Outside Editorial and Big Sky Editorial Company, both in New York, and Margarita Mix Santa Monica topped the spot category nominees for the fourth annual Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards, which recognize creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of postproduction.
Outside garnered three nominations while Big Sky and Margarita Mix each earned a pair. Work from Outside and Big Sky accounted for the three nominees in the Outstanding Editing-Commercial category: Outside editor Neil Gust for NASCAR’s “Start Er Up” and Jaguar’s “XF/XK”; and editor Chris Franklin of Big Sky for Bing.com’s “Syndrome.”
For the Outstanding Color Grading-Commercial category, colorist Alex Bickel of Outside scored a nomination for Jaguar’s “XJ Launch Film” while Big Sky’s Valerie Junge earned nominee status on the strength of American Express’ “Members’ Moments.” Rounding out the nominees in the category was colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld of bicoastal Company 3 for Pepsi’s “Pass.”
Company 3 scored another nomination–this one outside the spot realm–for Outstanding Color Grading in TV for colorist Siggy Ferstl on the basis of Yankee Stadium Tribute-Yogi’s Bronx.
Margarita Mix’s two commercial nominees came in the Outstanding Audio Post category, one for mixer Nathan Dubin for Honda Civic’s “Grooves”; and the other for Jeff Levy for Honda Fury’s “Unleashed.” The latter was a shared nomination as Margarita Mix and audio artisans Paul Hurtubise, Richard Cooperman and Thom Blackburn of Santa Monica-based Solid worked on “Unleashed.” Rounding out the category was mixer Parv Thind of Wave Recording Studios, London, for Sony’s “Extreme Detail Bond.”
And the nominees in the remaining spot category, Outstanding Compositing, were: Geoff McAuliffe, Jimi Simmons, Sean McLean and Robin Hobart of Brickyard VFX, Santa Monica and Boston, for NBA’s “Amazing Playoff Moments–Bird Steals The Ball”; Brady Beaubien and Brandon Peterson of Los Angeles-based Interlace Media for the “International Landmark Destruction Campaign” promoting The Day The Earth Stood Still; and Colin Renshaw of Animal Logic, Sydney, for Toyota’s “Ninja Kittens.”
HPA Award winners will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony on Nov. 12 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. For a full rundown of nominees spanning the feature and TV categories, log onto www.hpaawardsnet.com.
Already known are the honorees that evening for several other HPA kudos. Ben Burtt will receive the HPA’s Charles S. Swartz Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Post Production. Burtt has worked in every facet of film production for over 35 years spanning directing, producing, sound design, sound editing, editing, voicing and voice design in motion pictures, TV, specialty, educational and documentary. He was the sound designer for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards for sound effects work and has won four Oscars.
Meanwhile slated to receive the HPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award is post icon Paul Haggar who rose through the studio ranks from the Paramount mailroom to apprentice editor and ultimately to executive VP of Postproduction for Feature Films, a position he held for more than 20 years.
And finally the HPA Engineering Excellence Award winners are DVS Digital Video Systems for the CLIPSTER hardware and software turnkey finishing system; Signiant for its Content Distribution Management (CDM) software which was developed to centrally manage, secure, accelerate and automate the movement of rich media content; and S.Two Corp. for its OB-1 Uncompressed Digital Recorder, a complete system for providing images from digital cameras to post.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More