From Ballyfermot to Middle Earth and Pandora: The career of two ...

Here's everything you need to know about Ireland's latest Academy Award winner.

Originally from Tallaght, Baneham attended secondary school in Old Bawn Community School before going on to study animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education from 1990 to 1994.

In the 1990s, he relocated to Los Angeles with his girlfriend (now wife) Aisling, halfway through his final year of study.

Soon after setting himself up in the City of Angels, he was hired as a clean-up artist on the Swan Lake-inspired animated film  The Swan Princess.

From there, he never looked back.

‘‘I was in the right place at the right time," Baneham told the Sunday Business Post in 2010.

‘‘The industry had just seen the advent of The Lion King, and things were beginning to happen in animation."

From left, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, winners of the award for best visual effects for Avatar: The Way of Water pose in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12. Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Early productions 

Following the release of The Swan Princess, Baneham was hired to work on The Iron Giant, the debut film of Simpsons alum Brad Bird.

It would be Baneham's first experience working in 3D animation, otherwise known as computer-generated imaging (CGI).

Though its box office numbers were modest, its following has grown in the years since since, and it is now widely regarded as one of the greatest animated feature films ever made.

“It sort of begins with Iron Giant — we had a moment where the hand breaks away and becomes its own character," Baneham recently told the Irish Examiner.

The Lord of the Rings 

Another major career milestone came in 2002, when he was hired as an animator of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Jackson, a fan of The Iron Giant, hired Baneham as an animation supervisor on both The Two Towers and The Return of the King. For the job, he relocated to New Zealand for two years and supervised a team of 50 or so animators.

Peter Jackson's trilogy would also break new ground as regards visual effects.

Director Peter Jackson. File picture: PA/Yui Mok

Baneham and his colleagues constructed the character of Gollum around the motion capture and voice work of British actor Andy Serkis — something that had never been done before.

In doing so, they, according to Vulture magazine, "changed the course of special effects on film forever".

For their work on the trilogy, Baneham and his colleagues garnered numerous accolades. 

Up until this year and the release of Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King was the single most-awarded film ever made. It won 11 Oscars — winning in every category it was nominated. 

Avatar 

James Cameron, director of blockbuster films Terminator 2 and Titanic, wrote a first draft of what would become the first Avatar in 1995. 

At that point, CGI on film was in its infancy. Cameron, believing existing visual effects techniques needed time to catch up to his vision for the film, shelved the project.

A decade later, in a post- Lord of the Rings world, he returned to the idea of Pandora.

Avatar director James Cameron. File picture: PA

Cameron greatly admired what Jackson, Baneham and co had done in bringing Middle Earth to the screen, and so he got in contact with Baneham. During their first meeting, the pair discussed ideas for how Cameron could bring his vision to life.

Cameron then hired Baneham as animation supervisor for the film, which was ultimately released in 2009.

Avatar, like the Lord of the Rings before it, would go on to usher in a new era of visual effects on film.

During its production, Baneham and his colleagues helped craft animated characters using an image-based facial performance capture system which could accurately record even the smallest nuances of the actors’ facial performances.

The film wowed audiences and critics alike, and it is now the highest-grossing film ever made.

For their work on Avatar, Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum Andrew R Jones and Richard Baneham received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 82nd Academy Awards in March 2010.

Avatar sequels 

In an interview on the Tommy Tiernan Show in 2017, Richard Baneham confirmed he had signed up to work on all four of James Cameron's planned Avatar sequels, the first of which, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released in December 2022.

Though the film was slightly less well received critically as its predecessor, its visual effects have received universal acclaim.

While he has been part of several films which have propelled visual effects forward, for Baneham, story, character and acting remain the keys to successful filmmaking.

“It is only about whether or not the tool or the medium services the story, services the performance, services the connection with your audience,” he recently told the Irish Examiner.

He said  Avatar: The Way of Water was not sold solely through visuals, but through performance.

Trinity Bliss, aka Tuk, in a scene from Avatar: The Way of Water'. Picture: 20th Century Studios via AP

"We were blessed with an amazing cast, who are incredibly collaborative. Technology that empowers the art is bringing it to life through artistic choice.” 

A second Oscar 

During his acceptance speech at Sunday's Oscars, Baneham thanked James Cameron, as Gaeilge.

“Go raibh míle maith agat to James Cameron whose artistic thumbprint is on every frame of this movie," he said.

“We accept these awards on behalf of a very large crew. The effects stand on the shoulders of our actors, their performances are everything.” 

After Baneham received his award, Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin was among the first to offer congratulations.

She called Baneham "a leader in his field" and "an inspiration to so many Irish young people, particularly all at Ballyfermot College of Further Education.”

— Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) March 13, 2023

The institution itself tweeted it was “absolutely over the moon for our grad Richie Baneham winning his second Oscar”.

Absolutely over the moon for our grad Richie Baneham winning his second #oscar #soproud pic.twitter.com/gSqrKiWxFb

— Ballyfermot College (@BCFE_Official) March 13, 2023