The George Pal Memorial Award is presented each year, by the

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films is an American non-profit organization established in 1972 dedicated to the advancement of science fiction, fantasy, and Horror fiction, horror in film, television, and home video. The Aca ...

, in conjunction with their annual Saturn Award ceremony. The award is given to those who have shown exemplary work in the respective film genres. It is named in honor of George Pal, a Hungarian-born American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

and film producer, principally associated with the

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

genre. The latest honoree is the 1985 film ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...

'' as of February 2025.

Recipients

Below is a list of recipients and the year the award was presented:

1970s

* C. Dean Anderson (1975) * Don Fanzo (1975) *

Gloria Swanson Gloria Mae Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for h ...

(1975) * Fay Wray (1975)

1980s

John Badham John MacDonald Badham (born August 25, 1939) is an American film and television director, best known for directing the films ''Saturday Night Fever'' (1977), ''Dracula (1979 film), Dracula'' (1979), ''Blue Thunder'' (1983), ''WarGames'' (1983), ...

(1980) * Nicholas Meyer (1984) * Douglas Trumbull (1985) *

Charles Band Charles Robert Band (born December 27, 1951) is an American film producer and director, known for his work on horror comedy movies. Career Band entered film production in the 1970s with Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributo ...

(1986) *

Arnold Leibovit Arnold Leibovit (born June 18, 1950) is an American director, producer, and screenwriter of feature films and musical productions. Life and career An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has produced, directed, and written sever ...

(1987) *

Larry Cohen Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American filmmaker. He originally emerged as the writer of blaxploitation films such as ''Black Caesar (film), Black Caesar'' and ''Hell Up in Harlem'' (both 1973), before becomin ...

(1988) * David Cronenberg (1989)

1990s

William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...

(1991) * Gene Roddenberry (1992) * Frank Marshall (1993) * Wah Chang (1994) * Gene Warren (1994) * Stan Winston (1994) * Robert Zemeckis (1995) *

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

(1996) * Kathleen Kennedy (1997) *

Dean Devlin Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the The Librarian (franchise), ''Li ...

(1998) *

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

(1999)

2000s

* Douglas Wick (2000) * Sam Raimi (2001) * Samuel Z. Arkoff (2002) *

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

(2004) *

Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of both fields. In a career spanning more than 40 ...

(2006) *

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...

(2008)

2010s

* Alex Kurtzman (2010) * Roberto Orci (2010) *

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

(2012) * Gregory Nicotero (2014)Academy Press Release
saturnawards.org. Retrieved May 26, 2014. (PDF) *

Simon Kinberg Simon David Kinberg (born August 2, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He wrote and produced a number of films in the X-Men (film series), ''X-Men'' film franchise for 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Fox, and had produced a number of other projec ...

(2015)

2020s

* Dave Filoni (2022/2023) * ''

'' (2023/2024)

References

External links

Official Saturn Awards website
Saturn Awards Lifetime achievement awards Mass media science fiction awards Fantasy awards Awards established in 1975 {{fantasy-stub