VES Honors Pixar’s Catmull

Monday, June 29, 2009
By: Thomas J. Mclean

The Visual Effects Society will honor Ed Catmull, president of the Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, with its 2010 George Melies Award.

The honor, presented to people who have “pioneered a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work,” will be bestowed at the VES Awards, set for Feb. 28, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

“Ed Catmull has helped redefine the field of animation over the past three decades,” said VES Executive Director Eric Roth. “Ed has become one of the giants of our industry by pioneering new ways to tell animated stories in a successful studio environment. He has been at the forefront of ensuring that while the animation should always be as eye-popping as possible, the story itself always has to be first class as well.”

Catmull, who co-founded Pixar, played a significant role in creating the hardware and software that inaugurated the age of computer animation. He has earned five Oscars, the ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for lifetime contributions in the computer graphics field, and the Ub Iwerks award.

Previous recipients of the George Melies Award include Robert Abel, Phil Tippett and Catmull’s Disney-Pixar colleague John Lasseter.

Reader Comments

• wissam :

  Tuesday, June 30, 2009

  few deserve such an honor more than Ed Catmull