Craig Barron

About

Craig Barron is an American visual effects artist and creative director at Magnopus, a media company that produces visual development and virtual production services for motion pictures, television, museums and multimedia platforms.

Working at Industrial Light & Magic, Barron contributed to the visual effects on such films as The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. At his own VFX studio Matte World Digital, he produced visual effects on Zodiac, Alice in Wonderland and Hugo. Over the course of his VFX career, Barron contributed to the visual effects on more than 100 films. He is an Emmy Award recipient for By Dawn's Early Light and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects on Batman Returns. In 2009, he won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Barron is a film historian, museum exhibit curator, and educator with a focus on the history of visual effects in classic films, before and after the digital age. He hosts presentations and lectures on the visual effects from Hollywood’s studio age. He produces short documentaries that reveal the formerly secret history of how visual effects pioneers created seamless visuals using matte paintings, miniatures and optical effects.

Awards and nominations

By Dawn's Early Light – Emmy for Outstanding Visual Effects, 1990
Batman Returns – Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for Achievement in Visual Effects, 1992
The Utilizer – Gold Plaque for Best Special Effects, Chicago International Film Festival, 1996
The Truman Show – BAFTA Award nomination for Achievement in Special Visual Effects, 1999
The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting, with Mark Cotta Vaz – Theatre Library Association of New York Outstanding Book on Film Award, 2003; Theatre Technology Golden Pen Book Award, 2004
Greece: Secrets of the Past – Visual Effects Society (VES) Award nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects in a special venue project, 2006[62]
Zodiac – VES Award nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Motion Picture, 2007
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Academy and BAFTA Awards for Achievement in Visual Effects, 2009
VES Founders Award, 2013
Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab – Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Interactive Program, 2018, Clio Entertainment Bronze Winner for Virtual/Augmented Reality, 2018
VES Fellows Award, 2018

Honors and affiliations

Honorary Doctorate of Letters, PhD, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, 1979
Associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers
Founding member of the Visual Effects Society, 1997
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Board of Governors representing the Visual Effects Branch, 2005-2022
Co-chair of the AMPAS Science & Technology Council, 2014-2022