40 years on: Star Wars at the Oscars – part two

George Lucas at the 1978 Academy Awards.
Would he ever need to get out of his seat?

It was one of the most surprising Oscar nights ever. The 50th Academy Awards were held amid protests and controversy, with the top prizes going to a film whose director was not there.

Last time, we saw how Mark Hamill and the droids helped lighten the mood after some gasps and boos at a controversial speech by Best Supporting Actress winner Vanessa Redgrave. Now, it's on to more of the competitive awards – and a few early wins for Star Wars.

John Dykstra, ILM and the special effects of Star Wars

The special effects of Star Wars – 
fine just the way they were

On its first release, the thing reviews of Star Wars seemed to dwell on more than anything else was, perhaps inevitably, the special effects.

It's not that films hadn't had great visual effects before. 2001: A Space Odyssey almost certainly contained individual effects shots of higher quality than those of Star Wars. But films had never had so many great effects, flitting by so fast.