VES NEWS: VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY RECOGNIZES SPECIAL 2022 HONOREES

By NAOMI GOLDMAN

Lifetime Member and new VES Fellow David Tanaka, VES and Lifetime Member Jeff Barnes flank Pam Hogarth, Founders Awards recipient and Lifetime Member.

VES celebrated a distinguished group of VFX practitioners at its annual VES Honors Celebration this past October at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

“Our VES honorees represent a group of exceptional artists, innovators and professionals who have had a profound impact on the field of visual effects,” said VES Board Chair Lisa Cooke. “We are proud to recognize those who helped shape our shared legacy and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.”

Founders Award recipient and Lifetime VES Member Pam Hogarth has fulfilled many roles during her more than 35 years in visual effects and high-end computer graphics, from marketing to industry relations. The majority of her career was dedicated to incubating and growing educational programs geared towards training people for careers in entertainment production. Hogarth served eight terms on the VES Board of Directors, twice elected as the first female Vice Chair, and was Chair of the Education Committee. She also served as Secretary of the VES Los Angeles Section.

Honorary Member Pete Docter is the Oscar-winning director of Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. Docter has won three Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature-winners Up, Inside Out and Soul, and Best Original Screenplay nominations for Up, Inside Out and WALL•E. He has won two VES Awards – for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Picture for Up and for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature for Soul.

Lifetime VES Member Jeff Barnes is an entertainment and technology creative executive who continues to make marked impacts across Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Named one of the top 200 creative people in the world by Entertainment Weekly, he is Executive Vice President of Creative Development at Light Field Lab. Barnes has been a longtime leader of the VES, serving as Chair and Vice Chair of the global Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the VES Summit.

Lifetime VES Member Patricia “Rose” Duignan started working in visual effects on Star Wars and worked her way up the production ladder from Production Assistant to Production Supervisor on Return of the Jedi and was the first Marketing Director at ILM. She plays a key role working to uplift women, people of color and veterans in VFX through her service on the Education Committee.

Lifetime VES Member Eric Roth served as the Executive Director of the VES for 19 years and retired last September. Under his watch, the Society grew into a thriving global community, launched VFX Voice magazine, created three editions of the VES Handbook of Visual Effects, produced 20 years of the VES Awards, hosted the annual VES Honors and Hall of Fame Programs, and delivered a robust roster of educational programming.

Lifetime VES Member and VES Fellow David Tanaka, VES is an Editor, Producer and Creative Director with experience ranging from visual effects and animation, to documentary and live-action feature films. He is a VFX Editor at Tippett Studio and Adjunct Professor at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Tanaka has served three terms as Chair of the VES Bay Area Section, as 2nd Vice Chair on the global Board of Directors and serves on the VES Archives, Awards, Outreach and Work-From-Home Committees.

VES Fellow Tony Clark, VES is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer, and serves as the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Rising Sun Pictures. He received the Academy Scientific and Technical Award for the creation of cineSync. Clark has been a pivotal member of Australian Boards, including a role on the South Australian Film Corporation and Royal Institute of Australia.

VES Fellow Jeff Kleiser, VES is a Visual Effects Supervisor and CEO/Co-Founder of Synthespian Studios. His pioneering work in computer animation has spanned the history of the medium, and many of his projects have involved the creation of CG humans and creatures. Kleiser served on the VES global board of directors and is a member of the CG Society Advisory Board.

Lifetime VES Member Toni Pace Carstensen is a founding member of the Visual Effects Society, joining the organization as member 0004 and serving as the Society’s first Treasurer. She was a founding member of the Executive Committee and served on the global Board of Directors, as well as Co-Chair of the Global Education Committee, Co-Editor of the first edition of the VES Handbook of Visual Effects and longtime Chair of the Vision Committee.

VES Fellow Gene Kozicki, VES is a VES Founders Awards recipient and Lifetime Member, has served as a member of the Board of Directors and L.A. Section Board of Managers, and was an organizer of the VES Festival for many years. A VFX historian and Chair of the VES Archives Committee, he was instrumental in organizing the VES archives and helping to secure funding to digitize many of our assets.

VES Fellow Rick Sayre, VES is a Senior Production Scientist at Pixar Animation Studios. He received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work developing animation input systems for Jurassic Park. He was a founding member of the VES Bay Area Section and on the global and Bay Area boards.

Hall of Fame Inductee Mary Ellen Bute was a pioneer American film animator, producer and director. She was one of the first female experimental filmmakers, and was the creator of some of the first electronically-generated film images.

Hall of Fame Inductee Alice Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer filmmaker. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film.

Hall of Fame Inductee Grace Hopper, known as “Grandma COBOL,” was an American computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers.

Hall of Fame Inductee Bill Kovacs was a pioneer of commercial computer animation technology. As Vice President of R&D at Robert Abel and Associates, he co-developed the company’s animation software.

Hall of Fame Inductee George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres.