The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) is moving under the governance of the Academy Software Foundation, marking a shift toward fully open source development for the industry-standard color management system. The move positions ACES 2.0's enhanced capabilities within a collaborative framework that already houses critical production tools like OpenColorIO and OpenEXR.
Open governance will accelerate development of the color management system that powers films like Captain America: Brave New World, The Wild Robot, and Wicked. The transition comes as ACES 2.0 introduces improved color rendering and better support for custom output devices.
Behind the Scenes: The Academy built ACES over a decade ago to solve color consistency chaos across complex production pipelines.
ACES addresses a fundamental challenge in modern filmmaking: maintaining consistent color as content moves between different teams, tools, and delivery formats. The system encodes images at high dynamic range with wide color gamut support, using 16-bit half-float precision that captures up to 30 stops of luminance data.
The Academy Software Foundation announcement explains how ACES has become foundational to production workflows spanning hundreds of vendors and multiple distribution targets.
Major post-production houses, camera manufacturers, and digital content creation tools now integrate ACES as standard workflow infrastructure. The system earned a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award in 2012 for its industry impact.
New Management: Academy Software Foundation brings proven open source governance to color science development.
The Academy Software Foundation, established in 2018 through a partnership between the Academy and Linux Foundation, provides operational support for open source projects serving the media and entertainment industry. Current members include DreamWorks, Netflix, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros.
ACES has become a foundational part of modern motion picture workflows, shaped through cross-industry collaboration across hundreds of filmmakers, technologists, and color scientists.
The transition enables broader community participation in ACES development, with Technical Steering Committee guidance ensuring continuity while welcoming expanded contributions. The Academy will continue active participation in ACES development under the new structure.
Version 2.0 Upgrades: Spring 2025 release delivers more accurate color rendering and better display consistency.
ACES 2.0 represents the most significant system upgrade since inception, addressing real-world pipeline challenges:
Redesigned rendering transform produces more consistent results across different dynamic range displays, from standard SDR to high-end HDR panels
Enhanced invertibility enables higher fidelity round-trip conversions between ACES and various display formats with minimal color drift
Improved custom device support streamlines creation of transforms for new or proprietary display hardware and projectors
Better artistic control gives colorists and VFX teams greater flexibility for defining looks and creative intent
Multi-format consistency ensures matching results across 2D, stereo, and immersive formats plus various broadcast and streaming deliverables
The improvements directly address workflow pain points as productions span multiple vendors, formats, and distribution targets requiring pixel-perfect color accuracy.
Technical Integration: ACES works with other Academy Software Foundation projects for streamlined production pipelines.
Moving to the Academy Software Foundation creates technical synergies with related open source projects. ACES typically stores data as OpenEXR files (another ASWF-managed format), supporting extensive dynamic range and color detail. Integration with OpenColorIO enables seamless color pipeline management across different software tools.
Open source is the invisible backbone of modern film production, for both animation and live action, including nearly every aspect of visual effects.
The foundation model enables coordinated evolution between interconnected standards, reducing integration friction for studios implementing comprehensive color management workflows. Custom device transforms, essential for LED volume production and specialized displays, benefit from easier creation and validation processes.
The Final Cut: Open governance protects ACES from proprietary capture while accelerating innovation for independent and studio productions alike.
The Academy Software Foundation transition addresses long-term sustainability concerns while opening development to wider industry participation. This structural change ensures ACES remains accessible regardless of shifting corporate priorities or ownership changes.
The Academy Software Foundation was created to ensure that we have a healthy, vibrant open source community that can maintain and grow the projects that the motion picture industry relies on.
The move signals broader industry embrace of open source infrastructure for critical production technologies. As media workflows continue expanding across diverse platforms and formats, collaborative development models provide more resilient foundations for essential color management standards that must serve creators for decades to come.
