Key Art Awards to Honor Best Posters and Trailers

On June 13th, some very important awards will be given in Hollywood. Each year, the Hollywood Reporter Movie Marketing Key Art Awards are presented, honoring the best marketing tools used for motion pictures. This includes posters, theater standees, trailers, billboards, copywriting, etc. Among the nominees in the trailer categories, split among comedy, drama, action/adventure/horror, or family films are The Simpsons Movie, Juno, Knocked Up, Superbad, No Country for Old Men (twice), Ratatouille, 300, Grindhouse, and There Will Be Blood. The Simpsons Movie leads all nominees with seven nods, 30 Days of Night has six, 300, Transformers, No Country, and Superbad each had five. Judd Apatow will receive this year's Visionary Award, "recognizing a filmmaker who inspires movie marketers," which goes all the way back to his cheesy Olan Mills-style poster for The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The big prizes, at least in my mind, are for the movie posters. There are very few things like a movie poster, actually. They're symbolic, they're collectibles, they're decorative, they can express who you are. So getting it right, which happens less frequently than it should, can really help the movie stand the test of time. Look at the posters for Vertigo, for example, or Fritz Lang's Metropolis, an original of which sold at auction in 2005 for $690,000.But even beyond that, a great movie poster can stand on its own. Absolutely lousy movies have great posters; incredible movies have not-so-great posters. They live in their own universe, as well, which is why I can say "Prom Night has a great poster." Well, it does. Who cares if the movie's absolute crap? They're two separate issues. If you can marry an outstanding film with a truly unique poster, so much the better. And here are the nominees: Drama

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Black Snake Moan
I’m Not There
Premonition
Zodiac

Comedy

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Superbad
Juno
Blades of Glory
The Darjeeling Limited

Action, Adventure, or Horror 28 Weeks Later
The Number 23
Grindhouse
30 Days of Night
Vacancy Family Shrek the Third
Ratatouille
Bee Movie
Surf’s Up
Alvin and the Chipmunks As they say, plenty of good seats are still available; log on to keyartaward.com to purchase tickets and to get more information.