The creators of an industrystandard special effects tool and two leading camera developers are to receiveOscar statuettes when the Academy hands out its scientific and technical awardson March 1.

Alias/Wavefront will receivean Oscar for The Maya, its 3-D animation software that has been almost universallyadopted by the industry's leading effects houses and featured in themaking of Spider-man, Ice Age andThe Perfect Storm. Arnold &Richter Cine Technik and Panavision will receive their statuettes for continuedinnovation in the design of advance cameras.

The Academy will also handout four Scientific and Engineering plaques and six technical achievementcertificates in the annual ceremony, which precedes the more illustriousAcademy Awards gala on March 23. All awards are based on the recommendations ofthe Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences' scientific and technicalawards committee chaired by Richard Edlund and recognise continued excellencein a particular field rather than a specific innovation in 2002.

Plaques will be presentedto:

Glenn Sanders and HowardStark of Zaxcom for the design of the portable Deva Digital Audio DiscRecorder.

Mark Elendt, Paul Breslin,Greg Hermanovic and Kim Davidson for ongoing work on the Prisms effects programme.

Leslie Gutierrez, DianeKestner, James Merrill and David Niklewicz for the design and development ofthe Kodak Vision Premier Colour Print Film 2393

Dedo Weigert for the conceptDepu Jin for optical calculations and Franz Petters for the mechanicalconstruction of the Dedolight 400D.

Certificates will bepresented to:

Dick Walsh for thedevelopment of the PDI/Dreamworks Facial Animation System.

Thomas Driemeyer and theteam at Mental Images for their contribution to the Mental Ray renderingsoftware.

Eric Daniels, GeorgeKatanics, Tasso Lappas and Chris Springfield for the development of the DeepCanvas rendering software.

Jim Songer for his work onvideo-assist.

Pierre Chabert of Airstarfor the introduction of balloons with internal light sources to provide setlighting

Rawden Hayne and Robert WJeffs of Leelium Tubelite for the development of internally lit balloons.