Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

NCSA-enabled IMAX movie ‘A Beautiful Planet’ to premiere locally

The Goodrich Savoy 16 IMAX Theater will show “A Beautiful Planet” daily at 11:30 a.m. April 29-May 5 and will host members of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory to introduce the film at a special screening on May 1. Tickets are on sale now online.

AVL at the National Center of Supercomputing Applications recently worked on “A Beautiful Planet,” the latest 3-D space documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Toni Myers and IMAX Entertainment, made in cooperation with NASA. NCSA will host a red carpet event at the the Savoy 16 Theater, 232 Burwash Ave., Savoy, at 11 a.m. May 1, prior to showing the film at 11:30 a.m.

Members of the AVL Team will introduce the film and discuss their role in its production. Guests also will have the chance to walk the red carpet and a photography staging area. Guests who mention “A Beautiful Planet” at the concession stand can receive a mini popcorn and soda for $5.

“A Beautiful Planet” features two scenes – the movie’s opening and closing sequences – that were produced by the AVL team. AVL Director Donna Cox, a professor of art and design, served as visualization producer and designer on the NCSA scenes of the film. AVL previously worked with Myers and the IMAX team to create scientific visualizations for the award-winning IMAX documentary “Hubble 3D,” from Warner Bros. Pictures and IMAX Entertainment (2010). In addition to the NCSA scenes, “A Beautiful Planet” features footage of planet Earth – and the effects humanity has had on it over time – captured by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010