BILL WESTENHOFER
- VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR
Academy Award winner Bill Westenhofer is leading the Rhythm & Hues creative team for “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee for 20th Century Fox. Most recently, Bill served as the vfx supervisor on “The A-Team” and “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” for Fox, and the comedy adventure “Land of the Lost” for Universal Pictures.
In 2008, Bill received the Academy Award® for Achievement in Visual Effects for overseeing the work of hundreds of R&H digital artists on “The Golden Compass.” He also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Special Visual Effects for the same film. Bill was previously Oscar nominated for “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Bill’s other supervisory credits include “Elf,” “The Rundown,” “Men in Black II,” “Cats & Dogs,” “Stuart Little” I and II, “Frequency” and “Babe: Pig in the City,” the latter a BAFTA nominee.
Beginning as a technical director with Rhythm & Hues in 1994, Bill’s lighting and effects animation work was featured in “Batman Forever” and numerous commercials. He was promoted to CG supervisor for “Speed 2: Cruise Control,” and continued in that role for “Spawn,” “Mouse Hunt,” “Kazaam” and “Waterworld.”
Bill holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from George Washington University, where he studied the use of dynamics in physically based animation. He also earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Bucknell University.
