A tribute to the man who brought creatures to life. The genius of Carlo Rambaldi takes center stage at the Academy Awards.

The time has come to pay homage to a craftsman, a visionary genius, who knew how to take us all by the hand and lead us across the threshold to other worlds. From today until November 30th in Los Angeles, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum, the retrospective organized with MiC and Cinecittà to honor Carlo Rambaldi , the world-renowned special effects genius, on the occasion of his centenary .

The Academy, home of the Oscars and one of the world's leading film institutions, joins the Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà to celebrate, on the centenary of his birth, a master whose prodigious inventiveness created worlds, creatures, and atmospheres crafted with pure art and craftsmanship, decades before computers, VFX, virtual reality, or artificial intelligence could do so. And in many cases, with less inventiveness and talent.

Thus, there will be a month-long retrospective of 13 films, titled "The Man Who Made Creatures: Special Effects Wizard Carlo Rambaldi." This showcase will feature films in 35mm film versions and 4K restorations: an honor reserved for the greatest of global cinema.

Born in 1925 in Vigarano Mainarda, near Ferrara, and passed away in 2012, Rambaldi achieved something unique in the history of cinema for three decades, winning three Academy Awards: the Special Achievement Award in 1977 for King Kong, the Best Visual Effects Award in 1980 for Alien, and the Best Visual Effects Award in 1983 for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Above all, he transported viewers to fantastical universes: lifting Jessica Lange's body with the giant hand of the gorilla King Kong, making universes communicate through the finger and gaze of E.T.—one of the most famous characters—; bringing to life the disturbing creature in Ridley Scott's Alien; and even the deserts of David Lynch's Dune.

The festival, which kicks off today, features Dario Argento's "Deep Red," John Guillermin's "King Kong," Steven Spielberg's "ET: The Extra-Terrestrial," Mario Bava's "Four Flies on Grey Velvet," Federico Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits," Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Arabian Nights," Ridley Scott's "Alien," Riccardo Freda's "Excerpt from the Secret Police Archives of a European Capital," Andrzej Zulalwski's "Possession," Luchino Visconti's "Ludwig," and Sergio Sollima's "Violent City." A journey through great cinema and its splendid imagination.