In the world of makeup effects, Rick Baker is a true titan, having won the first *ever* Best Makeup Oscar for An American Werewolf in London, one of just seven wins for him in the category. Baker subsequently won Best Makeup for Harry and the Hendersons, Ed Wood, The Nutty Professor, Men in Black, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Wolfman.

Rick Baker is one of the artform’s true legends, and we’ve learned this week that the legendary artist is being honored with the Vision Award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

The festival announced in a press release, “With the Vision Award presented by Ticinomoda for Rick Baker, the Festival pays tribute to a remarkable figure who has been responsible for shaping some of cinema’s most fantastical creations. Baker will receive the award in Piazza Grande during the evening of Wednesday, August 12, 2026, as well as present, within the Festival programme, two key films from his career: An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Nutty Professor (1996).”

“From his early make-up work on genre films in the 1970s to his sophisticated creature and character designs for large-scale studio productions, Rick Baker has forged a new visual grammar for cinematic metamorphosis,” Locarno adds, “earning him a record number of Academy Awards for Best Makeup and cementing his status as a reference point for generations of artists.”

The statement continues, “Over his long career, Rick Baker has transformed Michael Jackson into a zombie in Thriller and turned Jim Carrey into the Grinch. He has been responsible for crafting unforgettable werewolves to some of the most realistic gorillas ever created for film, each time redefining the audience’s sense of what is real and what is imagined on the big screen. In receiving the Vision Award, the Festival pays tribute to a remarkable figure who has been responsible for shaping some of cinema’s most fantastical creations.”

Locarno’s Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro writes, “Rick Baker was responsible for a Copernican revolution in cinema: visionary and revolutionary, he opened new paths for the imagination of entire generations, showing what it truly means to witness physical transmutation on the big screen. His filmography includes collaborations with George Lucas and David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma and Joe Dante, Tim Burton and Peter Jackson, John Carpenter and Mike Nichols, among many others. Presenting the Vision Award in Locarno to a pioneer and innovator like him, an absolute genius and incomparable craftsman, is an honour through which the Festival celebrates the infinite possibilities of cinema and its bag of tricks.”

The 79th Locarno Film Festival will take place from August 5-15, 2026.

The Vision Award pays tribute to artists whose creative work has contributed to the renewal of the cinematographic imaginary and has been given to masters of special effects, editors, sound designers, composers, musicians, cinematographers, and multidisciplinary artists.