Richard Baneham


Richard Baneham is an Irish animator and visual effects supervisor, who has worked on such films as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the, and Avatar. Amongst other awards, Baneham has received a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Life and career

Baneham trained in Ballyfermot Art College. In the 1990s, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career with his then girlfriend Ashling.
Upon moving to Los Angeles, Baneham worked as an animator on several films including The Iron Giant and as animation supervisor on Cats & Dogs. He also worked with Rhythm and Hues on ', and as animation supervisor on ' and .
His work also featured in the 2009 movie Avatar. For his work on Avatar, Richie, along with Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum and Andrew R. Jones, won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 82nd Academy Awards and the visual effects category at the 2010 BAFTAs.
Baneham reportedly signed-up to work on the planned Avatar sequels, and in an interview on The Tommy Tiernan Show which aired on 12 January 2017, Baneham confirmed that he was in pre-production on Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5.
At the 16th Visual Effects Society Awards in February 2018, a team of visual effects artists, including Baneham, was recognised for its work on Avatar: Flight of Passage - an attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Filmography