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Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal Recipients

The Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal honors the recipient by recognizing outstanding contributions that reflect a commitment to the highest standards of quality and innovation in motion picture post-production and distribution services.

 

2025 - Jon Scott Miller

For his pivotal contributions to the invention, development, advocacy, and standardization of the Perceptual Quantizer (PQ) transfer function. PQ provides an efficient mapping of absolute luminance levels to human visual perception, establishing a critical foundation for the widespread adoption of high dynamic range (HDR) motion imaging. As the document editor of SMPTE ST 2084, Miller played a central role in guiding the standardization of PQ, enabling consistent implementation across the HDR production and distribution ecosystem. His leadership and technical expertise have significantly advanced the industry’s ability to deliver visually impactful and perceptually accurate HDR content.

2024

No Award Given

2023

Douglas Walker

For his contributions to color management in the motion picture industry, including as chief architect of the OpenColorIOv2 open-source project, a robust color management solution widely adopted in motion picture production and post-production workflows, and his work on the implementation of the Common LUT Format (CLF), a cross-platform mechanism for communicating complex color management transforms. In addition, as technology lead for color science at Autodesk, Doug has developed the imaging pipelines for many leading software platforms including Flame, Lustre, and Maya.

2022
Patrick Renner

In recognition of his vision, actualization, and continued refinement of on-set color management and color grading tools, as embodied in the Pomfort Livegrade software platform, providing cinematographers and digital imaging technicians a system that is creatively flexible yet technically robust, with an underlying image and metadata pipeline architecture supporting a wide range of workflows, resulting in ubiquitous adoption on live-action sets worldwide.

2021
Harald Brendel

For the design and implementation of the color management system used in the ARRI ALEXA family of cameras, including the underlying LogC capture encoding, the ARRI Wide Gamut color space specification, and the creation of the K1S1 filmic viewing transforms. These were instrumental in assisting cinematographers and post-production facilities transition from film to digital image acquisition, providing confidence on set and reliable outcomes in post-production. Brendel was a key contributor to the development of ARRISCAN film scanner and the AMPAS Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) during his long tenure as an image scientist for ARRI.