Finalists for the 2014 AICE Awards have been announced and the L.A., San Francisco, New York and London offices of Cut+Run dominated the list with 12 nominations in a wide range of categories. Also performing well in the competition was Umlaut in San Francisco, which scored eight finalist entries.
Other AICE companies that were ranked near the top of the list included Cutters, with seven total finalists; Arcade Edit, with six finalist entries; and Rock Paper Scissors, which earned five finalist nominations.
Finalist entries can be screened on the AICE web site here.
Cut+Run’s work was singled out across a wide spectrum of categories, with finalists in the Alternative Media (:90 and under) category for Nike, Automotive for Volkswagen and Fiat, Fashion/Beauty for the Council of Fashion Designers Award Film Series and Storytelling for Adobe, among others. It was also a finalist in the competition’s new Online Campaign category with work for Bud Light and in the National Campaign category with work for Motorola.
Umlaut was recognized for its Skype work, which earned finalist nods in the Alternative Media (over :90), Online Campaign and Storytelling categories, and its work for Levi’s, which was nominated in the Alternative Media (:90 and over) and Fashion/Beauty categories. In addition, it was nominated in the Under $50,000 category for work for Common Sense Media and Bigelow.
Cutters Studios’ nominations, which included work produced by its Flavor visual effects division and Another Country, its sound design and audio post studio, were in recognition of work for Oscar Mayer in the Comedy category, the AICP Show opening in the Design category, Siberia Elite in the Sound Design category and Kraft in the Visual Effects category, along with nods in the Best of Chicago category for IBM and Best of Detroit for Chrysler.
Arcade Edit’s finalist nominations came in such categories as Broadcast Promotion for Paramount Pictures, Music Video for Jay Z’s “Picasso Baby,” National Campaign for Dodge, Public Service for the Ad Council, Regional Campaign for Foster Farms and Best of Los Angeles for the Ad Council and Nike. Rock Paper Scissors’ finalist entries were in such categories as Alternative Media (:90 and over) for Dove, Broadcast Promotion for Netflix, Montage for Nike and Best of Los Angeles for Nike.
Other multiple-nominee member companies on the finalist list included Beast, Rooster and The Mill, which had four entries each, and Big Sky and Peel & Eat, which both had three.
Curatorial Committee Reactions
This marked the first year that the AICE Awards Curatorial Committee, comprised of artists from across the post production disciplines, convened via conference call to review and discuss all of the finalist nominees and to select the competitions’ first Best in Show winner.
Chris Franklin, Owner and Editor of Big Sky in New York, was one of the committee’s organizers, along with Editors Craig Lewandowski of Optimus in Chicago and Bob Spector of Beast in San Francisco. Franklin characterized the experience of reviewing all of the finalists and discussing them with his peers from around the country as uplifting. “I felt it was exactly what the committee was created for,” he says. “It gave us an opportunity to make sure all of the finalists felt right for each respective category, and it gave each of us a chance to talk about the craft of editing and post production.”
Commenting on the new Online Campaign category – created by AICE so that work created specifically for web and mobile distribution could be judged against each other – Franklin felt that overall the work seemed “tight, polished and targeted for that medium. From all angles – the shooting, the editing, the graphics and music and sound – everything seemed sharp. I was very impressed with what I saw, and I think the creation of this category will give us a chance to highlight work that might not have gotten seen otherwise.”
The 13th Annual AICE Awards will be held on May 15th at Gustavino’s in New York City. For more information about the Awards, visit www.aice.org.
About AICE
AICE is the marketing communications post production association whose members are independent creative editorial, design, visual effects, color grading, audio, music and post production companies. It is dedicated to the advancement and promotion of these companies and the essential role their artists play in the media creation process. With chapters in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Toronto, AICE represents a significant segment of the vibrant post production industry, and continues to maintain its strong collective voice in the commercial advertising and marketing industry. Among its signature initiatives and programs are the annual AICE Awards, which highlights creative excellence among its member companies; the regular publication of white papers and advisories on relevant trends and developments in post production; and active participation with other industry organizations on the establishment of standards and best practices for the post production process. For more in-formation, visit www.aice.org.
