Blue aliens turn into gold for Weta team

ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post

GOLDEN GLOW: Actor and stuntman Shane Rangi goes Oscar style at the Loaded Hog.

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The blue-skinned aliens of Avatar proved golden for Weta Digital, after the Wellington company took home the Oscar statuette for best visual effects.

The gong was one of three the sci-fi smash hit picked up at last night's awards ceremony, including best art direction, which was shared by another Kiwi, Kim Sinclair.

The film was widely tipped to win best picture, but lost out to the other top contender, The Hurt Locker.

Avatar director James Cameron also lost out to The Hurt Locker director – his former wife Kathryn Bigelow – who became the first woman to win best director.

That did not stop the Weta Digital team revelling in their latest Oscar win, which came on the back of ground-breaking visual effects work.

Weta staff worked on Avatar for four years, devoting the first year to researching and developing how they would create the 3D film.

They had to invent techniques to make digital characters that moved naturally and looked believable – even with blue skin – as well as the lush, detailed world of Pandora they lived in. Visual effects director Joe Letteri, who accepted the award on stage with colleagues Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew Jones, thanked everyone at Weta Digital "for your talent and creativity".

It was Letteri's fourth Oscar – he also shared the best visual effects award in 2005 for King Kong, in 2003 for The Return of the King and in 2002 for The Two Towers.

The Avatar team pipped Weta colleagues who worked on District 9, the low-budget collaboration between Sir Peter Jackson and South African director Neill Blomkamp, which was also a visual effects contender.

Avatar's director of photography, Mauro Fiore, won the Oscar for best cinematography, thanking "everybody in New Zealand" in his acceptance speech.

However, Tony Johnson, Avatar's Kiwi sound recordist, missed out on the sound mixing award.

Back in Wellington, hundreds of Weta staff celebrated late into the night at waterfront bar The Loaded Hog. Visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon said the atmosphere was "going pretty well". "It's the culmination of four years' worth of hard effort on the part of about 800 people at Weta, so it's a big moment."

Their latest success built on previous wins, going back to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he said.

"To be able to keep that momentum ... and not just have it be a one-off is pretty special."

Fellow visual effects supervisor Wayne Stables said that, although Avatar was nominated for nine awards, a visual effects win was "particularly important" for the Weta crew. "It's what we do and what we dedicate our lives to."

Jane Campion's picture, Bright Star, about poet John Keats, missed out on the costume design Oscar.

Stanley Tucci was nominated for best supporting actor for his turn as a serial killer in Jackson's latest film, The Lovely Bones, but lost to Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz.

Sandra Bullock took home her first best actress Oscar for her role as a tough white Southern woman in The Blind Side, while five-time nominee Jeff Bridges' long career was finally recognised with a best actor award for his turn as a down-at-heel country singer in Crazy Heart.

- © Fairfax NZ News