The China Mail - The Golden Trailer Awards: Hollywood's 'Oscars' for movie previews

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer, only to find that those who worked in the field were practically anonymous.

"Trailer editors, the people creating some of the most memorable moments of the moviegoing experience, were completely unrecognized," Brady told AFP.

"They weren't credited on trailers, they weren't credited in films, and there wasn't even a directory to find them."

The pair, who remain as executive producers on the award show, oversaw 19 prizes given out during the inaugural ceremony in New York.

Today, the ceremony is held in Los Angeles and recognizes achievements in over 100 categories.

But what makes one movie trailer stand out from the rest?

"What makes a great trailer, first and foremost, is a great hook," Watters said.

- 'A tempting appetizer' -

An honoree will likely have "a fresh storyline, compelling characters, an emotional moment, and something audiences haven’t seen before," she explained.

"A winning trailer is a tempting appetizer, it is not the whole meal."

Taylor Engel, a creative director at Create Advertising Group -- which received 16 nominations this year for the company's work on trailers for "Sinners," "Tron: Ares" and "Only Murders in the Building" -- said editing a trailer is like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

"We get materials at the beginning of the project, and it could be anything. Sometimes you get the movie, sometimes you get just dailies, you know, just the scenes that they shot," Engel said.

The challenge lies in combining the audio, video and editing effects to "tell maybe a different story or showcase the movie in some way."

Like film editing, movie trailers have evolved over the decades in Hollywood, and the crowded marketplace for attention has led to fierce competition.

Sometimes, the trailer ends up being better than the movie itself -- something that has become its own category in the Golden Trailer Awards.

Dubbed the "Golden Fleece," this years nominees include trailers for the horror film "Shell" starring Elisabeth Moss and "The Strangers: Chapter 3."

- No AI used -

Despite the intense competition and demand, Engel said that the work in making movie trailers is not under the same pressure to utilize artificial intelligence as other sectors of Hollywood.

"Every cut is very specific in why you pair a shot with a certain piece of music," Engel said.

AI tools "may get better at recreating what's been done in the past, but what's exciting about trailers is when you see something that you've never seen before, you see it done in a different way," the creative director said.

L.Kwan--ThChM