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MillimeterRobert Zemeckis to Receive Lifetime Career Achievement Award
Dec 15, 2004 9:48 AM
Academy Award winning director, Robert Zemeckis, whose credits include Forrest Gump, Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, Cast Away, and his most recent hit The Polar Express, has been selected by the Board of Directors of the Visual Effects Society to be awarded the organization’s highest honor, the Lifetime Career Achievement Award, recognizing an artisan whose contributions to the filmmaking industry have advanced the craft of visual effects. The honor will be presented to Zemeckis at the 3rd Annual VES Awards (www.vesawards.com) on Feb. 16 at the Hollywood Palladium.
“The VES is proud to have Bob Zemeckis as its Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the 3rd Annual Visual Effects Awards,” said Eric Roth, VES Executive Director. “He is that rare combination – someone who’s got the intellectual curiosity of Einstein with the one-of-a-kind artistry of Picasso. Given that we wanted to find just the right person to follow George Lucas (last year’s recipient of this honor), we looked for someone who possessed a unique creative vision along with a lasting impact on the visual effects industry. And Bob Zemeckis is that person. He’s a pioneering storyteller, enriching audiences with projects that not only amaze us but also touch our souls through a combination of art and technology that utilizes visual effects. Not only audiences, but also experts in the field have been dazzled by the genius in which he creates and employs ‘movie magic,’ making him the ideal person to receive this honor.”
Over the course of two decades, Robert Zemeckis’ films have achieved worldwide grosses in excess of $2 billion and inspired audiences around the world. Forrest Gump earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Directors Guild of America award for Best Director. The film’s numerous honors also included Oscars for Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Picture. Zemeckis then re-teamed with Hanks on the contemporary drama Cast Away, the filmmaking of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on the critically-acclaimed thriller What Lies Beneath. Zemeckis and Hanks also served as producers on Cast Away, along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.
Zemeckis is known for utilizing the latest technological wizardry to enhance the storytelling aspects of his films. Several projects have broken technological barriers including the macabre comedy hit Death Becomes Her, Contact, the Back to the Future trilogy, and What Lies Beneath, many recognized with various awards and nominations for visual effects. His creative use of cutting-edge technology is also evident in the groundbreaking Forrest Gump, in which Zemeckis used technology to help tell the story of the amiable Forrest, whose life crisscrossed in and out of some of our nation’s most significant events, interacting with historical icons along the way.
He also wrote and directed the box office smash Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, cleverly blending live action and animation. Most recently, Zemeckis wrote, produced, and directed the computer-generated family film The Polar Express, currently in theaters.
For the small screen, Zemeckis has directed several projects, including the Showtime feature-length documentary The Pursuit of Happiness, which explored the effect of drugs and alcohol on 20th century society. His additional television credits include episodes of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.
In 1998 Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke partnered to form the film and television production company ImageMovers. What Lies Beneath was the first film to be released under the ImageMovers banner, followed by Cast Away and Matchstick Men.
In March 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. This state-of-the-art center is the country’s first and only fully digital training center and houses the latest in non-linear production and post-production equipment as well as stages, a 50-seat screening room and USC student-run television station, Trojan Vision.
Zemeckis’ many awards and nominations include the American Cinema Editors (ACE) Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year honor, given to a filmmaker whose body of work represents significant contributions to the advancement of motion pictures.
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