The Hobbit ~ wins a Technical Oscar !

Oscars is a coveted award ~ the Academy Awards, are a set of awards given annually for excellence of cinematic achievements. The Oscar statuette is officially named the Academy Award of Merit and is one of nine types of Academy Awards. The 85th Academy Awards ceremony is an upcoming event during which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS) will present its annual Academy Awards to honor the best films of 2012 in the United States. The ceremony is scheduled for February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.

There is also the pre Oscar ceremony; Unlike the main Oscars ceremony, which recognises movie achievements from 2012, the Scientific and Technical Awards gives awards to behind-the-scenes innovators whose breakthroughs in computer technology and other fields have helped make several feature films over a number of years. Days prior to the actual Oscar Award ceremony, reports state that ‘The Hobbit’  has picked up a visual effects Oscar at a pre-awards ceremony hosted by Star Trek stars Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana. Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling picked up a technical Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards in California. They were honoured for inventing a technique that helped bring Gollum to life in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

Gollum is a fictional character in the Hobbit as "a small, slimy creature" who lived on a small island in the centre of a lake at the roots of the Misty Mountains. He survived on cave fish, which he caught from his small boat, and small goblins who strayed too far from the stronghold of the Great Goblin. Over the years, his eyes adapted to the dark and became "lamp-like", shining with a sickly pale light. The technique of bringing Golllum to life,  has been credited with huge advances in animating computer-generated characters, the BBC reported. The technique makes Gollum appear more lifelike.  Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling won for inventing a technique which has made huge advances in bringing to life computer-generated characters such as Gollum in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’  is a 2012 epic adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is the first of a three-part film adaptation of the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, to be followed by The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again, due for theatrical release in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The three films together will act as prequels to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The story is set in Middle-earth sixty years before The Lord of the Rings, and portions of the film are adapted from the appendices to Tolkien's The Return of the King novel. The film premiered in New Zealand on 28 November 2012 and was released internationally from 12 December 2012.

The Hobbit is reported to have grossed over $955 million at the box office, surpassing both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. The film has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The film has also been nominated for three BAFTA Awards. The Award now conferred is  a technical Oscar for the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards to  Weta workshop gurus Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr Richard Dorling, for inventing a technique to bring computer-generated characters to life.

Will Bombay Jayashree win an Oscar is what India is looking forward to in the 85th Academy Awards

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

12^th Feb 2013