Advanced Imaging Society Awards: Joseph Kosinski, Jerry Bruckheimer Celebrate "Passion for Cinema"

'F1,' 'Sinners,' 'Avatar: Fire and Ash,' 'Wicked: For Good' and 'Zootopia 2' are among the movies that collected awards during the luncheon.

F1 director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer accepted the Advanced Imaging Society’s Harold Lloyd Award for their work to elevate the theatrical experience, while Wicked: For Good helmer Jon M. Chu was presented the inaugural Judy Garland Legacy Award, Monday during AIS’ annual awards luncheon at The Beverly Hills Hotel.

Sinners was honored for best live action feature, while F1, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 were among the productions that collected awards during the luncheon.

Harold Lloyd Entertainment chair Suzanne Lloyd and F1 star Damson Idris presented the Harold Lloyd Award to Bruckheimer and Kosinski. Bruckehimer saluted the AIS community’s “passion for cinema” as Kosinski noted that “every tech challenge [in F1] was driven by story and characters … to connect the audience with the story.” Said Idris, “their films don’t just entertain us, they raise the audience expectations. … They deliver spectacle and innovation, constantly pushing the craft forward.” F1 also received an award for its use of HDR.

Google was presented with the Society’s annual Sir Charles Wheatstone Award for innovations including its VEO and Imagen models, Google Cloud and YouTube production tools. Google recently collaborated with Magnopus on The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, and Magnopus founder/CEO Ben Grossmann presented the award to Anil Jain, Google’s global managing director of strategic industries. Jain pledged that Google would “continue championing the future of storytelling.”

This led to a montage of Judy Garland’s work and the presentation of Judy Garland Legacy Award to Wicked director Jon M. Chu. Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft introduced the award and called Chu “The Wizard of Joy,” and Josh Gad (a lead in Chu’s upcoming animated Oh, The Places You’ll Go) presented the award to the director. Accepting, Chu said he was humbled to accept the award in Garland’s name, offering inspiring words about how she “made us feel that we had the right to dream,” and “gave truth disguised as entertainment.” He added that Garland also provides a reminder that “in difficult times it is perhaps when we need her most.”

Wicked also received AIS’s award for a musical motion picture during the luncheon.

The best live action feature award was presented by Sinners best supporting actor nominee Delroy Lindo to the film’s producer Sev Ohanian, who salute the artists behind the movie. Several members of the Sinners sound team - Chris Welcker, Steve Boeddeker, and Benny Burtt - additionally received the AIS Award for best audio for a theatrical film. Burtt saluted partners Skywalker Sound and Warner Bros. Sound.

(From left: Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski and Damson Idris arrive at the AIS Awards, Feb 9 at the Beverly Hills Hotel)

The Lumiere for best theatrical scene or sequence was awarded to Avatar: Fire and Ash for the third act Flux Devil fire tornado battle sequence. Weta FX’s Joe Letteri and Eric Saindon and Lightstrom’s Richie Baneham accepted the award. Baneham dedicating the award to the film’s producer, Jon Landau, who died in 2024, calling him “the glue that holds our family together.”

Another special award, the AIS Distinguished Artist Award, was presented by Kathleen Kennedy to actor Ethan Hawke. “We are in this journey together, working together in collaboration,” he told the estimated 200 guests.

VUE and its CEO Tim Richards were honored with the Society’s Governor’s Award for cinema excellence for their new generation of premium EPIC cinemas, which include Barco’s new HDR by Barco laser projectors. Richards says he was “blown away” when he saw the Barco projector’s images for the first time. Acknowledging that “cinemas worldwide have been going through difficult times,” he asserted, “Today we are back.”

Production Technology Lumiere Awards were presented to: AMD, for their EPYC CPU’s and Threadripper Pro workstation tools; CoreWeave, for its Conductor cloud tools; Flawless, the first AI company to be recognized with a Lumiere Award, for its assistive AI tool; 6P Color, for its “full color range” format for color imagery; and DisneyResearch|Studios, for its controllable ML stereo conversion toolset.

The Society’s chair, Google’s Buzz Hayes, opened the ceremony, noting that AIS’ mission is to “arm the next generation of storytellers with the best tools.”

To no surprise, AI was a key theme. Asserting that the “future of storytelling will not be shaped by algorithms,” Society president Jim Chabin noted that AI “brings real questions, anxiety and responsibly” but that technology “does not define” the stories that are told but “people do.”

Accepting the award for Flawless, co-founder and CEO Scott Mann echoed that message, recognizing “the humans behind the art” while asserted that its ”imperative that we choose the right tools and right ways to do things.”

The complete list of winners follows:

Best Feature Film - Live Action: Sinners

Best Feature Film – Animation: Zootopia 2

Best Documentary: The King of Color

Best Motion Picture - Musical: Wicked: For Good

Best Audio – Theatrical: Sinners

Best Audio – Episodic: Severance

Best Original Song: “Golden,” from KPop Demon Hunters

Best Use of High Dynamic Range – Feature Film: F1

Best Use of High Dynamic Range – Episodic: Stranger Things Season 5

Best Musical Scene or Sequence: KPop Demon Hunters - “Golden”

Best Theatrical Scene or Sequence: Avatar: Fire and Ash - “Flux Devil”

Best Episodic – Animation: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Best Episodic – Live Action: Andor Season 2

Best International 3D Documentary: NHK for The Mark of Beauty Tokyo Imperial Palace

Best Use of VR: Dolphins of the Reef, Immotion

Production Technology Awards:AMD, DisneyResearch|Studios Flawless, 6P Color, CoreWeave

Governor’s Award for Cinema Excellence: VUE

Sir Charles Wheatstone Award: Google

Judy Garland Legacy Award: Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good

Harold Lloyd Award: Joseph Kosinski & Jerry Bruckheimer, F1