The Visual Effects Society has set Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and VES award-winning filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) and CG pioneer Gary Demos (The Last Starfighter) as Honorary Members, while adding new fellows and Hall of Fame inductees, all of whom will be celebrated at a special event this fall.
Fellows, who will now be bestowed with the post-nominal letters “VES,” include VFX veterans Brooke Breton (Avatar, Solaris), Mike Chambers (Tenet, Greyhound), Van Ling (The Abyss, Terminator 2) and Nancy St. John (I, Robot, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).
The 2021 class of VES Hall of Fame honorees includes VFX supervisor and DP and special effects icon Roy Field (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal), special effects supervisor and DP John P. Fulton, A.S.C. (The Ten Commandments), VFX supervisor and designer Phil Kellison (The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, Airplane II: The Sequel), pioneering filmmakers Auguste and Louis Lumière (The Arrival of a Train), and animator, composer and inventor John Whitney, Sr. (Vertigo, The Andromeda Strain).
“Our VES honorees represent a group of exceptional artists, innovators and professionals who have had a profound impact on the field of visual effects,” Lisa Cooke is the Board Chair of this global professional honorary society. “We are proud to recognize those who helped shape our shared legacy and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.”
Award-winning VFX Producer Mike Chambers and international business and marketing consultant Rita Cahill are the recipients of this year’s VES Founders Awards, as previously announced. VES has also recently bestowed lifetime memberships upon Chambers, Cahill, digital production manager and VFX historian Gene Kozicki, and creative and cinematic director Richard Winn Taylor II, VES.