AWS joins the Academy Software Foundation

Filmmaking is evolving at an incredible pace. The content created for features, episodics, and beyond is becoming increasingly complex. Sophisticated visual effects and animation tools have been used to realize the director’s vision at a level never been seen before, from replacing entire greenscreen backlots with stunning vistas or CG cityscapes, to waging epic superhero showdowns featuring explosions, lifelike fluid simulations, and more. While substantial advancements have been made in the last ten years, the next phase of innovation is poised to reveal even more incredible filmmaking milestones, especially with the media and entertainment industry’s continued adoption of open source software.

In the spirit of open and collaborative technological advancement, I am proud to announce that AWS has joined the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), an initiative founded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Linux Foundation to provide a neutral forum for open source software developers in media and entertainment. The mission of ASWF is to increase the quality and quantity of contributions to the media and entertainment industry’s open source software base. By joining ASWF, AWS brings its open source expertise along with deep M&E industry expertise spanning render management, content creation tools, and cloud-based workflows to help establish industry standards that will reduce friction points and enable studios to fully leverage the flexibility and scalability of the cloud.

AWS Thinkbox is a long-time provider of production-proven technology used in content creation. As the developer of Deadline render management software, we look forward to continuing this legacy through collaboration on code and standards with the ASWF community, along with our customers and partners. Keep an eye out for more to come!