Best Visual Effects at the 1999 Academy Awards and won an Oscar for visual effects. It continues to be popular with audiences scoring 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2003 epic, The Last Samurai was based on a project Ward spent four years developing with the film's producers. Eventually, after Ward approached several directors, including Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Weir, he got Edward Zwick to helm the film. Ward was an executive producer of the film. During his time in Hollywood, Ward became interested in acting and trained under acting coach Penny Allen. He had a small part in Mike Figgis’ film Leaving Las Vegas (1995), and a larger role in Figgis’ next film One Night Stand (1997). He was given one of the leading role in a US independent feature film The Shot (1996), and a role in Geoff Murphy's film Spooked (2004). In 2005, he returned to New Zealand and made River Queen. Starring Samantha Morton, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Rea, Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis. Rain of the Children followed in 2008, wherein Ward retells the story of Puhi, the elderly Tuhoe woman who was the subject of his earlier documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Rain of the Children won the Grand Prix at Era New Horizons Film Festival. The film was nominated for best director and won best composer at the Qantas Film and TV Awards in New Zealand. Vincent Ward was also nominated for best director at the Australian Directors Guild Awards. Ward has had 2 full retrospectives of his films. In 1984 at Germany's Hof International Film Festival and in 2008 at Poland's Era New Horizons Film Festival. The Boston Globe has called Vincent Ward "one of film's great image makers", while Roger Ebert, one of America's foremost film critics, hailed him as "a true visionary." In October 2020, filming began in Ukraine on Ward's new feature Storm School with further shooting planned in China, UK and Australia. It is based on a script cowritten by Ward and long-term collaborator Louis Nowra. Painting and photography Since 2010 Ward has launched a second career as a painter and video artist. In 2012 he had his first major solo show, Breath, at New Zealand's cutting edge public gallery, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth. This was followed by two other public gallery showings in Auckland and a solo pavilion at the 9th Shanghai