Legendary Makeup Artist Rick Baker to Be Honored at Locarno Film Festival

Rick Baker, the maestro of movie monsters and character transformations, is getting his due. The seven-time Oscar winner will receive the prestigious Vision Award at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival, cementing his status as one of cinema’s most consequential artists.

The Swiss festival announced the honor this week, recognizing Baker’s five-decade career that essentially defined practical makeup effects in Hollywood. Before computer graphics took over, Baker was the one making audiences believe in werewolves, aliens, and everything in between.

His credentials speak for themselves. In 1981, Baker made history as the first person to win an Academy Award in the newly created Best Makeup category for An American Werewolf in London. He’d go on to win six more Oscars from 11 nominations—a record that still stands.

The list of films bearing his fingerprints reads like a greatest-hits collection: The Nutty Professor, Men in Black, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Ed Wood among them. He even created the groundbreaking prosthetics for Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video, a piece of pop culture history that remains instantly recognizable decades later.

While Baker stepped back from full-time work in 2015, his impact shows no signs of fading. The Vision Award, which honors artists who’ve fundamentally shaped cinema, feels like the perfect recognition for someone who made us believe in the impossible, one carefully crafted prosthetic at a time.

The festival will celebrate Baker at its 2026 ceremony.