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Winners and the Best in Show for the 2014 AICE Awards were announced at a gala event in New York tonight, where Editor Brian Lagerhausen of Beast in San Francisco took home the inaugural Best in Show trophy for his work on Google.  The winning entry, a spot titled “Fearless,” was created by the agency Autofuss. 

Four post production companies tied for the top spot in the awards ranking with three AICE Awards each: Cut+Run, which won for work from its London and L.A. offices; Cutters Studios, which earned recognition for work from its Cutters editorial company and Flavor, its visual effects and design studio; Rock Paper Scissors; and Umlaut.

Awards were presented in a total of 30 categories at the gala – 21 technique, media and product categories and nine awards presented to the best work from each of the association’s regional chapters.  All winners can be screened at the AICE web site here.  (A full list of winners is below.)

This year marked the introduction of the Best in Show award, which was presented to one winning entry selected by the AICE Curatorial Committee from among the 21 main competition category winners. The Committee is a group of 13 artists at AICE member companies who represent a cross-section of disciplines, crafts and regions. 

This was also the introductory year for two new categories: Alternative Media (over :90) and Online Campaign. The latter was designed to recognize work created specifically for online distribution.

Also taking place at the gala tonight was the induction into the AICE Hall of Fame of John Palestrini, the late co-founder of the Lively Group of post production companies and a highly respected and admired editor, businessman, industry leader and mentor.  Palestrini’s accomplishments were marked in a moving video presentation and by remarks delivered by his former partner, Ethel Rubinstein, CEO of Lively Group, and his son, Kris Palestrini, Owner of Krispy Pictures.

Top Winners Awards Rundown
Cut+Run won in the categories of Alternative Media (:90 and under) for Nike “Fuelband” from AKQA, edited by Sam Ostrove of Cut+Run London; in National Campaign for Moto X/Motorola’s “Music,” “Drive” and “Meeting” from Droga 5, edited by Graham Turner and Frank Effron of Cut+Run LA; and in Public Service for Macmillan’s “Give Support” from VCCP, edited by Ben Campbell of Cut+Run London.

Cutters Studios won in the categories of Comedy for Oscar Mayer’s “Giving Thanks” for mcgarry bowen in Chicago, edited by Grant Gustafson; and in Best Of Chicago for IBM’s “On Brand” for VSA Partners, edited by Michael Lippert. Flavor, Cutters Studios’ design arm, won in the Design category for the AICP “Show Opener,” created for the AICP Show.

Rock Paper Scissors won in the categories of Broadcast Promotion for Netflix’s "House of Cards Season 2 Teaser," edited by Grant Surmi; and in Montage and Best of Los Angeles for Nike’s “Possibilities,” edited by Angus Wall.

Umlaut won in the categories of Alternative Media (over :90) for Skype’s “Born Friends” for Pereira & O’Dell, edited by Jessica Congdon; in Fashion/Beauty for Levi’s “Modern Frontier Train” for AKQA, edited by Doug Cox; and in Online Campaign for Skype’s “Born Friends," “Denis” and “Growing up Family” for Pereira & O'Dell, also edited by Jessica Congdon.

The Best in Show winner from Beast SF also won AICE Awards in the Storytelling and Best of San Francisco categories. The only other multiple winner in the competition was The Mill, which won in the Color Grading category for Guinness’ “Guinness Sapeurs” for AMV BBDO in London, which was graded by Colorist Adam Scott of The Mill’s L.A. office and in the Visual Effects category for PETA’s “PETA: 98% Human” for BBDO, with effects from Angus Kneale and Vince Baertsoen of The Mill’s New York office.

Best in Show Analysis from Curatorial Member
“Fearless,” the Best in Show winner, is a heartwarming spot in which a geeky teenage boy uses his Google Nexus tablet to learn how to overcome his fear of public speaking.   Editor Craig Lewandowski, a member of the Curatorial Committee, notes that several category winners could have merited recognition as the show’s top winner. He was asked what propelled the spot to its Best in Show award.

“When you’re judging work it can be hard to separate concept from editorial,” Lewandowski explains. “But as an editor, when we looked at it I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I would have done it any differently.’  It communicated a lot of information in a short amount of time, the sound was impeccably woven into the piece and it highlighted the benefits of the brand in a way that made it part of the story.”

Lewandowski was impressed with how the Curatorial Committee approached its mandate of selecting the Best in Show and providing an overall vision for the winning entries to ensure they properly reflected the crafts and disciplines of their respective categories.  “We had a really high level of engagement, and everyone on the committee was totally into it,” he says.  “And having the perspectives from the different disciplines like effects, audio mixing and color grading was really great.”

The awards gala, which was hosted by the New York Chapter of AICE, included a salute to outgoing Executive Director Burke Moody, who is stepping down at the end of May after 17 years of service to AICE, eight as its Executive Director. In addition, the top winners from the 2013 Camp Kuleshov events were acknowledged. The Camp Kuleshov events are the regional chapters’ trailer editing competitions for assistants. The AICE Awards will head west next year, when the event will be hosted by the association’s Los Angeles chapter.

2014 WINNERS Listing

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA (:90 and under)

Sam Ostrove, Cut+Run London
Nike
"FuelBand" :80
AKQA

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA (over :90)

Jessica Congdon, Umlaut
|Skype
"Born Friends" 3:00
Pereira & O'Dell

AUDIO MIX

David Papa, Sonic Union
Hennessy
"The Man Who Couldn't Slow Down" :90
Droga5

AUTOMOTIVE

Terry King, Territory
Cadillac
"Monkey Do" :30
Rogue

BROADCAST PROMOTION

Grant Surmi, Rock Paper Scissors
Netflix
"House of Cards Season 2 Teaser" :120
Netflix

COLOR GRADING

Adam Scott, The Mill LA
Guinness
"Sapeurs" :90
AMV BBDO

COMEDY

Grant Gustafson, Cutters
Oscar Mayer
"Giving Thanks" :60
mcgarrybowen Chicago

DESIGN

Flavor
AICP
"Show Opener" 2:27
AICP

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.