London - On the heels of the company's strong showing in the VES Awards nominations, two further recent Award announcements confirm Framestore CFC's place in the world of film VFX.
Superman Returns is one of three films nominated for this year's VFX Academy Award (Oscar), with Framestore CFC's Jon Thum one of its four named Supervisors. Thum led a 70-strong team in the creation of 313 shots for the project.
The BAFTAs, highlight of the British movie year, also featured a number of Framestore CFC projects among this year's nominees. These included another VFX nomination for Superman Returns, as well as one for Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron's dark thriller set in a dystopic near future.
VFX Supervisor Tim Webber led a small team in the production of one of the most astonishing digital visual effects of 2006 -- the on-camera birth of a baby, delivered during an apparently unbroken single take.
Says Webber, "It's a film that is not in any way VFX led, so the BAFTA nomination is a great recognition of some remarkable 'invisible' effects work. The baby is a key plot point of the film, and comes at a point of heightened emotion, so it was critical that the shot felt 100-percent real."
In addition, reflecting the best year yet enjoyed by Framestore CFC's Digital Lab facility, no fewer than four of the five 2007 BAFTA nominations for Best British Film of the Year -- Casino Royale, The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, United 93 -- were digitally mastergraded at the company. Two of these projects were further nominated for Best Film (The Queen and The Last King of Scotland), and two received Best Cinematography nominations (Phil Meheux for Casino Royale, Barry Ackroyd for United 93).
The BAFTAs will be awarded on February 11 at the Royal Opera House in London, while the Academy Awards will be presented on February 25 in Hollywood.