Year’s Best Movie Posters – 2014 Key Art Awards

A poster for the IMAX presentation of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (left), and a teaser poster for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I”, both created by the Los Angeles-based design firm IGNITION. Both are nominated for the 2014 Key Art Awards in the category of Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet. The Hollywood Reporter’s annual competition for the best in film and TV advertising honors some of the most creative imagery used in movie posters. Here is a selection of some of this year’s nominees. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

“Key Art” refers to an illustration, photograph, graphic or title treatment on which a film’s marketing materials are based, taking center stage on the film’s poster, newspaper ads, and lobby displays, such as this high-contrast image of actor Bruce Dern for Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”. Finalist in the Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet category. Design: BLT Communications, LLC, Hollywood. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

The Key Art Awards are presented in a variety of categories covering marketing for theatrical films, television and video games. In addition to one-sheet posters, the categories include ads for use on billboards, cinema displays and online, as well as trailers and TV spots. Posters by The Refinery for the sci-fi film “Gravity”, were designed for use in cinemas (far left) and in bus shelters (right). (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A nominee in the category of International Theatrical One-Sheet: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”. Design: Art Machine, Los Angeles. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

“Bad Words”. A finalist in the category of Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet, designed by P+A, Los Angeles. This year’s entries cover advertising campaigns from June 1, 2013 – August 31, 2014. Juries comprised of senior-level creatives in marketing and graphic design will choose from among the finalists announced October 6, 2014. Winners will be announced on October 23, 2014 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A teaser poster for “Son of God”. Design: Gravillis Inc., Los Angeles. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

The image for the one-sheet of the biofilm “Diana”, showing Naomi Watts perched on a yacht’s diving board, mimicked a famous paparazzi photo of a solitary Princess Di on Mohamed Al Fayed’s yacht in Portofino in August 1997, shortly before her death. Category: Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet. Design firm: Concept Arts Inc., Hollywood. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

If you’ve seen ads pasted over scaffolding, on the plywood barriers of construction sites, or on walls in the seedier parts of town, you’ve witnessed the continuing tradition of “wild post” ads, which today may purposely mimic the cheap, slapped-on look of posters put up in the dead of night by circuses, garage bands or fly-by-night outfits. Two Wild Post nominees for “Godzilla”, from IGNITION. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

This poster for the 2014 South by Southwest Festival’s celebration of the iconic movie monster Godzilla is nominated in the Festival One-Sheet category, and also in the Theatrical Illustration category. Design: Phantom City Creative, Inc., Toronto. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

In the International category is this One-Sheet poster for the horror film, “As Above, So Below”. Design: IGNITION, Los Angeles. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

Nominated in the photography category is this series of portraits for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1”, which features representatives of the various districts of the “Hunger Games” universe, responsible for grain, fishing, mining, technology, and so forth. Design: GNITION, Los Angeles. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

IGNITION’s one-sheet for the horror film “Nurse 3D”. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A teaser poster for the forthcoming Disney animated film, “Big Hero 6”. Design firm: Art Machine, Los Angeles. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

In the category of Festival One-Sheet Post is this nominee for “The Mule”, about a drug mule who has ingested his stash and awaits its eventual release, hoping to avoid police interdiction. Design: Concept Arts Inc., Hollywood. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A nominee in the Theatrical Illustration category is Gravillis’ poster for the horror-comedy, “Bad Milo!”. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A teaser poster for the upcoming Brad Pitt World War II film, “Fury”. Category: Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet. Design firm: BLT Communications, LLC, Hollywood. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

A teaser poster for “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, showing Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy as iterations of the character Charles Xavier/Professor X. Design by BLT Communications, LLC, Hollywood. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

These two entries in the Festival One-Sheet category were created for the Palm Springs International Film Festival (IGNITION) and the SXSW Film Festival (Gravillis Inc.). (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

Also being honored at this year’s Key Art Awards is illustrator Drew Struzan, who is being presented with the Saul Bass Award. Struzan has created the memorable and instantly-identifiable key art imagery for more than 200 movies, including some of the most beloved films of the past four decades, such as the “Star Wars”, “Indiana Jones”, “Back to the Future” and “Harry Potter” films; “Blade Runner”; “First Blood”; “The Goonies”; “The Name of the Rose”; and “The Pirates of Penzance”. Winners of this year’s Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards will be announced on Oct. 23, 2014 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)