The Virginia Film Festival pays tribute to special effects genius and Festival Board member Stan Winston

In 1999, Stan Winston returned to the University of Virginia, where he had studied Art and Drama, to receive the Virginia Film Award at the Virginia Film Festival. Joining him on opening night was Sigourney Weaver, and the film they introduced was ALIENS. The Alien was one of Stan’s many unforgettable creations, along with the Terminator, Predator, Iron Man, Edward Scissorhands and so many more.

Stan, who passed away this week, was thrilled by his experience here. We had teamed with the U.Va. Art Museum to present an exhibition that demonstrated, through sculptures, models, and designs, the vast artistic and scientific knowledge and craft he invested in his creatures. I was particularly taken, as were the fortunate students who attended his dynamic lectures, by Stan’s emphatic point that his art and acting training led him to create monsters who could be inhabited by actors, so that other actors could interact with them. Although he did CGI (he co-founded Digital Domain, as a matter of fact), he believed that prosthetic and animatronic effects drew richer and more realistic performances from actors who, otherwise, had to fake it with a blue screen.

Stan returned several times to the Virginia Film Festival and joined our Advisory Board. We will miss him and pay tribute to him at this year’s film festival, which was presciently titled ALIENS!

Richard Herskowitz
Artistic Director