtt; the Director of Communications for Lockheed Missiles and Space, George Mulhern; and David Keighley Post Production Consulting and Print Quality Control.

On April 4, 2012, IMAX Corporation donated two unique cameras to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. The two 70mm IMAX cameras flew a combined total of 20 space shuttle missions from 1984 to 1998. The IMAX team, led by co-inventor Graeme Ferguson, included cinematographers David Douglas and James Neihouse, audio trainers Ben Burtt and Greg Smith, scene development and content advisor Toni Myers, and Associate Producer Phyllis Ferguson. Together they trained 99 astronauts in all aspects of IMAX movie making. Using the footage they brought back, a special partnership between IMAX, NASA, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the National Air and Space Museum enabled the production of 4 films: The Dream Is Alive, Blue Planet, Destiny in Space, and Mission to MIR. Following the phenomenal success of the first four films, 46 more astronauts and cosmonauts were trained to use IMAX 3D cameras to make Space Station 3D and Hubble 3D. Altogether, the 6 films have taken over 100 million people to space.

Technicolor sponsored a special screening of The Dream Is Alive following the award presentation.

IMAX Corporation also presented its Maximum Image Awards at the GSCA awards event:

IMAX Hall of Fame:
Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure
Produced by White Mountain Films and WGBH/NOVA
Distributed by National Geographic Entertainment

Best Booth Award:
Omnitheatre at the Science Centre Singapore
The Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater at The Tech Museum in San Jose, California


IMAX Founders Award:
Diane Carlson, Pacific Science Center

The GSCA 2012 International Conference is the industry’s leading event, including presentations of new films, films in production, and projects in development; professional development sessions addressing the transition to digital, marketing, filmmaking, and lifelong learning; a technical session on the latest developments in image capture, projection, and sound; the giant screen industry’s only trade show, and the annual Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in giant screen filmmaking and marketing.

The core purpose of the Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA®) is to advance the business of producing and presenting educational giant screen and immersive cinema experiences globally. GSCA's membership includes more than 260 organizations in nearly 30 countries. Member organizations include giant screen filmmakers, distributors, theaters, suppliers, manufacturers, and students from around the world. For more information visit www.giantscreencinema.com.