Eric Saindon, formerly of Gorham, took home his first Oscar on Sunday night, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Saindon, 53, who graduated from Gorham High School in 1988, has worked in visual effects for more than 20 years. Today, he is a visual effects supervisor for Weta Workshops, a New Zealand-based studio that has created effects for some of the most popular films of the past 25 years, including the first “Avatar” film, “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” ” Dune” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
Saindon got his start in animation in California, and in 1999 he started working for Weta, which was in the process of creating visual effects for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was an effects supervisor on films such as “Night at the Museum,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and all three “Hobbit” films.
Today, Saindon lives in New Zealand with his wife and four children. Saindon was previously nominated for Oscars for his visual effects work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2014 and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2013, neither of which he won.