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On February 1st, 2001, online films begin their trek toward top honors.
Calls for submissions will go out to over 100 online film and animation distributors for the 2001 Directors Board Awards for Excellence in Online Motion Pixure Production, aka The Pixie Awards.
The Directors Board of Motion Pixure Arts and Technologies is a non-profit organization that recognizes excellence in the production of internet films, animations, and websites that incorporate motion. Last year the board inaugurated this new industry with the First Annual Directors Board Awards.
In the so-called 'reel world' an i-Feature is a short and an online motion picture is a motion 'pixure,' from the word 'pixel.' It's a whole new vocabulary for a new, exciting, and vibrant artistic community.
With an awards ceremony modeled after the Academy Awards and similar award shows, the Directors Board takes its name from the ever-important Boards of Directors that form the centerpiece of most internet ventures. The Directors Board Awards were designed to begin the process of starmaking in the internet motion picture industry. There are two ways to create stars in any media space--either you have a hit, or you find the best. When an actor receives an Academy Award, that actor is suddenly a star. Since the web has yet to generate a bona-fide hit, the Board hopes the same process occurs with online motion picture makers and the Directors Board Awards.
Last July, twenty five online exhibitor/distributors of this new media selected the very best of their vast film libraries, which in turn represented the very best among the thousands of films they screen for exhibition.
From these films, a second round of selection by a 20 member film industry committee provided nominees in each of 15 categories - Best Actor in an i-Feature, Best Pixure, etc. From these nominees came the best of the best of the best - the top filmmakers in each category.
Among the filmmakers nominated for awards are several who have been involved in films with some degree of name recognition, including "Quantum Project," the first feature film released solely on the internet; "Saving Ryan's Privates," a parody of the Spielberg film; and "George Lucas in Love," a cleverly imagined tale of Mr. Lucas' days as a film student composing "Star Wars."
"George Lucas in Love," online at Mediatrip.com won Best Pixure, and its helmer, Joe Nussbaum, Best Director of an i-Feature Film. Other awardees were Dave Jones for Best Animated Pixure ("Teetering") and Dane Cook, Best Actor in an i-Feature for "Spiral," online at Alwaysi.com.
Mika Salmi, President and Founder of AtomFilms.com, received the First Annual Mack Sennett Award for Pioneering Motion Pixure Arts and Technologies. Sennett was an early studio pioneer who discovered Charlie Chaplin.
The black-tie event was held July 27, 2000 at the Hollywood Roosevelt's Blossom Ballroom, location of the very first Academy Awards in 1929.
The Pixie Award herself, a female version of Oscar, exists entirely online and is powered by a revolutionary technology called Onflow that allows short animations on slow or fast connections. She is, for all intents and purposes, the world's first virtual statuette.
This year's award ceremony is TENTATIVELY scheduled for July 20, 2001 at the Hollywood Roosevelt, Hollywood, California.
All winners and details (including submission guidelines) about the year 2001 Pixie Awards can be viewed at www.pixieawards.org.
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