Andy Serkis To Scoop IBC 2019 International Honour For Excellence

The IBC 2019 International Honour for Excellence will go to Andy Serkis, the director, producer and actor who is today best known for his performance capture roles.

These include Gollum, Supreme Leader Snoke, King Kong and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes series. Serkis will accept the award at the climax of the IBC2019 Awards Ceremony, on Sunday night.

"IBC is where the technology, the craft and the business of the media industry come together," said Michael Crimp, CEO of IBC. "The International Honour for Excellence has a long history of rewarding those who have transformed our creative vision. Andy Serkis has achieved this by bringing extraordinary humanity to computer-generated characters."

Serkis was born in England in 1964 and wanted to be an artist before becoming an actor, working in the theatre and on television. Today he is also a producer and director, with his London-based company Imaginarium Studios producing last year's Mowgli, Legend of the Jungle, a new interpretation of Kipling’s originals adapted by Serkis, which also featured him co-starring as Baloo the bear alongside Christian Bale’s Bagheera.

His greatest achievement, though, is in making the shift from mere motion capture for CGI towards a combination of technology and the interpretive skill of the actor to create the fidelity of the performance in every detail. This is what gives the performance genuine humanity: his performance as Caesar in the three Planet of the Apes films won him an acting nomination from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.