Ihe International Teleproduction Society’s 1997 International Monitor Awards were handed out earlier this month in Beverly Hills and once again Canadian companies were present in the u.s.-dominated roundup of winners.

Awards were presented in 20 categories and eight craft areas to 86 producers, editors, directors, electronic visual effects teams, audio engineers, colorists, 3D computer effects artists, animators and video paint teams.

Among those, Toronto-based Associated Producers’ The Selling of Innocents captured best achievement in the Documentary category for Elliott Halpern, Simcha Jacobovici and William Cobban. The same production won Cobban the best director’s nod in the same category.

In the category of Local Commercials, the Electronic Visual Effects prize went to Montreal’s Hybride Technologies for the Molson Export ‘Bar’ spot.

Monitors for Special Achievement in Engineering Excellence were presented to Boulder, Colorado-based Pluto Technologies for its SPACE Digital Video Recorder and u.k.-based Quantel. space products are full bandwidth uncompressed disc-based recorders, providing a bridge between the video and the resolution-independent computer realms. Quantel earned the award for the development of the Henry visual effects editing system.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Dennis Muren, senior visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic. An eight-time Academy Award winner (owning more Oscars than any living person), Muren pioneered motion control, go-motion and compositing methods, and has been involved in every major effects film from e.t. to Jurassic Park, The Lost World.