Most VES awards won for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature by an individual

Joe Letteri (USA), Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at New Zealand’s visual effects and animation specialists Wētā FX, has been nominated on seven occasions for films that have won Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature at the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002); The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003); King Kong (2005); Avatar (2009); Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011); Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014); War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).

In 2012–14, Letteri received nominations for his work on the Hobbit trilogy (An Unexpected Journey/The Desolation of Smaug/The Battle of the Five Armies) but lost out to Life of Pi, Gravity and his own Dawn of the Planet of the Apes respectively.

Letteri was made a VES Fellow in 2017, and won the Georges Méliès Award in 2018, when he was described as “an amazing creative force and a defining voice of the visual effects community” by VES Board Chair Mike Chambers. “Joe has the extraordinary ability to create or combine technologies to brilliantly enhance the art of storytelling and has brought us some of the most memorable character-driven tales of all time.”