After creating the award-winning special visual effects for the original Star Wars Trilogy, George Lucas opened up ILM to work with outside filmmakers to create their visual effects and a new era for the company began. From 1980 to 1992 ILM work was recognized with eighteen Academy Award® nominations and with just one exception, won the Oscar for outstanding visual effects each year.

ILM artists and technologists were at the forefront of the digital revolution in filmmaking developing such technology as digital film scanning and recording, digital compositing, digital wire removal and retouching, and a host of computer graphics animation, lighting, and rendering techniques and technology. This freed filmmakers to tell virtually any type of story they could dream up.

ILM begins its global expansion as filmmaker demand for the company’s talent and services grows exponentially. First expanding to Singapore, the studio would also open an office in Vancouver, BC. In 2007, ILM’s work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was recognized with the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

ILM continues to expand its global footprint opening full pipeline studios in London, Sydney and Mumbai. In 2018, the company develops and deploys its industry leading virtual production solution, StageCraft, constructing permanent and bespoke volumes around the world for projects large and small. The company’s work is also recognized with the Emmy Award for Best Visual Effects three years in a row and StageCraft itself is recognized with an Engineering Emmy Award.