February 23, 2009 14:27 ET

Avid Customers Earn Top Music, Television and Film Awards at Red Carpet Events

Creative Teams Behind Adele, Kings of Leon, "30 Rock," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Dark Knight" Among 2009's Major Award Wins

TEWKSBURY, MA--(Marketwire - February 23, 2009) - Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that the 2009 awards season marked tremendous success for Avid® customers across the music, film and television industries -- with more than 55 honorees and 140 nominations representing several categories at the 2009 Grammy®, A.C.E. and Oscar® Awards. Avid customers took home top honors at the awards in categories that included Grammy wins for 'Record of the Year' and 'Album of the Year,' A.C.E Eddie wins for 'Best Edited Feature Film,' 'Best Edited Half Hour Television Show' and 'Best Edited Reality Series,' and Oscar wins for 'Best Motion Picture,' 'Achievement in Sound Mixing' and 'Achievement in Film Editing.'

81st Annual Academy Awards®

2009 Oscar winners in the Best Motion Picture, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Directing and Music (Song and Score) categories were all created with a variety of Avid audio and video solutions. Grabbing more than 80 Academy Award® nominations, this year's honored films include "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk" and "Changeling," among others. Further, all of the nominees in the Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Directing, Achievement in Film Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, Achievement in Music/Sound, Achievement in Music Score, Achievement in Visual Effects, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature used one or more Avid products in the creation of their projects. For a full list of these Oscar nominees and winners, download the PDF.

"The movement and rhythm throughout 'Slumdog Millionaire' is very much a representation of how memories come to us in a free and fluid way. We tried a lot of different storytelling ideas, playing to the strengths of the script, and the Avid Media Composer® afforded us an incredible amount of flexibility through that process," said Chris Dickens, 2009 Oscar, BAFTA and A.C.E. winner for his Film Editing work on "Slumdog Millionaire." "The film's language is wrapped around hard cuts and jarring images which carry the various storylines separately but concurrently through the film. To weave together the more complex scenes, we always tried to keep some elements continuous -- the music, dialogue or sound effects -- and the Avid solution handled everything perfectly. At the end of the day, we just wanted to put our best creative foot forward."

59th Annual A.C.E. Eddie Awards

The Avid Media Composer system was again the common tool of choice for the majority of 2009 A.C.E. Eddie nominees and winners in every category. This year's winners included editors such as Meg Reticker ("30 Rock"), Lynne Willingham, A.C.E. ("Breaking Bad") and Michael Ruscio, A.C.E. and Andy Keir ("True Blood"), among others.

51st Grammy Awards

Many of this year's Grammy award winning songs, artists and albums relied on the Digidesign® Pro Tools® platform in the creative production process including Alison Krauss and Robert Plant ('Raising Sand'), Kings of Leon ('Sex on Fire'), Coldplay ('Viva La Vida') and Best New Artist winner Adele, among others. Overall, recordings that used Pro Tools earned more than 40 nominations and represent a diverse set of artists, such as Lil Wayne, Ne-Yo, Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Radiohead and Madonna.

"Working with Kings of Leon on this record was such a great experience and we were all totally thrilled to be nominated in 3 categories -- it feels like an achievement of a lifetime. To receive this sort of critical success is really an honor," said Jacquard King, Co-Producer and Mixer for Best Rock Performance winner (Kings of Leon). "I've had opportunities to work on some great records based on my training as an engineer and Pro Tools operator, and Pro Tools was absolutely essential to the creation of this record. We not only used it to record and mix the song, but we also created many of the sonic atmospheres using Pro Tools plug ins. The power and speed of Pro Tools gave us the creative freedom to do whatever we wanted, and we were all thrilled with the results."

Find out more information on other Award winning and nominated projects that used Avid systems at www.avid.com/nominees.

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid is a worldwide leader in tools for film, video, audio, and broadcast professionals -- as well as for home audio and video enthusiasts. Avid professional and consumer brands include Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio®, Pinnacle Systems®, Sibelius® and Sundance Digital®. The vast majority of primetime television shows, feature films, commercials and chart-topping music hits are made using one or more Avid products. Whether used by seasoned professionals or beginning students, Avid's products and services enable customers to work more efficiently, productively and creatively. Avid received an Oscar statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. For more information about the company's Oscar, Grammy and Emmy® award-winning products and services, visit www.avid.com, del.icio.us, Flickr, twitter and YouTube; connect with Avid on Facebook or subscribe to Avid Industry Buzz.

© 2009 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, Digidesign, Film Composer, M-Audio, Media Composer, Pinnacle Systems, Pro Tools, Sibelius and Sundance Digital are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Academy Award, Academy Awards and Oscar are trademarks and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.