Los Angeles, Calif. – The Visual Effects Society, the entertainment industry’s only official organization representing the extended community of visual effects professionals, has named producer, special visual effects creator and stop-motion model animator Ray Harryhausen as the recipient of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the 9th Annual VES Awards which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City on Friday, January 28, 2011.
The VES Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by the VES Board of Directors, recognizes outstanding contributions to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry. VES will honor Harryhausen for his vision and dedication to the craft of storytelling while being at the creative forefront of ground-breaking effects. Harryhausen’s work was so cutting edge for his time that he is considered the godfather of all modern visual effects.
Said Jeffrey A. Okun, VES chair, “Ray has long been the light that we have followed into this business. His artistic vision and ability to use the art and science of storytelling of fantastic tales has been done in a manner that has drawn not just the audience into his magical worlds, but all of us into this business. I cannot stress strongly enough the beacon he is to all of us who aspire to tell stories using visual effects to create the world in which the story is told. Ray is simply an amazing individual who is also so giving of his time, secrets and enthusiasm. We are honored to be able to shine that light back on him!”
Harryhausen commented, “I am really very honored to be presented with this Lifetime Achievement Award from the Visual Effects Society, an organization I have long supported and admired. To join the ranks of other recipients of this award is gratifying as I enter my 90th year. I was an artist and technician who worked usually on my own in small dark rooms in some obscure corner of a studio trying to create original and realistic creatures to inhabit my fantasy worlds and now my work is not only being recognized as unique but also it has become a beacon for other fantasy filmmakers.”
Harryhausen’s films have received extraordinary acclaim over the years, and include “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” “The 3 Worlds of Gulliver,” Mysterious Island,” “Jason and the Argonauts,” and “Clash of the Titans” among many others.
Previous winners of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award include James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, and Frank Marshall & Kathleen Kennedy.