Academy Awards: Gerd Nefzer wins third Oscar – comes to the tiled stove

The special effects artist Gerd Nefzer won his third Oscar. The 59-year-old was awarded Paul Lambert, Stephen James and Rhys Salcombe for the visual effects in “Dune: Part Two” (directed by: Denis Villeneuve). Nefzer called in German in the Dolby Theater: “Thank you. That’s great.”

Nefzer, who comes from Schwäbisch Hall, won the Oscar for the first time in 2018 with three colleagues for the visual effects in “Blade Runner 2049”. In 2022, the second Oscar followed with three colleagues for the first part of “Dune”.

Backstage cheered Nefzer in front of the world press: “I am so happy to have won an Oscar as a German, now the third, that’s just indescribably great.”

Better not kept Oscars on the toilet

And where does the Oscar come at home? “With the other two later on the tiled stove,” says the Swabian. He was currently still keeping his first two gold boys in the safe, Nefzer said in front of the Oscar gala. He also heard that some kept their trophy on the toilet. He would rather not do that, he added backstage with a wink.

“Dune: Part Two” won in two categories. The visual science fiction epic with lead actor Timothée Chalamet plays on the desert planet Arrakis, where good and evil powers fight for the valuable substance spice.

The film was shot in the desert in Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Studios in Budapest. Nefzer and his crew were responsible for special effects, not on the computer, but real at the filming location with tricky manual work.

Nefzer is not the first German with three Oscars or more. The German-American composer André Previn (1929-2019), who was born in Berlin, even won four times.

The set designer Hans Dreier (1885-1966), born in Bremen, was awarded three times. The director William Wyler, born in 1902 in the then German Empire, also won three Oscars.