Committee to review compliance with category criteria and select AICE's first-ever Best in Show winner

New York, NY – April 14, 2014 – AICE has announced its 2014 AICE Awards Curatorial Committee which includes editors, VFX artists, designers, colorists and audio engineers from across the membership. The committee will ensure that finalists determined by the judges are appropriate for, and meet the criteria of, each category.  The Committee will also select a Best in Show honoree, a first for the AICE Awards.  The 2014 AICE Awards gala will be held in New York City on May 15, 2014.

Editor Bob Spector of Beast in San Francisco, a member of the AICE Awards committee and Vice President of the AICE Board of Directors, says the formation of the Curatorial Committee was the result of a wide-ranging review of category definitions that began after the 2013 AICE Awards event in Chicago.

“After last year’s show we spent a lot of time rewriting each of the category definitions to make sure we were keeping current with technology and trends in the industry,” Spector explains. “We decided that if we were going to be this specific and careful in our definitions, we needed one more stage of oversight and vetting in the judging process.  The decision to form a Curatorial Committee came out of that discussion.”

For each category, the finalists and winner will be determined from the results of on-line and live-panel judging sessions conducted over a four-week period. Once the results are tabulated, the Curatorial Committee will review the honorees in each category to ensure the work is eligible and worthy of an AICE Award.

The thirteen members of the Curatorial Committee, says Spector, “are highly regarded artists from each of AICE’s post-production disciplines and represent most of our regional chapters.”  The list includes:

Editors:

Chris Franklin, Big Sky, New York
Tom Scherma, Cosmo Street, New York
Paul Martinez, Arcade Edit, Los Angeles
Craig Lewandowski, Optimus, Chicago
Bob Spector, Beast, San Francisco
Louis Lyne, Cutters, Detroit
Steve Manz, Relish, Toronto

VFX/Design Artists:

David Winkfield, Red Car, New York
David Parker, Cut + Run, Los Angeles

Colorists:

Chris Ryan, Nice Shoes, New York
Siggy Ferstl, CO3, Los Angeles

Sound Engineers:

Tom Jucarone, Sound Lounge, New York
John Binder, Another Country, Chicago

“We worked to make sure the Curatorial Committee was both geographically and creatively diverse,” says Spector.  “We wanted to get a cross section of talents and perspectives to help us evaluate the finalists against the category descriptions and ultimately to select the Best in Show.  We have some truly phenomenal entries this year and we’re looking forward to a great night.”

The 13th Annual AICE Awards will be held on May 15th at Gustavino’s in New York City.  Winners will be named in over 20 editorial and post production categories.  In addition, AICE will posthumously induct into its Hall of Fame renowned and respected New York Editor John Palestrini, co-founder of BlueRock, Spontaneous and other companies. For more information about the Awards, visit www.aice.org.