A visual effects pioneer, Edlund earned four Academy Awards
for work on Star Wars (1977), The
Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders
of the Lost Ark (1981) and Return
of the Jedi (1984). He was nominated
another six times for contributions to Poltergeist, 2010,
Ghostbusters, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Die Hard and Alien 3. Edlund also earned three Scientific and Engineering Awards during has
career and was presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's
John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation earlier this year.
In addition to his film contributions, Edlund earned an Emmy
for creating visual effects for the original television miniseries Battlestar
Galactica (1978). He was also nominated for
Mike Nichols' Angels in America
(2003).
Past ASC Presidents Award recipients have included actor
Robert Duvall; visual effects pioneers Linwood Dunn, ASC, Hans F. Koenekamp,
ASC, Douglas Trumbull and Howard Anderson, Jr., ASC; Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown;
Panavision camera designers Tak Miyagishima and Albert Mayer, Sr.; documentary
filmmaker Albert Maysles; archivist and ASC historian Kemp Niver; and
cinematographers William Clothier, ASC, Charles Wheeler, ASC, Guy Green, BSC,
Ralph Woolsey, ASC, Richard Moore, ASC, Woody Omens, ASC, and Gerald
Hirschfeld, ASC.