Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has been chosen to receive the VES Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th Annual VES Awards on Feb. 10, 2008 at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood. The VES Board of Directors selected Spielberg for its highest honor in recognition of the contribution that his vast body of work, as both a director and producer, has made to the art and science of visual effects.

"Steven Spielberg is the first director that to comes to mind when you think of amazing visual effects due to his enormous body of creative groundbreaking work," states Jeff Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society. "This award also recognizes what kind of magic can be made when a filmmaker knows how best to mine and collaborate with the talent, experience and knowledge of his VFX team."

Previous recipients of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award include George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and Dennis Muren.

"Steven Spielberg's resume reads like a timeline of visual effects milestones," says Eric Roth, Executive Director of the Visual Effects Society (VES). "As a director and a producer, he is constantly pushing the boundaries of the industry and rethinking the function of visual effects in film, TV, video games and animation to find new and innovative methods of storytelling. There are very few artists who have done more to move the VFX industry forward."

The annual VES Awards show honors the most outstanding visual effects in film, television, commercials and video games. Last year's event attracted more than eight hundred celebrities, visual effects and animation artists, dozens of nominees and members of the film, television and games industries. Winners from 2007 included Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (John Knoll, Jill Brooks, Hal Hickel, Charlie Gibson) for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture and Battlestar Galactica - Episode 303b "Exodus" (Gary Hutzel, Michael Gibson, Alec McClymont, Brenda Campbell) for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series. Submissions for the next awards are open through December 1st at www.vesawards.com.