Avatar 2 VFX Boss Wins Oscar Then Leaves Show To Get Surgery

Avatar: The Way of Water won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects at Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards. One of the recipients of the award, Eric Saindon, appeared on stage to celebrate and then was rushed to the hospital for surgery for a ruptured small intestine.

IndieWire (via NBC News Center Maine) brings us the story. The site reports that Saindon, a senior visual effects supervision at Weta FX, was experiencing intense pain during the day and was checked into the hospital around noon on Sunday. He still attended the awards show with the help of some painkillers from his doctors. Things got worse after Saindon came up to stage to accept the award.

After appearing for press interviews, he left the Academy Awards, and went to the hospital where doctors discovered Saindon had a ruptured small intestine. He went into surgery and is now recovering.

Saindon, who also worked on the original Avatar, was the on-set VFX supervisor for The Way of Water before getting to promoted to senior VFX supervisor. Saindon earned Academy Award nominations for The Hobbit, but he didn’t win until now, for The Way of Water.

Everything Everywhere All At Once won Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards. The Way of Water was nominated for four Academy Award and won one for visual effects.

Avatar 3 is coming up next in December 2024, and it will be followed by planned sequels Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 further into the future.