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Andy Serkis \u2014 the man behind a swathe of iconic cinematic characters \u2014 is be honored at this year’s BAFTA film awards ceremony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actor, producer, director and founder of motion capture pioneers The Imaginarium is set to receive the outstanding British contribution to cinema award, one of the British Academy’s top honors, at the event on Feb. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the creation of such characters as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings <\/em>and Hobbit<\/em> series, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes <\/em>trilogy, the titular gorilla in 2005\u2019s King Kong<\/em>, and as supreme leader Snoke in the recent Star Wars<\/em> trilogy, Serkis has, according to BAFTA, both pioneered the evolving art of performance capture and widened the parameters of what it means to be an actor in the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I\u2019m deeply honored and thrilled to receive this award, and count myself extremely lucky to be on such a continually fascinating journey in visual storytelling, one that has given me the opportunity to collaborate with many of the world\u2019s greatest artists, technologists and craftspeople, with whom I\u2019d like to share this wonderful accolade,” said Serkis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2011, Serkis, together with producer Jonathan Cavendish, founded The Imaginarium, a production company and digital studio dedicated to believable and emotionally engaging digital characters using performance capture technology for films and games. Since then, he has consulted on motion capture on a number of films including the 2014 version of Godzilla<\/em> and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which he also plays the villain Ulysses Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/em> and Black Panther<\/em>, the latter of which he won a Screen Actors Guild award for best performance in a cast in a motion picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n