And the Oscar goes to . . .

Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award). To John D. Lowry, Ian Cavén, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly for the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process. The “Lowry Process” uses advanced GPU-accelerated, motion estimation-based image processing tools to enhance image quality.

Scientific and Technical Award (Technical Achievement Award). To Javor Kalojanov and Kimball Thurston for the creation of Wētā FX’s ML Denoiser. This denoiser prioritizes temporal filtering using innovative optical flow techniques to preserve crucial details. Novel training strategies allow its machine learning algorithms to denoise computer-generated imagery to the most exacting standards.