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’s 37th Annual Key Art Awards were presented June 13th during a ceremony hosted by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin. Highlights of the 2008 Key Art Awards included a “Best in Show” award to The Simpsons Movie in the Print category and No Country for Old Men in the newly-created “Best Campaign” category. The “Best Campaign” winner was selected by a panel of experts that included filmmakers David Fincher and Kevin Smith.
The Visionary Award, given to a filmmaker who “inspires movie marketers”, was presented to comedy director Judd Apatow:
“I’d like to thank everyone here who has done such amazing work. I’ve enjoyed my interactions with everybody. It’s one of the most fun parts of the process. This award brings me full circle because I started out thinking you were all f***ing a**holes.”
Looking back at the Key Art Awards of recent years (including this most recent ceremony), it seems clear that The Hollywood Reporter is struggling on how to define the entire enterprise. Award categories are constantly being added, changed, merged, or removed each year, which seems to give the whole process an air of confusion. Awards (such as Judd Apatow’s Visonary Award) are doled out to above-the-line talent in recent years in an effort to make the Key Arts ceremony more appealing. It may be more entertaining to sit through an awards ceremony where Apatow calls them “fucking assholes”, but it does push film advertising personal further into the background during the only occasion they even have a chance to gain any recognition. There even seemed to be a half-hearted attempt this year to tweak the name of the award ceremony itself to The Hollywood Reporter Movie Marketing Key Art Awards (since no one outside of the industry knows what “key art” means), but even that effort was inconsistent. One wonders what categories will be offered next year.
2008 Key Art movie poster winners:
ACTION/ADVENTURE/HORROR POSTER
COMEDY POSTER
DRAMA POSTER
FAMILY POSTER
To see the complete list of 2008 Key Art Award winners visit The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter has announced the nominees for The 37th Annual Key Art Awards. The 2008 Key Art Awards will honor achievements in movie marketing in different categories including film posters, movie trailers, print ads, DVD packaging, new media and more. Film advertising agency BLT & Associates took the lead among agencies with 18 nominations. Director Judd Apatow will receive the Visionary Award, recognizing a filmmaker who inspires movie marketers. (The main Apatow inspiration seems to be the recent trend of the “Sears Portrait Studio” look in comedy film posters.)
“The goal is to honor the best work that is done in movie marketing, and the quality of the work that is done in this area gets better and better every year and moves into new areas every year,” said Bob Israel, chairman of the Key Art Awards Advisory Board and executive producer of the show.
Changes to the awards this year include Action/Adventure and Horror movie posters being combined into a single category, the elimination of the Teaser poster category, and the expansion of “New Media” categories.
Some of the 2008 Key Art Awards movie poster nominees:
ACTION/ADVENTURE/HORROR POSTERS
28 Weeks Later
The Number 23
Grindhouse
30 Days of Night
Vacancy
COMEDY POSTERS
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Superbad
Juno
Blades of Glory
The Darjeeling Limited
DRAMA POSTERS
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Black Snake Moan
I’m Not There
Zodiac
Premonition
FAMILY POSTERS
Shrek the Third
Ratatouille
Bee Movie
Surf’s Up
Alvin and the Chipmunks
The Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards ceremony will be held on June 13 hosted by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City, CA.
Share your favorite picks from the nominees in the comments section. To see the complete list of 2008 Key Art Award nominees visit The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter’s 36th Annual Key Art Awards were announced at the Beverly Hilton on June 15th. The ceremony, hosted by comedian Rob Corddry, gave out awards covering a wide range of film advertising categories covering audio/video, print, and digital mediums. The ceremony included a few new categories and awards, including “Best of Show” awards chosen by the audience text messaging votes made during the evening. The night also saw the first “Visionary Award” given to director Robert Rodriguez, for being “a filmmaker who inspires movie marketers to create work at an even higher level.”
Another highlight was the RottenTomatoes.com “Tomato Topper Award” given to the film Step Up. The award is given to a film that received negative reviews but generated positive box-office returns, highlighting the role of film marketing translating to a successful movie release.
2007 Key Art movie poster winners:
ACTION-ADVENTURE POSTER
ANIMATION POSTER
COMEDY POSTER
DRAMA POSTER
HORROR POSTER
TEASER POSTER
INTERNATIONAL POSTER
To read the complete list of 2007 Key Art Award winners visit The Hollywood Reporter.
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
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.
The STARZ television network is running highlights from The Hollywood Reporter 2006 Key Art Awards ceremony this month. Hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon, the 2006 Key Art Awards honor the best in film marketing, most notably film posters and movie trailers. This is a rare opportunity to see portions of the annual film marketing awards ceremony, as this is the first year the Key Art Awards have appeared on television. The special features highlights and interviews with the creators of this year’s award winning movie posters and film trailers. Check the STARZ movie channel schedule to tune into the film advertising awards special.
Virgins and illustrators ruled the world of movie poster key art as the winners of the Hollywood Reporter’s 35th annual Key Art Awards were announced in Hollywood on June 16th. Notable winners at this year’s ceremony in the movie poster categories include: The 40-Year-Old Virgin poster (which managed to overcome a premature hyphenation problem) as Best Comedy Poster and the Shepard Fairey illustrated Walk the Line poster as Best Teaser Poster. Illustration also drew in another win for the Lord of War poster as Best Action Adventure Poster.
Here are the 2006 Key Art movie poster winners:
COMEDY POSTER
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
ACTION ADVENTURE POSTER
Lord of War
INTERNATIONAL FILM POSTER
Batman Begins
To see the complete list of 2006 Key Art Award winners visit The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter recently announced the nominees for The 35th Annual Key Art Awards. The nominees are in 29 categories covering movie posters, film trailers, online advertising, TV spots, outdoor advertising, theatrical standees, print ads, home entertainment and more. In case everyone is not familiar with the term key art (and why it is the name of an awards ceremony for film advertising), The Hollywood Reporter defines the term as “the singular, iconographic image that is the foundation upon which a movie’s marketing campaign is built.”
One-sheet movie poster highlights include nominations for the Saw II one-sheet (our pick for the 2005 Posterwire.com Movie Poster of the Year), Lord of War, and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. All three of these movie posters were created by the design studio Art Machine, which led this year’s Key Art Awards with the most nominations for an advertising agency.
The winners will be announced June 16 at the Key Art Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Here are the 2006 Key Art movie poster nominees:
Each year, the film industry trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter holds it’s awards ceremony for film advertising and marketing, known as The Key Art Awards.
The phrase key art is a general movie industry term, referring to any artwork or imagery created to market a film, most notably a movie poster one-sheet.
Key Art Awards are given to the best movie posters, trailers, and other pieces of film advertising in a number of different categories. Special recognition is also given to selected projects and individuals who have contributed to the field of film advertising.
You might think of the Key Art Awards as the “Academy Awards of Film Advertising” or the “Oscars for One-sheets”.
During last night’s 34th Annual Key Art Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon, some notable movie poster winners included:
Best Action Poster: Open Water, Best Comedy Poster: Sideways, Best Drama Poster: Ray, Best International Poster: Saw, Best Teaser Poster: Saw
You can see a complete list of Key Art Award nominees at The Hollywood Reporter website. More importantly, you can also buy a copy of the highly coveted 34th Annual Key Art Catalog, which is the print catalog companion to the awards, showing all the movie poster submissions. (It’s also a reason many attend the ceremony; to get their complimentary copy of the $50.00 catalog.) Buy your copy today and you can see what every art director and ad executive in Hollywood will be thumbing through to copy get inspiration from for next year’s batch of movie poster designs.
