The Visual Effects Society will present Ray Harryhausen with its lifetime achievement award at the 9th Annual VES Awards in Los Angeles on January 28 2011.

The visual effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator has inspired a generation of effects professionals and left his inimitable mark on such classics as The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, Mysterious Island, Jason And The Argonauts and the 1981 version of Clash Of The Titans.

“Ray has long been the light that we have followed into this business,” VES chair Jeffrey A Okun said. “His artistic vision and ability to use the art and science of storytelling of fantastic tales has been done in a manner that has drawn not just the audience into his magical worlds, but all of us into this business.”

“To join the ranks of other recipients of this award is gratifying as I enter my 90th year,” Harryhausen said. “I was an artist and technician who worked usually on my own in small dark rooms in some obscure corner of a studio trying to create original and realistic creatures to inhabit my fantasy worlds, and now my work is not only being recognised as unique but also it has become a beacon for other fantasy film-makers.”

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