The Special Achievement Award is an Academy Award given for an achievement which makes an exceptional contribution to the motion picture for which it was created, but for which there is no annual award category. Such award shall only be conferred, however, for achievements in productions which also qualify as an eligible release for distinguished achievements and meet the Academy's eligibility year and deadlines requirements.

• 1972 The Poseidon Adventure - L. B. Abbott, A. D. Flowers (Visual Effects)
• 1974 Earthquake - Frank Brendel, Glen Robinson, Albert Whitlock (Visual Effects)
• 1975 The Hindenburg - Peter Berkos (Sound Effects)
• 1975 The Hindenburg - Albert Whitlock, Glen Robinson (Visual Effects)
• 1976 King Kong - Carlo Rambaldi, Glen Robinson, Frank Van der Veer Visual Effects)
• 1976 Logan's Run - L. B. Abbott, Glen Robinson, Matthew Yuricich (Visual Effects)
• 1977 Star Wars - Benjamin Burtt, Jr. (Creation of the alien, creature and robot voices)
• 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Frank E. Warner (Sound Effects Editing)
• 1978 Superman - Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Roy Field, Derek Meddings, Zoran Perisic (Visual Effects)
• 1979 The Black Stallion - Alan Splet (Sound Editing)
• 1980 The Empire Strikes Back - Brian Johnson, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Bruce Nicholson (Visual Effects)
• 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark - Ben Burtt, Richard L. Anderson (Sound Effects Editing)
• 1983 Return of the Jedi - Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, Phil Tippett (Visual Effects)
• 1984 The River - Kay Rose (Sound Effects Editing)
• 1987 RoboCop - Stephen Flick, John Pospisil (Sound Effects Editing)
• 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Richard Williams (Animation Direction)
• 1990 Total Recall - Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin, Tim McGovern, Alex Funke (Visual Effects)
• 1995 Toy Story - John Lasseter (First feature-length computer-animated film)