On May 15, on the American Pavilion, at the heart of Festival de Cannes, a press conference unveiled to the world of cinema the creation of a new award destined to recognize and honor the best productions and other masterpieces in 3D.

The announcement of this new award for 3D – which could quickly reach the notoriety of some of the world’s best-known awards – followed the announcement, at the same press conference, of another initiative just as strategically important for 3D, i.e. the creation of a new association called the “3D Guild”, conceived to link the professionals from all over the world who share a passion for 3D, in order to help them to work in concert, to push always further back the fascinating and sometimes surprising frontiers of 3D.

The new award for 3D has naturally been named the “3D Guild Award“. The first awards will be given out on 17 Decemberduring the 3D Stereo MEDIA event, traditionally held in Liège, Belgium, since 2009. The jury will meet in London in November to identify the first winners.

The idea of creating a new association and a new award for 3D was initially proposed by the two organizers of this major, internationally acclaimed event, i.e. Prof. Jacques G. Verly (University of Liège, School of Engineering) and Alain Gallez(Image&3D Europe). They received full support from several key actors of 3D in Europe, and defined with them the details of the new association and award. They also consulted with the “Advanced Imaging Society” – formerly called the “International 3D Society” – to work synergistically with it, in the best interest of 3D worldwide. The new award was designed by a young Belgian designer, Mr Thien Vo.

The 3D Guild was officially founded on 8 May, as an international non-profit organization, symbolically headquartered in the Capital of Europe, Brussels. Its 11 founding members come from Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

The 3D Guild defines itself to be “an association of people for people”, devoid of any corporate influence. In the same spirit, the 3D Guild Awards will go to people, as opposed to content (even if the selection is based on the screening of content).

The initial presidency of the Guild was entrusted to Prof. Jacques G. Verly, and the co-presidency to Angus Cameron (Vision3, UK) and Joséphine Derobe (Stereographer, FR).

The 3D Guild will initially focus on the domains of entertainment (cinema, television, virtual/augmented reality, videogames,…) and research, the latter cutting across all applications of 3D.