The Advanced Imaging Society's 16th annual Lumiere Awards celebrated technical and creative achievements in film and television, with Sinners winning best live-action feature and Zootopia 2 taking best animated feature. Special honors went to Ethan Hawke and Jon M. Chu during the event on February 9, 2026. Other winners included Wicked: For Good for best musical and KPop Demon Hunters for original song and musical sequence.
The Lumiere Awards, held on February 9, 2026, recognized innovations in storytelling and cinematic technology across movies and episodic content. Jim Chabin, president of the Advanced Imaging Society, praised the winners: “These Lumiere winners produced their brilliant stories by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible creatively and technically. In these honorees we see our industry’s future – and that future is truly more exciting than ever.”
In film categories, Sinners earned the best live-action feature award, presented by Delroy Lindo to producer Sev Ohanian. Its sound team—Chris Welcker, Steve Boeddeker, and Benny Burtt—accepted the best audio honor. Voters described the film as a “brilliant and meaningful story” that was “perfectly executed.”
Zootopia 2 won best animated feature, with director Byron Howard receiving the award from Patrick Warburton. The film was lauded for its “unprecedented technical integration across every production dimension.” Wicked: For Good secured best motion picture–musical, accepted by director Jon M. Chu, who was also honored with the inaugural Judy Garland Legacy Award, introduced by Lorna Luft and presented by Josh Gad. Voters highlighted its “perfectly integrated difficult, high-production value VFX and imagery work into the musical storytelling.”
KPop Demon Hunters triumphed with awards for best original song (“Golden”) and best musical scene or sequence (“Golden”). The King of Color, a documentary about Pantone inventor Larry Herbert, won best documentary; director Patrick Creadon accepted and read a note from the 97-year-old Herbert. Avatar: Fire and Ash took best theatrical scene or sequence for its third-act Flux Devil fire tornado battle, accepted by Wētā FX's Eric Saindon.
On the television side, Andor Season 2 won best episodic–live action, accepted by executive producer John Gilroy, while Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man claimed best episodic–animation, accepted by showrunner Jeff Trammell. Severance received best audio–episodic, Stranger Things Season 5 won best use of high dynamic range–episodic, and F1 took the feature film equivalent.
Special awards included the Distinguished Artist Award to Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, presented by Kathleen Kennedy, who said, “Ethan doesn’t just step into the spotlight — he is the light.” The Harold Lloyd Award went to Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer for F1. Google received the Sir Charles Wheatstone Award for innovations like VEO and Imagen models. Production technology honors were given to AMD, CoreWeave's Conductor, Flawless, 6P Color, and DisneyResearch|Studios, while VUE earned the Governor’s Award for Cinema Excellence.
