Introduction: Awards

Recognition is the most basic form of critical engagement. Before we can evaluate a performance, before we can describe what makes it excellent or identify where it falls short, we must first be willing to acknowledge that it is a performance at all — that something worthy of attention has taken place. The awards landscape for synthetic performance has been, from the guild’s perspective, a study in the slow, incomplete and sometimes perverse process by which that acknowledgement has been extended.

The history of formal recognition for synthetic performance is brief and not particularly glorious. In 2003, Andy Serkis received the Broadcast Film Critics Association award for Best Digital Acting Performance for his voice and motion-capture work as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was the first time a major critics’ body had created a category acknowledging digital character performance. The category has not been repeated. Crucially, the award was given to Serkis — the human performer behind Gollum — not to Gollum himself. The guild notes this with interest rather than bitterness. It illustrates precisely the question of attribution and authorship that lies at the centre of our critical project.

This section examines the awards landscape as it relates to synthetic performance: the guild’s own awards programme, the existing ceremonies and competitions that have touched on digital character work, and the tests and competitions that have sought to evaluate synthetic performance by different means. It is a landscape still being defined, and the guild intends to be part of defining it.

A note on the guild’s own awards

The Synactors Guild Awards programme was conceived as a central feature of this site. Practical constraints have meant that it remains more aspiration than practice. The current revival of the site is the moment to change that. We intend to establish a formal annual awards cycle, with categories, a nominations process, and published critical assessments of nominated performances. Details will be announced as the programme develops.