Editor

Tonight, in front of a live audience at the spectacular 1920’s-era Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, the year’s top movie previews were celebrated at the 9th Annual Golden Trailer Awards™. In a show hosted by world-renowned Sinbad, with presenters culled from the ranks of today’s top and up-and-coming comedians, statuettes for 16 award categories were handed out. But the biggest prize of all still remains to be determined: between May 9 and May 14th, the public can log onto USA TODAY online at goldentrailers.usatoday.com to view the top 16 trailers, and vote for TRAILER OF THE YEAR. The winner will be announced on the air on Monday, May 26th, when the event is broadcast nationally on the MyNetworkTV primetime special, “The Movie Preview Awards.”

Created in 1999 to celebrate the art, craft and fun of movie promotion, The Golden Trailer Awards have established themselves as the top prize in the field, coveted by trailer producers, and watched carefully by studio heads and marketing decision-makers in the industry. But, while the awards are serious business for the winners, for the rest of us they are just plain fun—movie audiences have always loved trailers, but in recent years they have exploded as a favorite form of entertainment, ranking as the #3 category of the estimated 10 billion videos viewed online each year

Tonight’s big winners include the trailer for Iron Man for the Summer 2008 Blockbuster Award, I Am Legend for Best Horror, the upcoming Tropic Thunder for Best Comedy, and Atonement for Best Romance. Best Animation/Family went to Enchanted. Audience favorites, the Golden Fleece Award (best trailer for a bad movie) and Trashiest Trailer, went to Awake and Drive Thru, respectively. Also, in an award category that so defines the impact of trailers, Best Voice Over went to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. An award for Best Video Game Trailer went to The Simpson’s Game: Medal of Homer. The list of 16 show winners is below. Awards are handed out for 53 categories; see www.goldentrailer.com for the full list of nominees and winners, which also includes sections for a full range for foreign films, posters, TV spots and film festival materials.

From its first year, The Golden Trailer Awards have attracted the highest level of industry professionals to its jury, with past members including such luminaries as Quentin Tarrantino, David Geffen, and Penny Marshall., This year is no exception. The final awards round was judged by a prestigious jury of entertainment pros, including legendary skateboarder/game developer Tony Hawk; writer/director Joss Whedon, whose credits include Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Titan A.E., and Serenity; Eli Roth, writer/director of the two Hostel horror hits; Claudia Puig, esteemed critic for USA Today and member of Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists; Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated director of Supersize Me and Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?; Jonathan D. Krane, producer of Face/Off and Swordfish; Gary Meyer, Telluride Film Festival Co-Director; Mark Wnek, advertising great and Chairman/CEO of Lowe Worldwide; and Myles Bender, Sr. Vice President of Creative Advertising at Focus Features, where he has overseen the campaigns for hit films including Brokeback Mountain, Atonement, Hot Fuzz and In Bruges.

But this was also the first year that the public—who usually vote on the power of trailers with ticket purchases—have been invited to participate in determining the awards, both at the nomination and Trailer of the Year stages. Nominations for all 53 Golden Trailer Award® categories were made by public vote for the first time. Responding to a public call to action, 140 trailer buffs signed up online and devoted an average of four hours to selecting from a total pool of 968 entries, nominating in all 53 categories. Each juror evaluated one fifth of the nomination categories.

The Golden Trailer Awards were founded in 1999 by sisters and co-producers Evelyn Brady Watters and Monica Waters. The presenters for this year’s event were Dean Edwards (“Premium Blend,” “Saturday Night Live”), Whitney Cummings (“Made of Honor,” “VH1’s Best Week Ever”), Anjelah Johnson ("The Shield"), Jasper Redd (“Premium Blend”), Jordin Rubin ("Crank Yankers,"), Mo Mandel (stand-up comedian), Nick Kroll (“Caveman and VH1’s “Best Week Ever”) and Jeff Ross (MTV series "Where My Dogs At?")

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9TH ANNUAL GOLDEN TRAILER AWARDS™
For the Year’s Top Movie Previews

The following 16 categories were presented with Golden Trailer Awards™ during the live event at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by Sinbad.
The full list of 53 category winners are available online at www.goldentrailer.com.

For the first time ever, the winner for the 54th category, TRAILER OF THE YEAR, will be selected by the public from among the categories below on USA TODAY online at goldentrailers.usatoday.com. Viewing and voting will take place May 9-14th, 2008.

Best Action
The Dark Knight, Warner Bros., Intralink Film

Best Animation/Family
Enchanted, Walt Disney Pictures, Craig Murray Productions

Best Comedy
Tropic Thunder, DreamWorks, Buddha Jones

Best Documentary
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, Weinstein Co., Buddha Jones

Best Drama
No Country for Old Men, Miramax Films, Giaronomo Productions

Best Horror
I am Legend, Warner Bros., Skip Film

Best Independent Trailer
Day Night Day Night, IFC First Take, Kinetic Trailers

Best Music
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Miramax Films, Mark Woollen & Assoc.

Best Romance
Atonement, Focus Features, Intralink Film

Best Thriller
Vantage Point, Columbia Pictures, AV Squad

Best Video Game Trailer
The Simpson’s Game: Medal of Homer, Electronic Arts, Hammer Creative

Best Voice Over
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Warner Bros., Mark Woollen & Assoc.

Golden Fleece
Awake, Weinstein Co., Seismic Productions

Most Original
In Bruges, Focus Features, Focus Features (in house)

Summer 2008 Blockbuster
Iron Man, Paramount Pictures, The Ant Farm

Trashiest Trailer
Drive Thru, Lionsgate