Press Release from The Visual Effects Society

Los Angeles, February 1, 2011 - The Visual Effects Society announced the winners of the 9th Annual VES Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The annual event recognizes outstanding visual effects in more than twenty categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games.

Filmmakers, producers and guests joined more than a thousand attendees from the visual effects industry for the sold-out gala which honored Christopher Nolan with the inaugural VES Visionary Award and Ray Harryhausen with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Inception’s Tom Hardy was on hand to present the award to Nolan while Harryhausen was feted by video tributes throughout the evening. Randy Cook and Dennis Muren presented from the stage to Harryhausen who appeared via video to thank VES for this honor. The event was hosted by Patton Oswalt.

Inception was the evening’s most honored project with four awards including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture. The animated feature film How to Train Your Dragon was honored with three awards including Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture---both films winning in every nominated category. Television’s big winner was “The Pacific,” also grabbing three honors.

The 9th Annual VES Awards will premiere on REELZCHANNEL Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 10p ET/PT with encore presentations throughout February.

In accepting the first-ever Visionary award, Nolan came clean about the increasing importance of VFX in his films and that he believes in the "harmony" between special effects and visual effects. He also cited the influences of Ray Harryhausen (the life achievement recipient) and Stanley Kubrick.

Meanwhile, in light of TOY STORY 3 getting the BAFTA VFX nod, Jim Morris, general manager and evp of Pixar (as well as the producer of Andrew Stanton's JOHN CARTER OF MARS) told AWN that he's very hopeful about the Academy's VFX branch embracing animation. He said it will take further education and that he's willing to do what he can. "It's just a matter of time. But it has to happen organically."