Visual Effects Society (VES) recently named award-winning producer-screenwriter Gale Anne Hurd as the forthcoming recipient of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her valuable contributions to visual arts and filmed entertainment. The award will be presented at the 21st Annual VES Awards on 15 February 2023 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The VES Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by the VES board of directors, recognises an individual and their outstanding body of work that has significantly contributed to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry. The VES will honour Hurd for her dedication to the industry and advancement of unforgettable storytelling through cutting edge visual effects. With credits that include The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Armageddon, as well as TV juggernaut The Walking Dead, Hurd has been instrumental in shaping popular culture for nearly four decades. And in the process, Hurd has revolutionised action cinema and delivered transformational depictions of women on screen.
“Gale Anne Hurd is one of the most respected and influential film and television producers of our generation. By focusing on daring material, championing technological innovations and being the consummate hands-on collaborator, she has carved out a leading position in the previously male-dominated world of the blockbuster, and become a recognised creator of iconic cultural touchstones. Gale is a driving force in our global industry and an exemplary role model, and we are very honoured to bestow her with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award,” said VES chair Lisa Cooke.
Gale Anne Hurd is one of the entertainment industry’s most prolific and esteemed producers of Academy Award-winning films and Emmy Award-winning programs that shatter both box office and ratings records.
After rising from Roger Corman’s executive assistant to head of marketing at his company, New World Pictures, Hurd’s producing career took off when she co-wrote and produced The Terminator. Her unprecedented success with the 1984 film was quickly followed by Aliens, which received seven nominations and two Academy Awards, and additional Academy Award winning films such as The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Ghost and the Darkness and Armageddon.
Some of her additional feature credits include The Incredible Hulk, Æon Flux, The Punisher, Dick, a Watergate satire which starred Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams, and The Waterdance, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and the Audience and Screenplay Awards at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition, both Armageddon (1998) and Terminator 2 (1991) were the number one films at the worldwide box office in their years of release. Hurd’s most recent feature, the documentary The YouTube Effect, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022.
Recently VES had announced that Nancy Ward has been selected as the Society’s new executive director.
