THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION (Warner Home Video), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING SPECIAL EXTENDED EDITION (NEW LINE HOME ENT.), THE STAR WARS TRILOGY (Fox Home Ent.) and MARY POPPINS 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Buena Vista Home Ent.) have scored major nominations for the Fourth Annual DVD Exclusive Awards.
The 2004 DVD Exclusive Awards, sponsored by DVD EXCLUSIVE magazine, a sister publication to VARIETY, will be presented on Feb. 8, 2005, at the Annenberg Building at the California Science Center near the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The annual DVD Exclusive Awards recognize the individual and collaborative artistic achievement in bonus features produced for DVD special editions of theatrical films, and all creative contributions made to movies produced specifically for home viewing.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING leads all special edition DVD titles with seven DVD Exclusive nominations one in every category for which it is eligible, including Best Overall DVD, New Movie.
The more than 20 award categories include overall DVD new movie, overall DVD TV program, overall DVD music program, animated DVD premiere movie, audio commentary, menu design, best actor, actress, animated character performance, director and screenplay for movies premiering on DVD. In addition, special honorary awards include Director Focus Award, Career Achievement Award and Innovation Award. Past special award recipients have included Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bay, Peter Jackson, Stan Lee, Ridley Scott and Pixar.
The more than 500 entertainment industry members of the DVD Exclusive Academy, including filmmakers Sam Raimi and Scott, are each sent dozens of DVDs each year to rate electronically on a scale of 1-5 at the time of the DVD release to determine the members' weekly and monthly top picks of new releases.
The five weekly and monthly leaders with the highest average ratings in each of 24 categories at the end of the year become the nominees for the best DVDs of 2004. Online ballots for nominated DVDs have been re-opened so DVDX Academy members may revise any of their previous ratings for nominees throughout this month.
For a complete list of nominees, visit www.dvdexclusive.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
