Hal Hickel, one of the greatest masters of American animation and visual effects, winner of 1 Oscar, 2 Emmys, 1 Bafta and 2 Saturn Awards, will be celebrated by awarding the Romics d'Oro during the 34th edition of the International Festival of Comics, Animation, Cosplay, Cinema and Games, scheduled from 3 to 6 April. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Hickel trained at the California Institute of the Arts and began his career at Will Vinton Studios as a clay animator and animatronics supervisor. After his experience at Pixar as animator on the first Toy Story, in 1996 he found his definitive position at George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) where he quickly moved from animator on Jurassic Park: The Lost World to lead animator on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, helping to bring some of the saga's most iconic characters to life. In 2000 he was promoted to animation supervisor working with visual fx legend Dennis Muren on Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence and then Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and again on Iron Man and the first three chapters of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga. His work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned him an Oscar and BAFTA award for best visual effects in 2007. His most famous works also include Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, which earned him a fifth BAFTA nomination, and the animated film Rango, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, where he worked as animation director. Hickel also starred in the creation of some epic scenes in Warcraft and supervised the animation of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, earning prestigious Oscar, BAFTA and VES award nominations. More recently, he oversaw the spectacular train robbery sequence in Solo: A Star Wars Story and brought his talents to the two series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.