The Visual Effects Society, an organization comprised of visual effects professionals who desire to honor, advance and promote visual effects for its membership and the industry as a whole, has announced the nominees for its 1st Annual VES Awards.

Middle-Earth and the Men in Black made the short list, as did the clone army and the Quidditch team. The nominees for 2002's Best Visual Effects will be culled from a short list of feature films with primary visual effects from Digital Domain, ILM, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Weta Digital. Worthy of noting – all the films on the short list made over $100 million in U.S. theatrical release, with four of the films topping $200 million. Fifteen-minute clip reels from each of the seven films will be screened for the Visual Effects Award Nominating Committee on February 5, 2003.

Here is the full list of the nominees for the 30th Annual Annie Awards.

Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production

LAND BEFORE TIME: JOURNEY TO BIG WATER Universal Cartoon Studios

ROLIE POLIE OLIE: THE GREAT DEFENDER OF FUN A Nelvana Limited/Sparkling* Co-Production

VEGGIETALES: THE STAR OF CHRISTMAS Big Idea Productions



Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DOO Cartoon Network

THE GROOVENIANS Cartoon Network Studios

ASIFA-Hollywood has announced nominations for the 30th Annual Annie Awards. Honoring outstanding achievement in animation, this year's twenty-two categories recognize feature films, television programming, commercials, home videos and special projects in categories ranging from directing, writing and voice acting to production design, storyboarding and music.

The winners of the Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical achievements for the year 2002 have been announced and Alias|Wavefront will receive an Oscar for Maya, its 3D animation, modeling and rendering production tool. Maya is widely used in feature films that incorporate 3D visual effects and animation, and was employed extensively in such films as SPIDER-MAN, ICE AGE, HOLLOW MAN and THE PERFECT STORM.

Presented by GAME DEVELOPER magazine, the fifth annual Front Line Awards recognize those software and hardware companies whose tools enable faster and more efficient game creation for advancing the state of the art. Discreet's 3ds max 5 software received the "Front Line Award" in the art category, along with Adobe's Photoshop 7 and AI Implant from BioGraphic Technologies. The art award is based on selective criteria including utility, innovation, value and ease of use.

For the first time a critics group has singled out digital characters with their own awards category. The Critics' Choice Awards are bestowed by the Broadcast Film Critics Association to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Since 2002 had so many strong CG characters, the group has added the category of Best Digital Acting, with THE LORD OF THE RINGS' Gollum competing against HARRY POTTER's house elf Dobby and STAR WARS: EPISODE II's light-saber wielding Yoda. For Best Animated Feature, the nominees are ICE AGE, LILO AND STITCH, SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON and SPIRITED AWAY.

Everyone's favorite dysfunctional family got the nod from the Hollywood Foreign Press for the first time. On December 19, 2002, the nominees for the 60th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced, and FOX's THE SIMPSONS is the only animated entry nominated for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy. It is joined in this category by the live-action comedy series HBO's CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM and SEX AND THE CITY and NBC's FRIENDS and WILL & GRACE. While THE SIMPSONS is a nine time Emmy Award winner for Best Animated Series, this is the first time The Golden Globes have acknowledged the show.

Film Roman's LEVEL13.NET has announced the winners of its second annual DIRECTV LEVEL13.NET ANIMATED FILM FESTIVAL. The film festival competition was open to working artists, emerging animators and student filmmakers. Hundreds of submissions were taken from April 2002 to July 2002 and the winners were chosen in three categories: 2D Animation, 3D/Experimental Animation and Student Work.

For the first time ever an animated film has been awarded the Grand Prix at Siena. Suzie Templeton's heart-breaking puppet-animation short DOG notched up another win at the 2002 edition of the International Short Film Festival Siena in Italy. DOG was Templeton's MA graduation film at The Royal College of Art in England. It has received numerous international awards including the Hiroshima Prize 2002, the Holland Animation Festival Narrative Grand Prix 2002, the British Animation Awards Paul Berry Award 2002 and the BAFTA for Short Animation 2002.