The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) tonight honoured Epic Games with a Special Award at an event at The London West Hollywood hotel on 12 June 2019.
Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, accepted the award on the company’s behalf. Sweeney was interviewed by journalist Steffan Powell at the event, which took place during the E3 games convention in Los Angeles.
Tim Sweeney said “It’s a great honor to be here as Epic’s spokesperson, especially for the work that we’ve done in the area of creativity in serving the needs of the film industry and game developers, and the work of hundreds of really world-class people all around the world. The team has worked so hard to make these things reality and create art and be recognized for it. I hope this is just the beginning of the quest. We’re trying to create a whole new world around digital entertainment and I think we’re just at the beginning of it.”
Epic Games has become a world-renowned industry leader and innovator. Developing some of the most trailblazing titles of the last 30 years, from its first application ZZT to the Gears of War series and Fortnite. Its pioneering Unreal Engine, founded twenty years ago, has underpinned some of the most successful and critically acclaimed games, including BAFTA-winning titles Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, What Remains of Edith Finch, Rocket League, Mass Effect, BioShock and the Arkham series.
Tim Sweeney said “I’ve been really astonished to find that the tools that we’ve been developing to help developers build games have reached the level to where suddenly they’re the most attractive solution for everybody who wants to use real-time computer graphics. Most recently we’ve seen the adoption of real-time production for final pixels, and virtual production on a movie set, where you can have a hundred different devices and anybody can look through any camera and see a real-time composition of the humans in the scene with the green screen and the CG that has been pre-built for it, and it gets us back to this magical time in film production where the director could actually look through the camera and see everything, and they can make really great calls about shots based on the appearance—in the age of CG that was lost and now it’s being brought back. I think we’re going to see game engines completely revolutionize film and television production and ultimately help their creatives produce better results, because it is real time and because they can see exactly what the final scene will look like when they’re looking through the camera.”
Dr Jo Twist OBE, Chair of BAFTA’s Games Committee, said: “We are delighted to honour Epic Games with a BAFTA special award. Their impact on the global games industry and its evolution has been extraordinary and we are pleased to be recognising that this evening. Epic Games have empowered and supported creativity in the industry for over 20 years and they continue to innovate on established industry practice and champion the creative community. BAFTA celebrates and promotes the very best in games and that’s what tonight is about.”
Epic Games have joined a list of leading Games professionals who have received a BAFTA Special Award over the years. Including Nolan North, Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill (on behalf of Riot Games), Brenda Romero, Amy Hennig and Markus Persson.
Event details:
Wednesday 12 June 2019 at The London, West Hollywood, 1020 N San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069, USA
Assets from the event:
Photos from the event – HERE
For further information and interview requests:
Molly Whitehall at WDW Entertainment (UK)
T: 07789 848 782
Caroline Stegner at Rogers & Cowan (US)
T: 310-854-8149