The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Hindenburg (1975)

All three of these films won the Special Achievement Award for Special Visual Effects, during the 70s era of disaster films.

The Exorcist (1973)

This sensational, shocking horror story about devil possession and the subsequent exorcism of the demonic spirits from a young, innocent girl (of a divorced family) (Linda Blair) contained some highly memorable scenes, using various special effects techniques. There were some truly nauseating, horrendous special effects including the 360 degree head-rotation, self-mutilation/masturbation with a crucifix, and the projectile spewing of green puke - a mixture of split-pea soup and oatmeal through a nozzle attached to the stunt double's mouth, etc.

The scene in which the words: "HELP ME" appeared on the girl's stomach were produced on a foam rubber stomach by applying a strong chemical. The shrinking of the swelling by heat guns was filmed - and then projected in reverse - to make it appear like the words were rising up through the skin.

Soylent Green (1973)

In the film, live-in lover Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young) was briefly seen playing the coin-operated video arcade game Computer Space housed in a white unit. She laughed playfully over the present of the "toy" and was told by rich magnate William Simonson (Joseph Cotten): "I'm glad it amuses you." This was its earliest appearance (since a similar game called Asteroids from Atari wasn't released until 1979). It predated Atari's Pong by a year. Computer Space was the first commercially-available videogame of any kind, first sold in 1971.

Closed Mondays (1974)

An 11-minute long Oscar winner of the Best Animated Short Film, by co-directors Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner, this animated short was included in the theatrical release of the compilation feature film Fantastic Animation Festival (1977). The short was the first instance of Claymation animation, using 3-D clay figures filmed with stop-motion animation. It told of a drunken visitor viewing how objects displayed in an art museum ("Closed Mondays") came to life - and concluded with a twist - the bulbous-nosed visitor was part of the museum's statuary.

Hunger (1974) (aka La Faim)

This animated film short (11 minutes long) without dialogue from the National Film Board of Canada (and director Peter Foldes) was the first to use computer digitization to interpolate (or 'fill in') the animated action between various key cells drawn free-hand, although it had experimentally been demonstrated with his earlier film, Metadata (1971).

The film's director was the first animator to use computer animation (a computer-assisted 'key-frame animation' system) that imitated conventional cel animation.

Black and white animated illustrations appeared against a colored backdrop, with surrealistic figures that fluidly and rapidly dissolved and reshaped themselves to take new forms - an early and primitive example of morphing.

It was the first computer-animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Short Film (Animated) category. It also won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that same year.

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Stanley Kubrick's film incorporated unique camerawork (using prototype Zeiss lenses) with numerous scenes filmed only with natural candlelight.

Futureworld (1976)

Futureworld (1976), Yul Brynner's final film and the sequel to Westworld (1973), featured the first use of 3D CGI - for a brief, computer-digitized representation of Peter Fonda's animated face and hand.

The CG graphic was created by the early computer visual effects company Triple I. The film also used 2-D digital compositing to materialize characters over a background.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

This Spielberg film was notable for the sequence of the landing of the impressive alien mother ship - a 400 lb. fiber-glass model that was four feet high and five feet wide. The UFO model was wired and lighted by fiber optics, incandescent bulbs, and neon tubes.

This film lost the Best Achievement in Visual Effects Academy Award to Star Wars (1977).

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

There was a new name for the Academy Award for FX this year - Best Achievement in Visual Effects, won by this film.

The Empire's moon-sized weapon/battle station, the Death Star, was to be assaulted by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and other Starfighters. Before the massive assault was a brief sequence called the Trench-Run Briefing, a training session for Rebel Alliance pilots. The trainees were told by Rebel commander General Dodonna (Alex McCrindle) as they viewed a very basic, untextured and unshaded 3-D wireframe (or vector) view of the Death Star trench:

"The approach will not be easy. You're required to maneuver straight down this trench, and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only 2 meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station. Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction. The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."

One of the pilots objected: "That's impossible! Even for a computer." The computer image they viewed was the first extensive use of animated 3-D computer animation (or CGI).

From inside a linear trench, the space dogfighters launched proton torpedos during attack runs on a thermal exhaust port and obliterated the Death Star with chain-reaction explosions, just as the station was prepared to target the main Rebel base on Yavin IV. The climactic spaceship battle scene at the conclusion of the first episode of the epic trilogy was filmed with an innovative motion-controlled camera - its first use. This meant that a computer was used to control a long, complex series of camera movements. This was the first major work of George Lucas' visual effects company - Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which would become the biggest, most prestigious FX company in film history.

George Lucas would later add further visual effects to the film in a 1997 "Special Edition" release that featured far more advanced CGI characters and effects, including an enhanced Death Star explosion (pictured also), an added scene of a CGI Jabba the Hutt confronting Han Solo, and the infamous "Greedo fires first" edit.

Note: The next two installments of the Star Wars Trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Return of the Jedi (1983) also won the Special Achievement in Visual Effects Academy Award.

Superman (1978)

This film was noted for its innovative 3-D-like effects in its film title sequence - to begin, it zoomed and animated the words: "ALEXANDER SALKIND PRESENTS" and then continued with further zooms on the letters of the starring performers. The graphics also zoomed inward to present the famed S insignia for Superman.

These effects were generated by what effects wizard Douglas Trumbull called "streak" photography (a close relative of his slit-scan technique used in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)), wherein flat artwork was extruded through a third dimension by moving the camera during the exposure of each frame of film. The motion of the camera was itself controlled by computer (in the same way a tool was controlled on a multi-axis CNC machine), but there was no CGI involved.

The film also marked the first use of the Zoptic camera for the non-static flying sequences.

These factors helped the film win the Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects.

Alien (1979)

This Ridley Scott film received the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, defeating The Black Hole (1979), Moonraker (1979), 1941 (1979), and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

The film used a raster wireframe 3-D model rendering for the spaceship Nostromo's navigational charts on its computer monitors in the rough landing sequence on the foreign planet. The computer monitor sequence showed a terrain fly-over, rendering computer-generated mountains as wireframed images as the spacecraft slowly landed and the perspective of the terrain changed.

The film was best-known for the genuinely shocking and memorable chest-bursting special effects scene in which crew member Kane (John Hurt) had blood and the Alien graphically explode out of the front of his white T-shirt - the hissing, razor sharp-toothed monster-lizard looked around and then scurried off to hide. The trick shot involved a fiberglass chest piece (placed over the actor), tubes to squirt fake blood, a single hand puppet, and wires to help the alien race across the table.