The Hobbit has picked up a visual effects Oscar at a pre-awards ceremony hosted by Star Trek stars Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana.
Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling picked up a technical Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards in California overnight.
They were honoured for inventing a technique that helped bring Gollum to life in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.
The technique has been credited with huge advances in animating computer-generated characters, the BBC reported.
Saldana - who worked extensively with Weta while she was making Avatar with James Cameron - pumped her fist and shouted 'Weta' as the first of two teams from the Wellington production studio took the stage, 3News reported.
