Ben Grossmann

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Ben Grossmann
Ben Grossmann by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Grossmann at the premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas, August 2025
Born
Benjamin Tyndale Grossmann

(1977-07-23) July 23, 1977 (age 48)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupations
Years active2001–present
SpouseAriane Rosier
ChildrenScarlet Rosier

Ben Grossmann (born June 23, 1977) is a visual effects supervisor and film producer based in Los Angeles. He won an Oscar for Hugo in 2012, and a Primetime Emmy Award for The Triangle in 2006. He is the co-founder and CEO of Magnopus, a cross-reality experience company.

Contents

Career

Grossmann filming in Los Angeles, May 2021 BenGrossmann RamaStage2022.jpg
Grossmann filming in Los Angeles, May 2021

Between 1994 and 2000, he worked as a photojournalist at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks, Alaska. During the same time, he was a weatherman at both KFXF Fox 7 and KXDF-CD CBS13, and a radio DJ at KSUA 91.5FM in Fairbanks. [1]

From 2001 to 2013, he worked as a visual effects artist and technician on major films, music videos, and commercials under visual effects supervisors including Rob Legato, Volker Engel, and Marc Weigert for Martin Scorsese, Roland Emmerich, J.J. Abrams, Tim Burton, Jon Favreau, and other filmmakers. [2] During that era, Grossmann worked on music videos for Radiohead, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, etc. and directed television commercials. He worked as a designer on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey a motion-based dark ride in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

In 2013, he and partners Alex Henning and Rodrigo Teixeira formed Magnopus, a visual development company with offices in downtown Los Angeles [3] and St Albans, England. [4] [5] Between 2018 and 2022, he was director for the largest cross-reality geospatial metaverse to date at Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE. [6] He served as a narrative and exhibition designer for the Mobility Pavilion there. [7] He is a patented inventor in mixed reality. [8]

In 2022, his company's Connected Spaces platform was selected as one of Time's Best Inventions of 2022. [9] In 2025, Grossman served as a producer and visual effects specialist for an "immersive" version of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz for Sphere in Las Vegas. [10]

Early life

Benjamin Tyndale Grossmann was born on June 23, 1977, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His father Bruce R. Grossmann, served in the U.S. Army first as an enlisted medic and then as a signal officer. His mother, Dawn Elise Frazier( née Warren and then Grossmann) was a preschool teacher and weather observer in Delta Junction, Alaska southeast of Fairbanks. He has two sisters Brooke and Annalise, and a brother, Elias. Although he traveled extensively throughout the United States as a child, Ben Grossmann spent most of his childhood in Alaska before moving to California. [11]

Awards

In 2013, he was nominated for an Oscar for the film Star Trek Into Darkness , [12] [13] which was directed by J.J. Abrams. In 2012, Grossmann won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the film Hugo , [14] [15] [16] directed by Martin Scorsese. (Video)

In 2006, Grossmann won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for The Triangle . [17] In 2011, he won a Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects. [18] He has won two Visual Effects Society Awards: Outstanding Virtual Cinematography for The Lion King in 2020, and Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture for Hugo. [19] He has been nominated twice (in 2011 and 2013) for the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects.

References

  1. ↑ Tori Tragis. "All The Stories Are True" (PDF). Aurora Magazine. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Ben Grossmann Visual Effects Credits". Imdb.com. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  3. ↑ Alexandria Abramian (January 23, 2014). "New VFX Firm Magnopus Sets Up in Downtown L.A." The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Mission:ISS' Magnopus Acquires XR Design Studio Rewind". Plato Data Intelligence. July 5, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  5. ↑ Alex Farber. "Magnopus acquires Rewind". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  6. ↑ Andrew Graham. "Expo 2020 Dubai Enters The Metaverse World Connecting Millions Across The Physical & Digital Globally Credits". YahooFinance.com. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  7. ↑ Jude Forbes. "Expo 2020 Dubai Project Credits". Magnopus.com. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Collaborative Multi-Modal Mixed-Reality System and Methods Leveraging Reconfigurable Tangible User Interfaces for the Production of Immersive, Cinematic, and Interactive Content". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Best Inventions of 2022". Time . Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  10. ↑ Zee, Michaela (April 4, 2025). ""The Wizard of Oz" to Screen at the Sphere as a "Fully Immersive Experience"" . Retrieved October 31, 2025.
  11. ↑ "UAF Centennial:Ben Grossmann". UAF.edu. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  12. ↑ "Oscar Winners 2015: The Complete List - 86th Academy Awards". Oscar.com. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Space Society to Salute Hollywood at Confab; Shares Gravity-Defying Selfie (Photo)". The Hollywood Reporter. May 5, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  14. ↑ "'Hugo' Beats Out 'Harry Potter' For Visual Effects Oscar". MTV News. Archived from the original on May 2, 2018. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  15. ↑ Los Angeles Times (August 2, 2012). "Oscars 2012: Visual effects". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Academy Awards Oscars - Awards Central- IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  17. ↑ "The Triangle". Television Academy. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Award Archive". PressAcademy.com. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Visual Effects Society Awards". IMDB.com. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
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