The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), long the industry’s preferred standard for end-to-end color management, is officially moving its governance to the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF). Announced on August 6, 2025, this transfer marks the end of a decade-plus era where ACES was steered solely by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Instead, ACES will now leverage the ASWF’s open governance, legal framework, and technical community.
Ten Years of Color, Now Open Source
ACES began life more than a decade ago inside the Academy as a response to the growing complexity of digital color workflows in modern filmmaking. Its goal: create a universal system for color management and image interchange that holds up from on-set through visual effects, grading, mastering, and archiving.
The recent 2.0 release this past spring brought enhanced color rendering, more consistent displays across different dynamic ranges, improved invertibility for transforms, and broader device support. Still, for all its impact, ACES’ future was tied to the Academy’s stewardship, until now.
Why the Switch?
In practical terms, moving to ASWF means ACES will benefit from the same open governance and infrastructure that support other industry-defining open source projects. Expect easier collaboration between ACES and technical mainstays like OpenColorIO, OpenEXR, and MaterialX. This is less about rewriting ACES than about improving how it interacts with the rest of your pipeline.
ASWF: A Short History and a Growing Roster
The ASWF itself was established in 2018 by the Academy and the Linux Foundation as a home for open source software crucial to visual effects, animation, and postproduction. The list of member organizations reads like a credit roll from a superhero franchise: DreamWorks, Laika, Netflix, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Studios, Weta FX, and Warner Bros., among others. The ASWF has already shepherded open tools from Open Shading Language to OpenVDB, serving both creative and technical teams.
Governance and Next Steps
As with other ASWF projects, ACES will now be overseen by a Technical Steering Committee, composed of long-standing ACES leadership and developers. This committee will steer development, while the Academy remains an active participant. The aim: keep ACES stable, open, and evolving, but without sudden breaks from its established direction.
David Morin, Executive Director of the ASWF, points to the growth in developer participation and cross-industry adoption of ASWF projects as proof that the foundation can provide the community and infrastructure ACES needs for long-term health.
What’s Next for ACES?
Further details on the transition will be given during Open Source Days (August 10-11) at the Marriott Pinnacle in Vancouver, as well as virtually. The schedule includes keynotes, presentations on ACES’ open source innovation, and technical project updates for those who want the inside scoop (and are willing to navigate SIGGRAPH registration).
ACES Remains Industry Standard—But Test First
ACES may be the industry’s open source color management system of record, but—as always—test innovations before deploying them in production. New open source governance should lead to smoother updates, more robust collaboration, and a steadier development pace, but the fundamental rule remains: verify, then trust.
