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Inaugural Gold Ring Awards and Digital Hall of Fame Honors DVD at Its Best

Aug 15, 2002 12:00 PM, Press Release

A 60-year-old black-and-white film, a four-day shoestring production, and a race-car montage set to surround sound were among more than 30 titles cited for General Excellence in the landmark DVD At Its Best Gold Ring Awards. Also honored were five industry luminaries as inaugural inductees of the Digital Hall of Fame.

Warner's timeless classic Citizen Kane was voted tops in the Hollywood Feature category. The seven-minute Always: A Decision of Love about a wife ruminating over whether to pull the plug on her terminally-ill spouse won first place in the Movie Short category for e-business consultant Kyle Lagenbuch. Specialty label DVD International raced to first place for Performing Arts with the avant-garde Speed Tribe.

"Our assumption in breaking new ground with the DVD At Its Best Awards is that the digital video disc is 21st century technology hungry for 21st century content," says Bruce Apar, executive producer of DVD L.A. Fest. "And much of that cutting-edge content is the handiwork of independent filmmakers and digital artists."

"DVD would not be where it is today - in nearly one-third of U.S. homes - without the powerful support and product supply of the Hollywood studios," Apar continues. "And, with broadband looming as a next-generation entertainment channel, DVD will not sustain its popularity far into the future without original audio/video creations that use the unique interactive features of the digital format. 'Content created exclusively for DVD' is the simple mission statement of our DVD Fests and DVD At Its Best Awards. They are a continuing celebration of digital originals."

The inaugural inductees into the Digital Hall of Fame are "The Father of DVD" Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video; independent filmmaking pioneer Albert Maysles, creator of the non-fiction feature film (eg, Gimme Shelter); optical disc pioneers Aleen Stein, co-founder of laserdisc producer Criterion Collection, which originated the extra features now commonplace on DVDs, and David Goodman, who marketed the first DVD ever (Video Essentials) through his firm DVD International, which was just acquired by QuickTV (QKTV), a Philadelphia-based full-service DVD production company; and multimedia renaissance man Jim Taylor, author of industry bible DVD Demystified and founding president of DVD Association.

Accepting for Mr. Lieberfarb at the induction ceremony was Warner Home Video executive vice president Tom Lesinski, who said, "We just sold the one billionth DVD disc and hardware players are now in almost 30 percent of homes, so the vision Warren had for DVD is well on its way to being fulfilled.

"While Warren has been receiving many awards lately, I know the Digital Hall of Fame Award is near and dear to his heart. Warren always believed that video needed a digital format to compete with other forms of digital delivery."

Also on hand for the induction ceremony was John Neff, general manager of Asymmetrical Studio, standing in for filmmaker David Lynch, who is out of the country. Mr. Neff previewed a DVD release, The Short Films of David Lynch, available at his website www.davidlynch.com , and noted the restored Eraserhead soon will be available on DVD.

The L.A. DV Show and DVD L.A. Fest, which attracted 10,000 attendees in late July to the Hilton Burbank Hotel and Convention Center, is produced by Mindshare Ventures, headed by president Rick Friedman. The New York-based company produces vendor-specific user conferences and industry-wide events in the venture capital, digital video, and digital media sectors. Upcoming events include Visual Effects World in November 2002 and the February 2003 DVD N.Y. Fest, both at The New Yorker Hotel and Manhattan Center in New York City.

The DVD At Its Best Gold Ring Awards are presented in part by Hewlett-Packard, with additional sponsorship participation by new consumer magazine DVD Etc., which will feature the winners in its next issue and distribute a DVD produced by DVD International, featuring selected entries from the competition. Special services for DVD L.A. Fest were provided by Broadness, a leading, Wam!Net-certified provider of digital asset-management services based in New York City.

Below is the list of all winners of the DVD At Its Best Gold Ring Awards, including a special Gold Standard of Excellence Award for Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

[Please note tnat for the awards, the category of Additional Content refers to conceiving the total package of extras in a DVD title and the category called Production of Special Features cites the technical craftsmanship, or execution, of a feature such as filmmaker's commentary or a making of featurette. Also, the DVD-Audio category does not refer to the audio track of a DVD-Video. It is the separate DVD specification designed as the next generation of CD.]

IN THE CATEGORY OF INDEPENDENT FEATURE, DEFINED AS A FICTION OR NON-FICTION FILM WITH NO THEATRICAL OR TV SHOWING:

SOUNDTRACK AND SOUND MIX—The Shape of Evil, An accomplished horror film by San Diego Mesa college undergraduate student Marc Anthony Massimei of Map Productions.

SCRIPTING—Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, an original documentary by Jan Harlan, narrated by Tom Cruise, and included in the fabled director's DVD collection from Warner Home Video.

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—AH! MY GODDESS THE MOVIE, a full-length adventure of the popular anime series from Pioneer Entertainment.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE AND PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES—Nice Guys Sleep Alone, from up-and-coming filmmaker Stu Pollard.

FOR THE CATEGORY OF HOLLYWOOD FEATURE, DEFINED AS A MOVIE WITH A THEATRICAL RELEASE:

SOUNDTRACK—Martin Scorcese's The Last WaltzThe Last Waltz, documenting The Band's farewell performance, from MGM Home Entertainment.

MENU DESIGN AND SCRIPTING OF EXTRA DVD FEATURES—Shrek, the landmark film that recently won the first Oscar awarded in the new category of animated feature, from Dreamworks Home Entertainment.

PC FUNCTIONALITY, FEATURING TOTAL ACCESS, WITH A HOT LINK TO BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOOTAGE—The Spy Game Collector's Edition, from Universal Studios Home Video.

WEB CONNECTIVITY—Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone from Warner Home Video.

SOUND MIX—The Bombastic from Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

TRIPLE WINNER FOR ADDITIONAL CONTENT, PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES, AND NAVIGATION—Moulin Rouge from 20th Century Home Entertainment.

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment.

CONSISTENT COMMITMENT TO STATE-OF-THE-ART DVD PRODUCTION AND PACKAGING, THE GOLD STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE AWARD—Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—Citizen Kane from Warner Home Video.

IN THE CATEGORY OF TELEVISION:

WEB CONNECTIVITY—The X-Files from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

PC FUNCTIONALITY AND PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES—Heritage: Civilization and the Jews from Home Vision Entertainment.

MENU DESIGN—Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided from WGBH Boston.

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—David Blaine: Fearless from Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—The Sopranos: The Complete Second Season from HBO Home Video.

IN THE CATEGORY OF PERFORMING ARTS:

DVD-AUDIO—Queen: A Night at the Opera from DTS Entertainment.

WEB CONNECTIVITY AND PC FUNCTIONALITY—Planet Earth: Australia by Alpha DVD for DVD International.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT AND PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES—Queen: We Will Rock You from Pioneer Entertainment.

SOUND MIX—Awaken from 5.1 Entertainment Group.

NAVIGATION AND MENU DESIGN—Janet Jackson: All For You from Metropolis DVD.

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—Natural Splendors, Volumes 1 to 3 from Alpha DVD for DVD International.

SOUNDTRACK—Elton John: One Night Only from L2 Digital.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—Speed Tribe from DVD International.

IN THE CATEGORIES OF TRAINING AND MARKETING:

PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES—It's Alive by students and faculty of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—Kid Council, by Full Circle Studios and the Center for Applied Technologies in Education.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT AND MENU DESIGN—The Cutting Vision from Cutting Vision.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE AND NAVIGATION—M&M/MARS, BBDO Worldwide Masterfoods Library DVD from Metropolos Video.

IN THE CATEGORIES OF EXPERIMENTAL SHORT AND MOVIE SHORT:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE, EXPERIMENTAL—It's Just the Way That It Is, Max Graham Productions and Phoenix Atlantis Entertainment.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT—When Angels Cry by William Minder and Narendra Reddy.

PRODUCTION OF SPECIAL FEATURES—The World of Koichi Ohata, Anime M.D. Geist: Director's Cut/Death Force, Central Park Media.

MENU DESIGN—The Pastiches of Sketches, Disconnected with effects by Aaron Schultz and Joseph Nguyen.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE, MOVIE SHORT—Always: A Decision of Love by Kyle Langenbach.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.