Visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull said revered film director Stanley Kubrick did not deserve the lone Oscar award he received for the 1969 film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Trumbull, who worked on the visual effects of the seminal film, said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Kubrick, the film's director and producer, did not earn the best visual effect prize for it because he "did not create the visual effects; he directed them."

"There was a certain level of inappropriateness to taking that Oscar," the visual effects master said. He, however, emphasized that Kubrick should have been recognized for his expertise.

"The tragic aspect of it for me is it's the only Oscar Stanley Kubrick ever won. He was an incredibly gifted director and should have gotten something for directing and writing and what his strength was - not special effects," Trimbull said.

Trimbull, 72, received credits for the film as supervisor of special photographic effects. He was given accolades for the film's pioneering use of retroreflective matting for both space sequences and the widely praised for the film's opening chapter, "Dawn of Man," according to The Guardian.

The special effects pioneer and inventor then started directing films including 1972's "Silent Running," which was nominated for the American Film Institute's Top 10 Science Fiction Films in 2008. "2001: A Space Odyssey" topped the list.

In Kubrick's five-decade career, he was nominated for 13 Oscar awards, including best director and best writing for "2001: A Space Odyssey." He was defeated in the 1969 Oscars by director Carol Reed for "Oliver."

In 1972, another of Kubrick's most celebrated works, "A Clock Work Orange," made it to the Oscars, for best film. It was beaten by William Friedkin's "The French Connection."

Other Oscar nominations for Kubrick, who died in 1999, include those for 1976's "Barry Lyndon" and 1988's "Full Metal Jacket."