Cottalango Leon (born 1971)[1] is an Indian-American computer graphics technician who won the Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement jointly with Sam Richards and J. Robert Ray in 2016.
[2][3] Leon won the Academy Award for "the design, engineering and continuous development"[a] of Sony Pictures Imageworks itView technology, a digital 3D film review software.
[7] As per Leon, during this time, he became inspired by Jurassic Park after watching the film and decided to pursue his career in the technologies used in its making.
[7] Leon, at the age of 44, won the 2016 Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement for "the design, engineering and continuous development"[a] of Sony Pictures Imageworks itView technology.
[13] As per the Academy, these set of awards are bestowed upon individuals who have contributed significantly over time – and not necessarily in the past year – to the motion picture industry.
[3] Richard Edlund, Chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences praised the "outstanding, innovative work" of awardees, adding that their contributions "have further expanded filmmakers’ creative opportunities ..." The Academy's award citation praised itView's API plugin and varied functionalities, mentioning that "itView provides an intuitive and flexible creative review environment that can be deployed globally for highly efficient collaboration.