Pam Hogarth will be this year’s recipient of the Visual Effects Society’s Founders Award for her contributions to the art, science and business of visual effects and for her meritorious service to the Society. She and Jeff Barnes, Patricia “Rose” Duignan, Toni Pace Carstensen and David Tanaka will also be presented with lifetime VES memberships, while three-time Oscar-winning director Pete Docter will be made an honorary member.
They will be celebrated at a special event in October.
“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.”
Hogarth, who served eight terms on the VES board of directors, was twice elected as the first female vice chair and chair of its Education Committee. She also served as secretary of the Los Angeles Section of VES. Now retired, she ran the Digital Media Institute in Hollywood and helped grow the digital program at the American Film Institute. She also co-founded Eido, the company that trains IATSE members in digital effects, and as an industry liaison, helped build the Gnomon School of Visual Effects into one of the premier schools for careers in digital production.
Barnes, executive vice president of creative development at Light Field Lab, is being honored for his meritorious service to the Society and the visual effect industry. A longtime leader of the Visual Effects Society, he served as chair and vice chair of the board of directors and co-chair of the VES Summit.
Duignan, who serves on the VES Education Committee, was the first marketing director at Industrial Light & Magic, where she served for more than a dozen years. She started working in visual effects on Star Wars, working her way up from production assistant to production supervisor on Return of the Jedi. She also worked at Tippett Studio, ABC TV, Rhythm & Hues and Kerner Optical.
Pace Carstensen, a founding member of the Visual Effects Society and its first treasurer, was the 2017 recipient of its Founders Award. Her many film credits include VFX producer/digital production manager on Avatar, Minority Report and Fantasia 2000.
Tanaka, who has served as 2nd vice chair on the VES board of directors and three terms as chair of the VES Bay Area Section, worked for 15 years at Industrial Light & Magic on such films as Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and Star Wars. He then worked for 10 years at Pixar Animation Studios as a special projects editor. He currently holds a staff VFX editor position with Tippett Studio and serves as an adjunct professor for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Docter, chief creative officer at Pixar Animation Studios, is the Oscar-winning director of Soul, Up and Inside Out. Nominated for six other Oscars, he also garnered two VES Awards – for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Picture for Up and for Visual Effects in an Animated Feature for Soul.
Founded in 1997, the Visual Effects Society has nearly 4,500 members in 45 countries.