Beverly Hills, CA - Edmund M. Di Giulio, one of the industry's foremost engineering minds, has 
been voted the Gordon E. Sawyer Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture 
Arts and Sciences, Academy President Frank Pierson announced today.

The Award, an Oscar statuette, will be presented at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner 
on Saturday, March 2, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Established in 1981, the Sawyer Award is "presented to an individual in the motion picture 
industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry."  Di Giulio is 
the 16th recipient.

Perhaps best known for his part in the engineering and development of the Steadicam, Di Giulio 
has been active on various Academy subcommittees for many years and chaired the Academy's 
Scientific and Technical Awards Committee for five years.

"In my opinion, Ed is something of an engineering statesman, and someone one could always call 
on for advice and guidance," said Richard Edlund, current chair of the Scientific and Technical 
Awards Committee.  "We could think of no one who more deserves the Sawyer Award than he does."

To this point in his career, Di Giulio has received four Sci-Tech Awards, which he shares with 
several other people.  While at Mitchell Camera Corporation in the early sixties, he developed 
the company's first reflex camera - the Mark II - and in 1968, he received the Scientific and 
Engineering Award for the important design and application of a conversion that made it 
possible to change over most of the industry's existing sound cameras to reflex viewing.  
In 1992, he received another Scientific and Engineering Award for the camera system design 
of the CP-65 Showscan Camera System for 65mm motion picture cinematography.  In 1998,
Di Giulio received a Technical Achievement Award for the design of the KeyKode Sync Reader. 
The next year, Di Giulio received the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, awarded for 
"outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy."

Di Giulio has authored a number of influential scientific papers and is a well-known lecturer 
who has appeared at technical conferences and symposia both in the United States and around 
the world.  An Academy member since 1966, Di Giulio is also fellow of the Society of Motion 
Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and holds more than a dozen patents in computer and 
cinema technology.

The invitation-only Scientific and Technical Awards dinner will be held at the Regent Beverly 
Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Portions of the Sawyer Award presentation will be broadcast on 
the live 74th Academy Awards( R) telecast on March 24.

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