Jon Favreau will become an Honorary Visual Effects Society (VES) Member at the VES Honors Celebration, taking place tomorrow, November 7th, at Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new facility in Los Angeles.
Selected by the VES Board of Directors from member-submitted candidates, these distinguished honorees have profoundly impacted visual effects (VFX), shaped its legacy, and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.
“The annual VES Honors Celebration serves to acknowledge the incredible contributors to our industry. Each individual is selected for advancing the craft of VFX and the sector overall. We’re excited to host this unique and intimate forum and give this year’s recipients their well-deserved recognition,” said VES Board Chair, Kim Davidson.
Favreau is the groundbreaking director behind Iron Man (2008), The Jungle Book (2016), The Lion King (2019), and television series including The Mandalorian (2019-2023). Sweeney is the visionary founder and CEO of Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine software helped to usher in a new era of real-time rendering and advancing virtual production capabilities in the VFX industry.
About Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau is a filmmaker, writer, and actor. He is the creator and showrunner of the beloved Disney+ series The Mandalorian, which has received 52 Emmy Award nominations and 15 wins. He is also an executive producer on The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. He recently wrapped production on the next installment of the Star Wars franchise, The Mandalorian & Grogu, scheduled for release on May 22, 2026. He also recently completed principal photography on a series based on the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Disney+.
Favreau has directed and produced live-action adaptations of Disney’s animated films. His 2016 film, The Jungle Book, won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for its visual effects. In 2019, he directed and produced The Lion King, which grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide.
Favreau directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). These films had a combined gross of $1.3 billion worldwide. He also served as an executive producer on The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. In the MCU, he plays the character Happy Hogan in the Iron Man and Spider-Man films.
In 2014, Favreau wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film Chef. This led to the Netflix series The Chef Show, which he co-hosts with chef Roy Choi. His other directing credits include Cowboys & Aliens, starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford; Zathura: A Space Adventure, starring Josh Hutcherson, Tim Robbins and Dax Shepard; the crime comedy Made, which he starred in opposite Vince Vaughn; and the acclaimed perennial holiday family-favorite, Elf, starring Will Ferrell.
Favreau executive produced both seasons of the docu-series Prehistoric Planet for Apple TV+ and the BBC. The mini-series, narrated by broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough, earned multiple award nominations, including a Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information, an Annie Awards nomination for Best Animated Special Production, and an Astra Television Awards nomination for Best Streaming Nonfiction Series. Inspired by Favreau’s Prehistoric Planet, Apple TV+ launched Prehistoric Planet Immersive, which is available on the groundbreaking Apple Vision Pro.
As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as Swingers (which he also scripted), The Wolf of Wall Street, and played the role of boxer Rocky Marciano in the biopic Rocky Marciano. His television credits include appearances on Seinfeld, Friends, and The Sopranos.
Favreau has received several awards for his work. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023, named a Disney Legend in 2019, and received the Visual Effects Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Team Jedi News sends our congratulations to all those receiving awards, especially Jon Favreau.
