Knight of Illumination Awards USA Winners Announced in Las Vegas

	© The Fifth Estate

The leading lights of the entertainment production industry attended the inaugural Knight of Illumination Awards USA (KOI-USA) on Saturday night in Las Vegas, where the winners were announced at a glittering ceremony and gala dinner.

Three hundred professionals celebrated as 18 lighting and video designers were "knighted" for their creative talent in three categories: Theatre, Live for Broadcast, and Concert Touring & Events. In each category, the winners were chosen by a wholly independent panel of judges, every one an expert in their respective sector.

The winners are as follows:

Theatre
The DTS Award for Projection Design: Finn Ross & Adam Young for Mean Girls
The ETC Award for Dance: Al Crawford for Victoria
The Altman Award for Plays: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer for The Iceman Cometh
The Elation Professional Award for Opera: Joe Levasseur for Cellular Songs
The ROBE Lighting Award for Musicals: Tyler Micoleau for The Band's Visit

Live for Broadcast
The Philips Vari-Lite Award for Awards Shows: Robert Dickinson & Travis Hagenbuch for 90th Academy Awards
The Green Hippo Award for Set & Video Design: Michael Figge for The 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards
The SGM Award for Unscripted Series: Noah Mitz for America's Got Talent
The ARRI Award for Scripted Series: P.J. Dillon for The Alienist, Season 1, Netflix
The Ayrton Award for Entertainment & Events: Al Gurdon for Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert

Concert Touring & Events
The MA Lighting Award for Club: Sarah Landau for Fever Ray Tour 2018
The disguise Award for Video Content: Bob Bonniol for GM World Installation
The Avolites Award for Stage: Tom Sutherland for Pitbull's Time Of Our Lives Las Vegas Residency
The Robert Juliat Award for Events: Cory FitzGerald for Beyoncé at Coachella
The GLP Award for Arena: Andi Watson for Radiohead's W.A.S.T.E Tour 2018

In addition to the design awards, the Paky Lifetime Recognition Award was also presented. Debuting at KOI-USA, this award is named in fond memory of Pasquale "Paky" Quadri, president and founder of Claypaky. It recognizes an individual who has gone above and beyond to make a huge contribution to the world of lighting and visual design.

On this, the 30th anniversary of the LDI exhibition, the KOI committee unanimously decided to name Patricia MacKay as the recipient of the Paky Lifetime Recognition Award for 2018. As founder of the LDI exhibition and editor and publisher of Theatre Crafts and Lighting Dimensions magazines, the forerunners of Live Design, MacKay was responsible for building the North American entertainment production industry's leading showcase vehicles. As the founder of ETECH, the industry's first online news platform, MacKay was also a pioneer of the digital revolution, and has continued her involvement with the industry as a Fellow of the USITT.

As in the UK, each Knight of Illumination Award winner is presented with a personalized, engraved broadsword and a miniature sword silver lapel pin. The evening was compèred by LDI and Live Design managing director, David Johnson.

KOI-USA was held one month after the 11th annual UK ceremony, held in London, which saw more nominations than ever before and a record attendance of more than 520 guests. See the UK winners here.