Peter Jackson Will Receive the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award

Peter Jackson knows a thing or two about special effects. He’s responsible for huge, effects-driven movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, his underrated remake of King Kong, and more. He’s also one of the founders of the digital effects company Weta Digital. And now, Jackson is set to receive the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

At the upcoming 19th Annual VES Awards, Peter Jackson will receive a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award for his often groundbreaking work with special effects. As the VES puts it, “Jackson’s ability to harness craft to bring his unique visions to life has resulted in cinematic experiences that have transported and transfixed audiences worldwide. And his state-of-the-art work to restore archival footage has made him a lauded champion of film history and restoration.” Jackson’s career started off working with practical, low-budget, handmade effects work before evolving into complicated, massive digital VFX that helped change the movie landscape.

Previous winners of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award have included Martin Scorsese; George Lucas; Robert Zemeckis; Steven Spielberg; Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall; James Cameron; Ray Harryhausen; Ridley Scott; and more.

VES Board Chair Lisa Cooke said: “Sir Peter Jackson is one of the most innovative filmmakers of our generation. Peter pushes the known boundaries of filmmaking and his vision and contributions to the art are legendary.  He has redefined the relationship between the viewer and the story – you can easily see this from the epic cult followings of his highly engaging work, a testament to his expert blending of visual effects, evocative characters and a remarkable imagination.  For this and more, we are honored to award Peter with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Jackson added: “I’m thrilled and gratified to receive the VES Lifetime Achievement Award. If I was ever going to be honored for my lifetime of work, I would have chosen the VES award, because I started my career as a seven-year-old making models and shooting them with a Super 8 camera. The dream of making visual effects was the seed of my whole world as a filmmaker. But just because it’s called Lifetime, don’t think I’ve peaked; there’s a lot more to come!”

Jackson’s most recent directorial effort was the documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, which used effects work to colorize and remaster footage taken during World War I. Next up he has the doc The Beatles: Get Back, which will use the same techniques They Shall Not Grow Old used to transform, enhance, and modernize the footage.

The 19th Annual VES Awards will be streaming on April 6.

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