The Locarno Film Festival will present its Vision Award, sponsored by Ticinomoda, to makeup effects artist Rick Baker, the seven-time Oscar winner known for some of cinema’s most iconic creatures and transformations.
Baker will receive the award in Piazza Grande on the evening of Wednesday, Aug 12, and will also introduce two films from his career during the festival: An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Nutty Professor (1996).
Locarno organizers said Baker’s work, from his early makeup effects on genre films in the 1970s to his later creature and character designs for major studio productions, helped create “a new visual grammar” for cinematic transformation. They highlighted his work on Michael Jackson’s zombie turn in Thriller and Jim Carrey’s transformation into the Grinch.
The festival said the Vision Award recognizes creative work that has helped renew the cinematic imagination.
“Rick Baker was responsible for a Copernican revolution in cinema,” Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said, describing him as a pioneer whose collaborations included George Lucas, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, Joe Dante, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, John Carpenter and Mike Nichols.
The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival runs from Aug. 5-15. Other honorees this year include Darren Aronofsky, who will receive the Honorary Leopard, Isabella Rossellini, who will be given the Excellence Award, Asia Argento, who will be honored with the Life Achievement Award, and producer Sigurjón “Joni” Sighvatsson, who will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award.
