Zoran Perišić

Serbia

Zoran Perišić is this year's laureate for contribution to the development of animation and visual effects.

Zoran Perišić is a director, producer, writer, supervisor, consultant for visual effects, cameraman, and inventor. He has won an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for his work on visual effects in the film Superman (1978) and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Special Effects for Return to Oz (1985). He is also the recipient of the Academy Scientific and Technical Achievement Award for developing the Zoptic Front-Projection System – the primary method used to depict Superman flying in Superman 1, 2, and 3.

He studied at the University of Birmingham (UK) and the University of Belgrade (Serbia). Early in his career, he worked as a cameraman in animation and industrial documentaries in the Midlands (UK) before landing a job in London on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He has worked on visual effects for numerous high-profile feature films and has written four books on animation and VFX cinematography, published by Focal Press. He has also written and directed two animated children's TV series (Magic Fountain and Captain Cook's Travels) for Yorkshire Television (UK).

He directed the action-adventure feature film Gunbus, also known as Sky Bandits (1986), and the family feature film The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet (1995), which he also produced. Zoran's passion is flying – not only in visual effects but also as a private pilot. Therefore, it is not surprising that his young adult novel An Alien Called Freddy is about a boy who can fly. As an inventor, he holds several patents, including the Zoptic Front Projection System and Z3D – a single-camera stereoscopic 3D system.