The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced that the HPA Awards, which have celebrated the creative brilliance and ingenuity of the HPA community for 15 years, will take place online this year in a live show on November 19.
Out of respect for the current challenges facing the industry, HPA has instituted a number of important changes for the 2020 HPA Awards with the goal of making them accessible to the greatest number of members in the community, while supporting HPA’s mission of honoring the individuals and companies that serve the industry in indispensable ways. Those changes include an easier submission process, an extended entry period, and reduced entry fees. Additionally, the online HPA show will be open to all who are interested to attend, at no cost.
Engineering Excellence Award
An integral part of the HPA Awards, the Engineering Excellence Award, opened the call for entries on Monday (6/23).
A coveted honor in the technology community, the HPA Engineering Excellence Award recognizes companies that have demonstrated creative ingenuity to develop breakthrough technologies in media, content production, finishing, distribution, and archive. The call for entries will close on July 31, 2020. Entrants for this peer-judged award may include products or processes and must represent a significant step forward for its industry beneficiaries. Judging will take place through remote presentations in August of 2020. Recipients of the 2019 HPA Engineering Excellence Award were Adobe, Epic Games, Pixelworks, Portrait Displays, Inc. and LG Electronics.
Joachim Zell, chair of the HPA Engineering Excellence Award Committee and HPA Board member, said, “This year as always, we encourage the submission of your significant technological achievements. What we see at the HPA Engineering Excellence Award judging sessions are important ideas that lead the growth and stability of the industry. Critical, game changing products have been presented here. The atmosphere is competitive, collegial and passionate. I expect that this year’s entries will be as compelling as in the past, if not even more so, given our circumstances. I am looking forward to seeing what our industry has to present.”
In consideration of social distancing, the application and presentation process for the engineering honors will be different from previous years. Applicants will engage in a two-step process: submission of written and video elements, followed by a live, virtual Q&A with a blue ribbon panel of judges. Zell noted, “We will again assemble an esteemed group of judges who are recognized industry experts. While we will not be able to gather the judges together in person this year, we have devised a plan for live, online interaction with judges, and will maintain our focus on the non-commercial, interactive nature of the submission process.”
Seth Hallen, president of HPA, commented, “It’s been an absolute inspiration to see our community dig in and develop important solutions that support the industry during the very trying time brought about by the pandemic. As the dedicated HPA volunteer leaders and staff have been driving initiatives to support the many professionals who have been impacted by this crisis, we have an amazing creative community who have been doing their work through all of it. This illustrates so clearly why our industry is special. For 15 years, the HPA Awards have shone a spotlight on the incredible work of our community and this year more than ever, we want to recognize the truly special artists behind it all. We feel it is of utmost importance to acknowledge the unique health and social challenges we are facing, and we are fully committed to making sure we recognize and honor the entire community. While we won’t be in the same room together on this anniversary, we are focused on making this year’s virtual HPA Awards an unmissable evening.”
The recipients of the Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation and the Engineering Excellence Award will both be announced in advance of the awards and presented during the online show. Detailed information about the creative categories, opening in the coming weeks, will be forthcoming.
The HPA Awards take place thanks to the generosity of sponsors, including Diamond Title Sponsor Blackmagic Design.
For more information about the HPA Awards, including the latest and most complete rules and procedures, fees, guidelines and entry information, click here.
