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

A 60-year-old black-and-white film, a four-day shoestringproduction, and a race-car montage set to surround sound were amongmore than 30 titles cited for General Excellence in the landmark DVDAt Its Best Gold Ring Awards. Also honored were five industryluminaries as inaugural inductees of the Digital Hall of Fame.

Warner's timeless classic Citizen Kane was voted tops in theHollywood Feature category. The seven-minute Always: A Decision ofLove about a wife ruminating over whether to pull the plug on herterminally-ill spouse won first place in the Movie Short category fore-business consultant Kyle Lagenbuch. Specialty label DVD Internationalraced to first place for Performing Arts with the avant-garde SpeedTribe.

"Our assumption in breaking new ground with the DVD At Its BestAwards is that the digital video disc is 21st century technology hungryfor 21st century content," says Bruce Apar, executive producer of DVDL.A. Fest. "And much of that cutting-edge content is the handiwork ofindependent 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 theHollywood studios," Apar continues. "And, with broadband looming as anext-generation entertainment channel, DVD will not sustain itspopularity far into the future without original audio/video creationsthat use the unique interactive features of the digital format.'Content created exclusively for DVD' is the simple mission statementof our DVD Fests and DVD At Its Best Awards. They are a continuingcelebration of digital originals."

The inaugural inductees into the Digital Hall of Fame are "TheFather of DVD" Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video;independent filmmaking pioneer Albert Maysles, creator of thenon-fiction feature film (eg, Gimme Shelter); optical discpioneers Aleen Stein, co-founder of laserdisc producer CriterionCollection, which originated the extra features now commonplace onDVDs, and David Goodman, who marketed the first DVD ever (VideoEssentials) through his firm DVD International, which was justacquired by QuickTV (QKTV), a Philadelphia-based full-service DVDproduction company; and multimedia renaissance man Jim Taylor, authorof industry bible DVD Demystified and founding president of DVDAssociation.

Accepting for Mr. Lieberfarb at the induction ceremony was WarnerHome Video executive vice president Tom Lesinski, who said, "We justsold the one billionth DVD disc and hardware players are now in almost30 percent of homes, so the vision Warren had for DVD is well on itsway to being fulfilled.

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

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

The L.A. DV Show and DVD L.A. Fest, which attracted 10,000 attendeesin late July to the Hilton Burbank Hotel and Convention Center, isproduced by Mindshare Ventures, headed by president Rick Friedman. TheNew York-based company produces vendor-specific user conferences andindustry-wide events in the venture capital, digital video, and digitalmedia sectors. Upcoming events include Visual Effects World in November2002 and the February 2003 DVD N.Y. Fest, both at The New Yorker Hoteland Manhattan Center in New York City.

The DVD At Its Best Gold Ring Awards are presented in part byHewlett-Packard, with additional sponsorship participation by newconsumer magazine DVD Etc., which will feature the winners inits next issue and distribute a DVD produced by DVD International,featuring selected entries from the competition. Special services forDVD L.A. Fest were provided by Broadness, a leading, Wam!Net-certifiedprovider of digital asset-management services based in New YorkCity.

Below is the list of all winners of the DVD At Its Best Gold RingAwards, including a special Gold Standard of Excellence Award for BuenaVista Home Entertainment.

[Please note tnat for the awards, the category of Additional Contentrefers to conceiving the total package of extras in a DVD title and thecategory called Production of Special Features cites the technicalcraftsmanship, or execution, of a feature such as filmmaker'scommentary or a making of featurette. Also, the DVD-Audio category doesnot refer to the audio track of a DVD-Video. It is the separate DVDspecification designed as the next generation of CD.]

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

SOUNDTRACK AND SOUND MIX—The Shape of Evil, Anaccomplished horror film by San Diego Mesa college undergraduatestudent Marc Anthony Massimei of Map Productions.

SCRIPTING—Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, anoriginal documentary by Jan Harlan, narrated by Tom Cruise, andincluded in the fabled director's DVD collection from Warner HomeVideo.

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—AH! MY GODDESS THE MOVIE, afull-length adventure of the popular anime series from PioneerEntertainment.

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

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

SOUNDTRACK—Martin Scorcese's The Last WaltzThe LastWaltz, documenting The Band's farewell performance, from MGM HomeEntertainment.

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

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

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

SOUND MIX—The Bombastic from Buena Vista HomeEntertainment.

TRIPLE WINNER FOR ADDITIONAL CONTENT, PRODUCTION OF SPECIALFEATURES, AND NAVIGATION—Moulin Rouge from 20th CenturyHome Entertainment.

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

CONSISTENT COMMITMENT TO STATE-OF-THE-ART DVD PRODUCTION ANDPACKAGING, THE GOLD STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE AWARD—Buena Vista HomeEntertainment.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—Citizen Kane from Warner HomeVideo.

IN THE CATEGORY OF TELEVISION:

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

PC FUNCTIONALITY AND PRODUCTION OF SPECIALFEATURES—Heritage: Civilization and the Jews from HomeVision Entertainment.

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

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

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

IN THE CATEGORY OF PERFORMING ARTS:

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

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

ADDITIONAL CONTENT AND PRODUCTION OF SPECIALFEATURES—Queen: We Will Rock You from PioneerEntertainment.

SOUND MIX—Awaken from 5.1 Entertainment Group.

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

ENCODING AND AUTHORING—Natural Splendors, Volumes 1 to3 from Alpha DVD for DVD International.

SOUNDTRACK—Elton John: One Night Only from L2Digital.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE—Speed Tribe from DVDInternational.

IN THE CATEGORIES OF TRAINING AND MARKETING:

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

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

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

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

IN THE CATEGORIES OF EXPERIMENTAL SHORT AND MOVIE SHORT:

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

ADDITIONAL CONTENT—When Angels Cry by William Minderand Narendra Reddy.

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

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

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