Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
The Hollywood Reporter announced the nominees for The 36th Annual Key Art Awards. This year there are 34 award categories, covering film posters, movie trailers, packaging, outdoor advertising, theatrical standees, print ads, home entertainment and more. New film advertising categories were added for horror, animation and documentary movie posters, along with the (long overdue) web site design category.
“We retooled the awards this year to better reflect what movies are in theaters and where people are watching their advertising,” said Bob Israel, chairman of the Key Art Awards advisory board and executive producer of the show. “And we’re keeping an eye on the growing role of nontraditional media and how it’s being used for marketing.”
For the second year in a row, film studio Lionsgate leads the field among Key Art Awards nominees, which just goes to show you that we are not the only ones who devote too much attention to the studio’s marketing efforts. The most popular film nominees are Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and Borat, with each scoring seven nominations. (It’s good to see our own choice for the movie poster of the year earned a Key Art Award nomination in the Drama posters category.)
The Hollywood Report’s Key Art Awards ceremony will be held June 15 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, with actor-comedian Rob Corddry as host.
The 2007 Key Art Awards movie poster nominees:
ACTION-ADVENTURE POSTERS
Crank
Superman Returns
Poseidon
Apocalypto
V for Vendetta
ANIMATION POSTERS
A Scanner Darkly
Renaissance
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Monster House
Cars
COMEDY POSTERS
Running With Scissors
Borat
Thank You for Smoking
Nacho Libre
Little Miss Sunshine
DRAMA POSTERS
Clean
Hard Candy
Little Children
Pan’s Labyrinth
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
HORROR POSTERS
Descent
Saw III
The Hills Have Eyes
Pulse
Saw III
TEASER POSTERS
Hostel
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion
Crank
Borat
V for Vendetta
INTERNATIONAL POSTERS
The Black Dahlia
Borat: Teaser
Borat: Teaser
The Prestige
Paris je t’aime
Have a favorite in the movie poster categories? Share your predictions for the winners in our comments section. To see the complete list of 2007 Key Art Award nominees visit The Hollywood Reporter.
Warner Bros. has released the U.S. domestic Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie poster. The poster features “Dumbledore’s Army” flanking an older Harry Potter. The movie covers the fifth year at the Hogwarts school, with Harry and his classmates doing battle against evil Lord Voldemort. The film poster itself is a bit understated (and far removed from the whimsy and the teen angst of past Harry Potter movie posters), and is using a variation of the ever popular “Flying V” cast line-up formation made popular by Miramax.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will also be showing in IMAX theaters. Apparently Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: An IMAX 3D Experience will feature a 20 minuted enhanced 3D finale. Speaking of 3D “enhancements”, star Emma Watson’s chest appears a bit larger in Harry Potter IMAX ads when compared to the Order of the Phoenix poster, even though they are both based around the same artwork.
Although Hollywood (and media in general) has a long history of “augmentation via Photoshop” in advertising, this instance is less obvious than other examples. But it is hard to resist pointing out Hermione Granger’s breast growth spurt in this case when the artwork is for a 3D movie from a theater chain with the motto “Think Big”. (This also invokes memories of a Saturday Night Live Harry Potter skit from a few years ago.)
Why is there a difference between the two pieces of Potter key art? Since the IMAX version of the poster art appeared online before the final Harry Potter one-sheet, we can only speculate that Warner Bros. gave the IMAX ad group an earlier “comp” version of the artwork prior to being finalized for the studio’s own press run. There are other subtle differences between the two: the domestic one-sheet version of Herminoe Granger features a less flowing hair style, probably because her hair in the IMAX version blocks more of actor Matt Lewis (as Neville Longbottom) standing behind Emma Watson.
