Four-Time Oscar Winner Joe Letteri To Receive VES’ George Méliès Award

Joe Letteri, who has won four Visual Effects Oscars for two The Lord Of The Rings movies, King Kong and Avatar, will be given the Visual Effects Society’s VES Georges Méliès Award, bestowed for “pioneering significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.” The annual award will be handed out February 13 at the 16th annual VES Awards at the Beverly Hilton.

Leterri, currently director at Weta Digital, has 10 Oscar noms overall. He also has received a Sci-Tech Technical Achievement Award from the movie academy for co-developing the subsurface scattering technique that brought LOTR‘s Gollum to life; his specialty is realistic creatures, from the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to King Kong and Avatar‘s Na’vi, and most recently Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies and Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets.

He also has won four BAFTA Awards and six VES Awards and is a VES Fellow.

“Joe Letteri is an amazing creative force and a defining voice of the visual effects community,” said VES Board chair Mike Chambers in making the announcement today. “He has consistently elevated not just the technical aspect of visual effects, but also the emotional. Joe has the extraordinary ability to create or combine technologies to brilliantly enhance the art of storytelling and has brought us some of the most memorable character-driven tales of all time. For his pioneering work that has redefined our industry on a global level, we are honored to award Joe with the prestigious Visual Effects Society Georges Méliès Award.”

Previous recipients of the Méliès Award include Bob Abel, John Lasseter, Phil Tippett, Ed Catmull and Douglas Trumbull.