Steven Spielberg, who is currently directing INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (with ILM doing the vfx under Pablo Helman's supervision), has been chosen to receive the VES Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th Annual VES Awards on Feb. 10, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood.
"Steven Spielberg is the first director that comes to mind when you think of amazing visual effects, due to his enormous body of creative groundbreaking work," stated Jeff Okun, chair of the Visual Effects Society. "This award also recognizes what kind of magic can be made when a filmmaker knows how best to mine and collaborate with the talent, experience and knowledge of his VFX team."
George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and Dennis Muren are the previous recipients of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award.
"Steven Spielberg's resume reads like a timeline of visual effects milestones," added Eric Roth, executive director of the VES. "As a director and a producer, he is constantly pushing the boundaries of the industry and rethinking the function of visual effects in film, TV, videogames and animation to find new and innovative methods of storytelling. There are very few artists who have done more to move the VFX industry forward."
The annual VES Awards show honors the most outstanding visual effects in film, television, commercials and videogames. Submissions for the next awards are open through Dec. 1st at http://www.vesawards.com/.
VES is a professional, honorary society, with 1,600 global members dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and applications of visual effects. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary year, VES is the entertainment industry's only official trade organization representing the extended community of visual effects practitioners, including supervisors, artists, producers, technology developers, educators and studio execs.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
