Nine Canadian-based technical wizards will share in 35 awards recognizing those who have made a significant technical contribution to the art of movie making according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards will be presented on Feb. 27 to laud those responsible for the ‘devices, methods, formulas, discoveries or inventions of special or outstanding value to the arts and sciences of motion pictures,’ which also have been put to significant use in the industry.

Tewksbury, Massachusetts-based Avid Technology will be presented the Academy Award of Merit – which comes with an Oscar statuette – for the concept, design and engineering of its landmark Film Composer system for editing.

In addition to the Merit Oscar, the Academy also presents plaques for its Scientific and Engineering Awards and certificates for its Technical Achievement Awards.

Among the Canadian-based talent set to receive a Scientific and Engineering Award are Dominique Boisvert, Phillippe Panzini and Andre LeBlanc for the development and implementation of Flame and Inferno software from Discreet Logic.

The team of Ken Husain, John Scott, Cameron Shearer and Bob Predovich of the Soundmaster Group will receive a Scientific and Engineering Award for the design and implementation of the Soundmaster Integrated Operations Nucleus operating environment.

The citation for Soundmaster is extra weighty in that audio awards have generally been more scarce than image-oriented prizes at the Oscars.

The audio specialists behind the Soundmaster Group, and previously Masters Workshop, have been developing their sound solution since about 1983 and the system has been used widely in Canada since the mid-’80s.

ion took longer to gain a foothold in Hollywood, but with the move into digital theatrical formats, like sdds, the studios began to move toward digital technology in the sound arena, and the Soundmaster system, says Predovich, allowed them to move toward digital at their own pace.

The Soundmaster system provides audio post facilities an integrated audio/picture synchronization capability which is workable with a number of different formats. Predovich describes it as a ‘universal translator’ that seamlessly integrates various post sound technologies and allows facilities to work with the most appropriate tool for a given task.

‘The system makes it look to the end user like there is one universal standard, even though there are numerous standards,’ he says.

In the last year and a half, major studios including Disney, Universal and Sony have invested in the system, which was used recently on projects like Small Soldiers and Lost in Space.

The National Film Board’s Ed Zwaneveld and Frederick Gasoi, together with Dale Brubacher-Cressman and Mike Lazaridis of Waterloo-based Research in Motion, will be presented with a Technical Achievement Award for the design and development of the DigiSync Film KeyKode Reader.

A total of 14 Scientific and Engineering Awards will be handed out at the ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Among those winners will also be Arri u.s.a. and Arnold & Richter Cine Technik for the wildly popular and flexible Arri 435 camera. Arnold & Richter along with the Carl Zeiss Company will also be cited for the concept and design of the Zeiss/Arriflex Variable Prime Lenses.

Mark Roberts, Ronan Carroll, Assaff Rawner, Paul Bartlett and Simon Wakley, the minds behind Milo, will receive an award for the creation of the Milo Motion Control Crane, which addresses the problems of high-speed camera motion.

The technical awards are voted on by the Academy’s board of governors from the recommendations of the scientific and technical awards committee.