LOS ANGELES – Today, The Advanced Imaging Society (theadvancedimagingsociety.com) announced the winners of its 2026 Lumiere Awards, recognizing outstanding creative and technical achievements. Now in its 16th year, the awards honor the artists, engineers and innovators whose work pushes the boundaries of storytelling and cinematic technology.
The annual Lumiere Awards luncheon was held today at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Winners were selected by members of the Hollywood creative and technology community.
“These Lumiere winners produced their brilliant stories by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible creatively and technically,” said Jim Chabin, president of the Advanced Imaging Society. “In these honorees we see our industry’s future – and that future is truly more exciting than ever."
The Society awarded the “Best Live Action Feature Film” Lumiere Award to Warner Bros.’ multi-nominated Sinners, with Best Supporting Actor nominee Delroy Lindo on hand to present the award to producer Sev Ohanian. Additionally, several members of the
Sinners sound team – Chris Welcker, Steve Boeddeker and Benny Burtt – were present to accept the Lumiere for “Best Audio for a Theatrical Film.”
The Lumiere for “Best Animated Feature Film” went to Zootopia 2. Actor and voice artist Patrick Warburton presented the award to director Byron Howard. The Lumiere for “Best Documentary” went to Picturehouse’s
The King of Color, written and directed by Patrick Creadon about Larry Herbert, inventor of the Pantone Matching System, which established a universal worldwide standard for color. Creadon was there to accept the award and read a note of appreciation from 97-year-old Herbert.
The Lumiere for “Best Motion Picture – Musical” went to Wicked: For Good. AIS honoree and director Jon M. Chu accepted the award.
The “Best Theatrical Scene or Sequence” award went to Avatar: Fire and Ash for the 3rd act Flux Devil fire tornado battle sequence. Oscar-nominated VFX supervisor Eric Saindon of Wētā FX accepted the award on behalf of the VFX team - Joe Letteri and Richie Baneham - who also attended.
“Production Technology” Lumiere Awards were presented to a number of companies too. AMD was honored for their Epyc CPUs and Threadripper Pro workstation tools. Conductor, by CoreWeave, was recognized with a Lumiere for their desktop tools for cloud optimization. Flawless was the first AI company to be recognized with a Lumiere Award for pioneering Assistive AI that preserves and supports human creativity. And 6P Color was recognized for their Full Color Range format for electronic color imagery. In addition, DisneyResearch|Studios was honored for its Artistically Controllable ML Stereo Conversion toolset.
Three special honors were also handed out, as previously announced. Ethan Hawke was honored with the 2026 “Distinguished Artist Award” for his Oscar-nominated performance as Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. The accolade was presented to him by producer and former president of Lucas Films Kathleen Kennedy, who has worked with Ethan on films since the beginning of his career.
Director Jon M. Chu was awarded the inaugural “Judy Garland Legacy Award,” which was introduced by Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft, and presented by actor Josh Gad, whom Chu is currently directing in Oh, The Places You’ll Go. And the esteemed “Harold Lloyd Award” was presented to Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer, whose hit film F1 received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The award was presented by Suzanne Lloyd, chairman of Harold Lloyd Entertainment, along with F1 star Damson Idris.
The following is a complete list of winners:
Best Feature Film - Live Action: Sinners
Best Feature Film – Animation: Zootopia 2
Best Documentary: The King of Color
Best Motion Picture - Musical: Wicked: For Good
Best Audio – Theatrical: Sinners
Best Audio – Episodic: Severance
Best Original Song: “Golden,” from KPop Demon Hunters
Best Use of High Dynamic Range – Feature Film: F1
Best Use of High Dynamic Range – Episodic: Stranger Things Season 5
Best Musical Scene or Sequence: KPop Demon Hunters - “Golden”
Best Theatrical Scene or Sequence: Avatar: Fire and Ash - "Flux Devil"
Best Episodic – Animation: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Best Episodic – Live Action: Andor Season 2
Best International 3D Documentary: NHK for The Mark of Beauty Tokyo Imperial Palace
Best Use of VR: Dolphins of the Reef, Immotion
Production Technology Awards:AMD, DisneyResearch|Studios Flawless, 6P Color, CoreWeave
Governor’s Award for Cinema Excellence: VUE
Sir Charles Wheatstone Award: Google
Judy Garland Legacy Award: Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good
Harold Lloyd Award: Joseph Kosinski & Jerry Bruckheimer, F1