On the weekend we published the list of technology that was up for the Tech Science Oscar this year. This is the body of work to be considered rather than a formal shortlist. This process allows anyone who feels there is a prior claim to flag it – in a friendly and non-confrontational way before the formal awards start.

I scanned the list and knowing quite a few people, we shot off some emails to say congrats – in some cases actually alerting people to their ‘nominations’ – which was fun. But in doing so I was struck by the enormous contribution of ILM. Of the eleven submission, two were reported as being ILM supported: OBAQ/DOALL and Imocap. But actually a third: Ambient Occlusion was developed at ILM – but Ken McGaugh had moved on to DNeg and the Academy had used his new company in the press by mistake – a point Ken was first to point out. Still a fourth submission – Point-Based Color Bleeding has an ILM component – as it is a Renderman feature and Pixar has attached an ILM name to the submission in acknowledgment of the contribution ILM made. So of the eleven submission: fully four are ILM related.

Add to that picture that five of the remaining eleven submissions are outside our world of vfx: RigTight (1st call Studio equipment) which is an actual rigging system, Lens Motors from Heden, Audio desk from Euphonix or DI related Fuji DI stock and Film Master (Digital Vision).

What you are left with is a picture of a company commited to R&D and who’s contribution to our industry is simply immense. Congrats to ILM, and to all the considered submissions.