The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present Alejandro G. Inarritu’s virtual reality installation “Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible)” with a special Oscar statuette this year, “in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling.”
The award will be presented at the 9th annual Governors Awards on Nov. 11. Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have “opened for us new doors of cinematic perception,” AMPAS president John Bailey said. “Inarritu’s multimedia art and cinema experience is a deeply emotional and physically immersive venture into the world of migrants crossing the desert of the American southwest in early dawn light. More than even a creative breakthrough in the still emerging form of virtual reality, it viscerally connects us to the hot-button political and social realities of the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Inarritu won back-to-back best director Oscars for “Birdman” in 2015 and “The Revenant” in 2016.
Read more at Variety and The Verge.
