The Advanced Imaging Society has announced the Special Honors for the 2024 Lumiere Awards, which take place Friday, February 9, 2024 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
This year’s Lumiere Awards will celebrate Hollywood’s “masters” and “production magicians.” Those receiving special honors are Academy Award-winning writer, producer and director Alexander Payne (The Holdovers), who will receive the Harold Lloyd Award for filmmaking; Darren Aronofsky and Sphere Entertainment will receive Earthday.org’s Voices For the Earth Award for their film Postcard from Earth.
Voting is now underway and continues until January 10th for its 14th annual Lumiere Awards, which honor creative and technical achievement with awards for notable work in over a dozen different film and television categories which include Live Action, Documentary, Musical and Animation features, Audio, HDR and Visual Effects achievements, Action and Musical sequences and more.
Academy Award-winner Alexander Payne, director of the hit film The Holdovers, will be presented with the Advanced Imaging Society’s top award, the Harold Lloyd Award for distinguished achievement in filmmaking. “The Harold Lloyd Award originated more than a decade ago to recognize filmmakers who have boldly moved our industry forward through their technical artistry and storytelling,” said Society president Jim Chabin. “We are thrilled to be honoring Alexander Payne, a brilliant filmmaker whose career has inspired audiences by writing and directing nuanced personal stories that reveal deeper realities of American life,” stated Suzanne Lloyd, Chairman of Harold Lloyd Entertainment. “Harold Lloyd, who, like Alexander Payne, was a native Nebraskan, celebrated authentic human characters who were navigating life with integrity. In the film The Holdovers, Mr. Payne has enlightened us with a beautiful story woven from intimate portraits of unforgettable characters, creating a heartfelt and memorable ode to boyhood, teaching and to an iconic era in the United States.”
Director Darren Aronofsky and the team from Sphere Entertainment will receive the Voices for the Earth Award for Postcard from Earth, a mesmerizing and technically marvelous tribute to earth’s natural wonders. Sphere is a new next-generation entertainment medium in Las Vegas with cutting-edge technologies that engage the senses to transport audiences to places both real and imagined, and Postcard from Earth has set a new bar for multi-sensory storytelling possibilities. The Voices For The Earth Award celebrates innovation and inspiration in environmental storytelling and acknowledges creatives who have found a unique approach to strengthen the audience’s appreciation for nature and illustrate the importance of taking care of our shared planet. Presenting the award to Aronofsky and the Sphere team will be Tom Cosgrove, Chief Creative Officer of earthday.org and past chairman of AIS. Kathleen Rogers, President of EARTHDAY.ORG, commented “Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard From Earth is a tribute to the earth’s beauty and its complexity as well as the technological possibilities of filmmaking itself. Mr. Aronofsky’s stunning film underscores how every single species on the planet is completely dependent on it. There is no backup planet. So, I hope that his work will serve as a timely reminder of why we all need to do more to protect Earth. Now more than ever. We are truly proud to present this award to a visionary filmmaker who shares our love for planet Earth and all of the precious species that call it home.”
The Lumiere Awards have been presented over the last decade to the industry’s most respected creative and technical leaders, celebrating our storytellers. In addition to awards for motion pictures, episodic and new media content, the society will bestow awards for best musical motion picture, best musical scene or performance, best immersive audio and more.
ABOUT THE ADVANCED IMAGING SOCIETY
The Advanced Imaging Society was formed more than a decade ago by senior Hollywood executives to identify game-changing filmmaking technologies and foster their deployment to accelerate the success of next-generation consumer experiences. Founders included Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Sony, Paramount, IMAX, Warner Bros. DreamWorks, Dolby, Technicolor and Deluxe. The organization is charged with annually honoring creative and technical professionals for groundbreaking filmmaking and entertainment technology. Through the years, AIS honorees have included James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Jennifer Lee, James Mangold, Jon Favreau, Christopher McQuarrie, Victoria Alonso and others. The organization now includes Silicon Valley and tech leaders including Google, NVIDIA, HP, Dell, Epic Games and others. In addition to its annual awards, the Society produces The Insiders Show Podcast, The Magic Series short-form videos and has active chapters in China, India and Japan.