DEG Presents 2025 EnTech Awards in 9 Categories; MovieLabs' Richard Berger Takes Hall of Fame Prize

08 Oct DEG Presents 2025 EnTech Awards in 9 Categories; MovieLabs’ Richard Berger Takes Hall of Fame Prize

Posted at 08:30h in DEG News by Cayla Newnan

DEG’s Amy Jo Smith (2nd from l.) with leaders from Amazon, the evening’s host: (l. to r.) Ian McPherson of AWS, 2023 Hall of Fame Honoree Ellen Goodridge of Amazon/MGM Studios, and Jude Fitzmorris of Amazon Prime Video.

October 7, 2025 | DEG on Tuesday evening presented the 5th annual EnTech Awards for innovation in the digital entertainment supply chain, with those recognized spread across 14 companies in 9 categories. Two hundred industry collaborators attended the high-spirited celebration, hosted by Amazon at the Culver Theater in Culver City, CA. Additional sponsors include 360 Solutions, Dolby, Matchpoint, Spherex, and Platinum Sponsor Xperi.

The evening’s top accolade, the Hall of Fame Award, was presented to Richard Berger, CEO of MovieLabs. Berger is responsible for the overall direction of MovieLabs and oversees technology initiatives on behalf of the major studios. He also led the development of the “2030 Vision” which has become the industry’s reference for the future of media creation.

To determine the EnTech Award winners, DEG enlisted a distinguished judging panel comprised of a cross-section of leaders representing entertainment technology. Among other factors, the judging panel based its decisions on the candidates’ contribution to a key goal or priority within the technology and operations function. For the second year in a row, Hall of Fame was a juried award, with Berger chosen by the EnTech Awards judging panel. During the awards reception, attendees voted for a People’s Choice Award, which was won by Vubiquity’s Catalog Intelligence.

“The EnTech Awards are going strong in their fifth year,” said DEG President & CEO Amy Jo Smith. “DEG is grateful to Amazon for hosting this incredible celebration, and to all of our sponsors for their support. The idea to give recognition to our industry’s unsung supply chain heroes bubbled up organically from DEG’s technology and operations committees, and that gives this awards show a very unique sense of community that innovators and technologists across DEG member studios, platforms and technology providers all share in.”

And the DEG EnTech Awards went to …

Technology Leadership Award

This award honors an individual or team for demonstrating leadership, implementing something technically that had an impact on the business as a whole (extending to the industry beyond their specific company). 

Finalists: Tony Huidor, Cineverse | Megan Mauck, NBCUniversal (Pictured) | Rose Hulse, ScreenHits TV

Technology Innovation in Content Distribution Award

This award honors an individual or a team for identifying a consumer-facing problem and creating a novel solution in content distribution.

Finalists: Direct 2 Debut (D2D) Platform, Deluxe Media Inc. | AI Semantic Search and Content Recommendation, Mediagenix | Compliance Engine, Play Anywhere

Technology Innovation in Content Delivery Award

This award honors an individual or a team for identifying a problem within the media and entertainment supply chain and creating a novel solution, such as an engineering lab, infrastructure, or product.

Finalists: Spherex AI Agents, Teresa Phillips, Spherex (Pictured) | Catalog Intelligence, Sonia Hunt, Vubiquity | “Love Hurts” Cloud-Based Workflow, NBCUniversal, Company3, Pixelogic, AWS

Localization Trailblazer Award

This award honors pioneering teams or individuals who have transformed the industry and introduced a game-changing innovation.

Finalists: Christopher Reynolds, Deluxe Media Inc. (Pictured) | Engineering Team, The Sherlock Company | Jacques Barreau, TransPerfect Media

Emerging Technology Award

This award honors a company that created a new, consumer-facing technology that will likely positively affect the future of digital entertainment.

Finalists: CineSearch, Tony Huidor, Cineverse (Pictured) | For Mexico, For all Time, UFC at The Sphere Las Vegas, UFC Team, Nexus Studios, Antigravity Academy | Interactive Vocal Scoring System, Alexandre Benoit, Stingray

Technology Innovation in Catalog Restoration and Preservation Award

This award honors individuals or teams who have developed or uniquely use software or create tools to solve problems in the restoration and preservation of film, television, or related materials (e.g., metadata).  

Finalists: Archive Explorer (AMICS), Iron Mountain | “Hell’s Angels” Team, NBCUniversal | “Sunset Blvd” Team, Paramount, Park Road Post, and WingNut Films MAL Studio (Pictured)

Technology Advancement in Multi-Media Accessibility Award

This award honors an individual or team that has created technological advancements in accessibility, enhancing the user experience of multimedia entertainment through features such as Audio Description, signing, and dialog intelligibility.

Finalists:

Text-to-Speech Audio Description (TTS AD), Amazon Prime | 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympic Accessibility Team, NBCUniversal | “Sinners” and Black American Sign Language, Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max, and Roundabout Entertainment (Pictured)

Rising Star Class

This award honors individuals up to the Sr. Manager level who demonstrate excellence and perform well above their experience level. Nominees are expected to be team players and have demonstrated that they can find solutions to industry challenges. They show great promise to lead, innovate, and inspire the entertainment technology industry throughout their career.

Class of 2025 (from l.): Sharon Hsieh, The Sherlock Company | Alison Falk, Warner Bros. Discovery | Bill Pahutski, Paramount Pictures | Hunter Clancey, NBCUniversal | James Han, Iyuno (Not Pictured)

Hall of Fame Award

PRESENTED BY DOLBY

This year’s Hall of Fame Award was presented to Richard Berger, CEO of MovieLabs. Berger is responsible for the overall direction of MovieLabs and oversees technology initiatives on behalf of the major studios. He also led the development of the “2030 Vision” which has become the industry’s reference for the future of media creation. Hall of Fame is a juried award, with Berger chosen by our EnTech Awards distinguished judging panel comprised of a cross-section of leaders representing entertainment technology.