The annual Alex Entertainment Packaging Awards, the premier competition honoring creative excellence in music, movie and videogame packaging, received a record number of entries in its fourth year.
The awards, open to movie, music and game content owners, producers, manufacturers, package vendors and distributors, are named in honor of Alex Steinweiss, who designed the industry's first album cover for Columbia Records in 1939. A record 210 submissions were judged by two panels of leading entertainment media creative directors and package designers in Los Angeles and New York.
Winners will be announced Aug. 9 at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City on the closing night of the Entertainment Media Expo (EMX). The Alex Awards reception and ceremony again will be hosted by Craig Braun, the veteran packaging designer behind such legendary album covers as the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers." (For more information on EMX, produced by CMP Entertainment Media and the International Recording Media Association, please visit www.entertainmentmediaexpo.com.)
This year's Alex Awards competition marks the introduction of several new categories. "Best Limited Edition DVD Package" is designed to recognize the extreme high-end of DVD collectibles (retailing over $100), while the program's Entertainment Software category has been divided into separate classifications for console and PC platforms. Other new categories, such as Best Structural Design, Best Disc Decoration and Best Package Printing, highlight the individual components that make an entertainment media package stand out at retail or on the consumer's home shelf.
A full list of nominees follows (with submitting company and label/studio/publisher in parentheses).
Best CD Package, Single- or Double-Disc
- June Carter Cash: "Keep On The Sunny Side" (Sony BMG Music Entertainment)
- Korn: "See You On The Other Side" (Shorewood Packaging) (Label: Virgin Records)
- Josh Ritter: "The Animal Years" (V2 Records)
- Sigur Rós: "Takk..." (Pozzoli) (Label: Geffen Records)
- Tool: "10,000 Days" (AGI Media; Multi Packaging Solutions) (Label: Volcano Records)
Best CD Boxed Set
- "Johnny Cash: The Legend" (Sony BMG Music Entertainment; AGI Media)
- Ray Charles: "Pure Genius: The Complete Ray Charles Recordings" (Shorewood Packaging) (Label: Rhino/WEA)
- Jimmy Cliff: "Better Days Are Coming: The A&M Years 1969-2026" (Shorewood Packaging) (Label: Hip-O Select)
- Miles Davis: "The Cellar Door Sessions 1970" (Sony BMG Music Entertainment)
- "Fonotone Records Retrospective" (Word of anArchie) (Label: Dust-to-Digital)
Best Vinyl Record Package
- Grey DeLisle: "Iron Flowers" (Candy Tangerine Productions)
- The Raconteurs: "Broken Boy Soldiers" (V2 Records)
Best DVD Package, Single- or Double-Disc
- "Dazed And Confused" (The Criterion Collection)
- "King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries" (30Sixty Advertising + Design) (Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
- "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (The Criterion Collection)
- "Napoleon Dynamite: Like, The Best Special Edition Ever!" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
- "Saw: Uncut Edition" (Bert Co) (Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Best DVD Package, Multi-Disc
- "Deadwood: The Complete Second Season" (HBO Video; Cinram-Ivy Hill)
- "The Electric Company: The Best of the Electric Company" (Shout!Factory)
- "Kamichu!: Shrine Box" (Shorewood Packaging) (Studio: Geneon Entertainment)
- "The Complete Mr. Arkadin" (The Criterion Collection)
- "The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season Collector's Edition" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; KO Creative)
Best Limited Edition DVD Package
- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Collection" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
- "Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex" (Independent Can Co.) (Studio: Manga Video)
- "Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate Collection" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
- "Jean Renoir: L'Essential" (BDMO Packaging) (Studio: Studio Canal)
- "Sex and The City: The Complete Series" (HBO Video; AGI Media)
Best Entertainment Software Package, Console Platforms
- "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland: Limited Edition" (PlayStation 2) (Shorewood Packaging) (Publisher: Activision)
- "Driver Parallel Lines: Limited Edition" (PlayStation 2/Xbox) (Shorewood Packaging) (Publisher: Atari)
- "Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy" (Xbox) (Shorewood Packaging) (Publisher: Rockstar Games)
- "Perfect Dark Zero: Limited Collector's Edition" (Xbox 360) (Microsoft)
- "Resident Evil 4" (PlayStation 2: PAL Version) (Scanavo) (Publisher: Capcom)
Best Entertainment Software Package, Computer Platforms
- "Age of Empires III: Collector's Edition" (Microsoft)
- "Call of Duty 2: Collector's Edition" (Hamagami/Carroll) (Publisher: Activision)
- "Civilization IV: Special Edition" (Shorewood Packaging) (Publisher: 2K Games)
- "Heroes of Might and Magic V" (BDMO Packaging) (Publisher: Ubi Soft)
- "Quake 4" (Hamagami/Carroll) (Publisher: Activision)
Best Promotional CD/DVD, Entertainment Trade
- The Ark: "State of The Ark" (Jakebox) (Label: Rebel Group)
- Grey DeLisle: "'Neath A Cold Grey Stone" (Sweet Relief) (Candy Tangerine Productions)
- The Doors: "Love/Death/Travel" (Cinram-Ivy Hill) (Label: Rhino Handmade)
- HBO: "For Your Emmy Consideration" (AGI Media) (Studio: HBO)
Best Promotional CD/DVD, Consumer/Marketing
- "Jazz: An American Story" (NEA Jazz in the Schools Program) (Play-It Productions) (Publisher: National Endowment for the Arts)
- "Scrubs: The Complete Third Season" Coaster (CoasterCD) (Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
- Sundance Film Festival Collection (Cinram-Ivy Hill) (Studio: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment)
Best Entertainment Retail Marketing Materials
- "Bambi II": Prepack and Halfstacks (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
- "Chicken Little": Prepack (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
- "Cinderella Platinum Edition": Floor Display (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
- "City of Villains": Dump Display, Standee, Shelf Takers and CD Holder (Bert Co) (Publisher: NCSoft)
- "Lady and the Tramp 50th Anniversary Edition": Stack With Plush (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Best Structural Design
- "The Band: A Musical History" (AGI Media) (Label: Capitol)
- "Johnny Cash: The Legend" (AGI Media) (Label: Sony BMG Music Entertainment)
- HBO: "For Your Emmy Consideration" (AGI Media) (Studio: HBO)
- "Rodgers and Hammerstein: A Musical Celebration" (AGI Media) (Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
- "Wolf's Rain: Limited Complete Collection" (Bert Co) (Studio: Bandai)
Best Disc Decoration
- "Bambi II" (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
- "Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo Chapter 1" (Geneon Entertainment)
- "Over The Hedge: Wacky Moments In Human History" (bEqual) (Studio: DreamWorks Animation)
- Simmer: "Under the Microscope" (Disc Makers) (Label: Planet Misery Music)
Best Package Printing
- "The Band: A Musical History" (AGI Media) (Label: Capitol)
- "Barbie Mermadia" (Wynalda Litho) (Studio: Lionsgate)
- "Cars: Original Soundtrack" (Shorewood Packaging) (Label: Disney)
- "Johnny Cash: The Legend" (AGI Media) (Label: Sony BMG Music Entertainment)
- P.O.D.: "Testify" (Cinram-Ivy Hill) (Label: Atlantic/WEA)
DVD Forum's North American 
