Russel Boyd, ASC, ACS, får Kodakpris

Russell Boyd, ASC, ACS will receive the 2005 Kodak Award for Excellence in Cinematography at the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival awards ceremony here on October 28. The award is presented annually to a cinematographer who has made exceptional contributions to advancing the art of cinema in the Pacific Rim.

“Russell Boyd is creating an extraordinarily diverse body of work, including
more than a few films that are already classics,” says Mike Morelli, vice
president, Hollywood region, Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging Division. “He is a
talented and dedicated artist whose work has touched movie fans and inspired
filmmakers in every part of the world.”

Boyd won the Academy Award in 2004 for his cinematography on MASTER AND
COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD. Boyd also earned the Cinematographer of the Year Award from the Australian Film Society in 1976 for BETWEEN WARS and in 1982 for GALLIPOLI, and was inducted into the Australian Cinematographers Society’s Hall of Fame in 1998. His body of work also includes PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, THE LAST WAVE, BREAK OF DAY, THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, TENDER MERCIES, A SOLDIER’S STORY, CROCODILE DUNDEE, PRISONERS OF THE SUN and TIN CUP. His upcoming film GHOST RIDER is slated for release next summer.

Boyd was born and raised in Greeling, Australia. His teenage photography hobby led to a job at a small company in Melbourne that produced weekly news programs for cinema screens. Boyd started out painting sets, but was shooting black-and-white newsreels within a year. He segued into shooting documentaries and TV commercials. Boyd photographed his first fiction films on weekends with equipment borrowed from the commercial company.

“Filmmaking is an incredibly collaborative art form,” he says. “It’s not like being a still photographer or a painter who works entirely on his or her own in a studio. An awful lot of people apply their arts and crafts, and contribute to making a movie. It’s not just me collaborating with the director. It’s also my gaffer, camera crew and grips. Everybody has an equally important role in making a movie that tells a story.”

Boyd will host a special screening of MASTER AND COMMANDER on October 27 at the Dole Cannery 18 Theatres at 7 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer session. The film marked the fifth collaboration between Boyd and director Peter Weir. Boyd will also lead a discussion about the art and craft of cinematography at 3:30 p.m. on October 28 at the Academy of Arts Doris Duke Theater. He will show clips from THE MAN FROM HONG KONG and CROCODILE DUNDEE, as well as a sneak preview of GHOST RIDER.

The Hawaii International Film Festival was established in 1981 to foster an understanding and cultural exchange among the people of Asia, the Pacific and North America through the medium of film.