Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Visual Effects Society is an entertainment industry organization representing visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, supervisors, and producers. It has about 5,000 members in 50 countries, spanning film, television, commercials, music videos, and video games.
The Visual Effects Society Awards began in 2002. They honor the best visual effects work of the previous year across multiple categories.
Star Wars, released in 1977, ranked first on the Visual Effects Society's list of the 50 most influential visual effects films. The list was unveiled in 2007 and contained 51 titles due to ties.
A Trip to the Moon from 1902 is among the oldest films on the list, placing at number thirteen. The 2017 additions also included Gertie the Dinosaur from 1914.
In 2017, the Visual Effects Society added twenty-one films to its original list, expanding it beyond the initial 51 titles. The additions included Avatar, Gravity, Inception, Ex Machina, and Gertie the Dinosaur, among others.
Jurassic Park from 1993 ranked fifth. The Matrix from 1999 tied for third place with 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film by Stanley Kubrick.