At its first meeting, usually held in the first few weeks of September, the committee discusses the merits of each entry. The validity of claims made about the submission is accepted or challenged, but a decision must be made whether or not an entry is eligible for consideration. Does it meet the qualifications as outlined in the rules? Is the item new to the industry (or an improvement over something already available) and is it being used by anyone? Does it fall within the parameters and guidelines for Scientific and Technical Awards? When it is decided to give further consideration to an entry, surrogates are assigned to make detailed evaluations on behalf of the committee.

Scientific and Technical Awards Committee Chair Richard Edlund.

If all of the criteria are met (and the item is portable enough), an invitation might be extended to the applicant offering them the opportunity of making a presentation demonstration of the item to the committee. If similar devices are available to the industry (but have not been submitted with an entry form) their manufacturers may also be invited to participate. Subcommittees are enlisted to provide the main committee with their particular evaluations of certain items. Items that are too large or impractical to participate in such a demonstration will be reviewed separately, by surrogates assigned on behalf of the Committee.

A second book is assembled to include those items retained by the committee at its initial meeting. Not all of the submitted entries are carried forward beyond that first meeting. Some might be tabled for evaluation at a later date if the committee is curious to know what impact the items may have on the industry. (Recommending an award prematurely might not reflect the actual contribution an item makes to film making.) Some of the entries do not meet the qualifications of the rules or the guidelines. The committee is obligated to pass over those. (If significant improvements or advancements are made in an entry originally rejected, it may be resubmitted at another time.)

	Members of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee are in a fog about the awards only when fog is being demonstrated.

Demonstration schedules are prepared and bound into these second books for the main committee and subcommittees. Presentations are made and surrogates conduct their private studies or both. All of the respective opinions and evaluations are combined and sent to the Sci/Tech Awards Committee and the Academy’s Board of Governors with an announcement of the date for the second meeting.

The entries remaining under consideration are discussed again with particular emphasis on whether or not an award should be recommended. (The committee itself does not confer the Scientific and Technical Awards. Those are determined by a vote of the Academy Board of Governors.) Through a series of ballots, decisions are reached on the award recommendations and their appropriate levels of recognition. Some of the items may not be recommended -- even though they were under consideration and demonstrated for the committee. Some might be held for another year through a motion to table.

Award recognition for scientific and technical achievement is given on three levels. In no case shall more than four awardees be recognized for any single entry.

Technical Achievement Awards may be made for those accomplishments that contribute to the progress of the industry. A certificate is printed describing the achievement and listing the names of all of the individuals who contributed to its development.

If an achievement has had a definite influence on the advancement of the industry, it may qualify for a Scientific and Engineering Award (a bronze tablet with the name of the award in raised lettering, and a representation of the Oscar statuette in bas relief to one side of the plaque). Affixed to the base is a plate engraved with a description of the achievement and the names of the contributors.

An Academy Award of Merit, the Oscar, is conferred for basic achievements which have a definite influence on the advancement of the industry (hard-won and most often reserved for some aspect of film making that has changed the way particular achievements have been accomplished since its introduction).

Lists of past awards, arranged both chronologically and by category, are available at the Academy web site at www.oscars.org. Gordon E. Sawyer, former Head of the Sound department at Samuel Goldwyn Studios and a member of the Scientific and Technical Awards

Committee from 1936 to 1977, claimed that the lists represented a history of the development of motion pictures. After his death, an Honorary Award was established in his name to recognize an individual whose technological contributions have brought credit to the motion picture industry. Recommendations for this award have customarily been made through the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee.

Presentations of the year’s honors are made at a formal dinner which has become a highlight of the Academy Awards season. The function is separate and apart from the Oscar ceremony by design of the committee and concurrence of the Academy Board of Governors. If Oscars are awarded in a given year, the event is videotaped and portions are edited into the Academy Awards telecast.