**FREE** PH Awards: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER - Season Two

Sponsored by Prime Video

In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

The first season of The Rings of Power has been an unprecedented success, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, with more than 32 billion minutes streamed. The highly anticipated series attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video, and also debuted as the No. 1 show on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart in its opening weekend. The show has driven more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content to date. The season finale also created a global cultural moment, with multiple series-themed hashtags, including #TheRingsofPower and others, trending in 27 countries across Twitter for over 426 cumulative hours throughout the weekend.

Based on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and Appendices by J.R.R. Tolkien. (Description courtesy of Prime Video)

Joel Skinner - Born and raised in Bristol, in the West of England, Joel Skinner embarked on his television editing career rather late compared to many of his peers. It wasn't until his late twenties that he decided to make a significant career shift. With a background in insurance, Joel chose to follow his passion for filmmaking, a hobby that had long seen him creating short films with friends and working in the camera crew on music promos for the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Killers. This passion led him to pursue a Masters Degree in Film.

Joel's entry into the TV industry began with roles as an Assistant Editor and Visual Effects Editor on some of the most beloved British TV series, including the iconic Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Luther. These experiences allowed him to hone his craft, work with some of the best Directors and Editors the U.K. has to offer and develop a keen eye for narrative and visual storytelling.

He landed his first job as an Editor on Luther, having started as an assistant on the series. This opportunity marked the beginning of a career in high-end television. Since then, Joel has had the privilege of editing numerous prestigious U.K. and U.S. productions including His Dark Materials for HBO and Winx: The Fate Saga for Netflix.

The culmination of Joel's career thus far has been his role as an Editor for the acclaimed series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for Prime Video, a dream project for a self-confessed Tolkien nerd.

Jason Smith - With a deep respect for the creation of creature effects throughout the history of film, Jason Smith has established himself as a highly creative and technically skilled Visual Effects Supervisor. While earning his computer science degree, he delved into traditional sculpture and prosthetic makeup effects and produced practical creature makeup effects for university productions. Smith joined ILM in 2001 as a technical assistant, and by 2003, he had advanced to the position of Creature Technical Director.

One of Smith's most significant contributions is the creation of Block Party, ILM’s proprietary creature rigging system that automates the time-consuming process of character rigging. In 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoured him with a Technical Achievement Award for his role in Block Party's original design and creation. Smith is also the inventor of ILM’s Dynamic Rigging process for animation of mechanical models, which was first used for the robot transformations in Transformers and the complex mechanical animations of Iron Man’s suit. Block Party and Dynamic rigging for Animation of Mechanics are still in use at ILM today, after two decades and over a hundred films.

Throughout his career, Smith has effectively led and collaborated with teams of artists, working on groundbreaking visual effects in notable projects such as Transformers, The Avengers, The Revenant and Bumblebee. In 2012, he served as ILM’s Associate Visual Effects Supervisor on Marvel’s blockbuster The Avengers, which grossed over one billion dollars worldwide and earned him a Visual Effects Society Award nomination for his character work on The Hulk. His role as ILM Visual Effects Supervisor on The Revenant brought him a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photorealistic Feature and an Academy Award Nomination for Best Visual Effects. Most recently, as Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Smith played a significant role in the visual design of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series for Amazon. The critically acclaimed visuals of Season 1 won 4 VES Awards for outstanding VFX. He is currently in the UK after recently finishing Season 2.

Jason is a graduate of Brigham Young University’s BS of Computer Science Program, with a minor in Visual Arts. He also recently completed his MFA in Illustration with The Hartford Art School.