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Visual Effects Society Announces Winners of the 14th Annual VES Awards

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is the big winner, garnering four awards, with ‘The Revenant’ close behind with three wins; ‘The Good Dinosaur,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ and SSE each take home three awards.

LOS ANGELES -- Tuesday night, the Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry’s global professional honorary society, held the 14th Annual VES Awards, the prestigious yearly celebration that recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, video games and special venues. Comedian Patton Oswalt served as host to the more than 1000 guests gathered at the Beverly Hilton to celebrate VFX talent in 23 awards categories.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the big winner of the evening garnering four awards, with The Revenant close behind with three wins. The teams from The Good Dinosaur (animated feature), Game of Thrones (photoreal episode) and SSE (commercial) led the wins in their respective categories, taking home three awards each.

Kate Mara accompanied by taped congratulations from Matt Damon and Juliana Margulies made a crowd-pleasing presentation to award-winning director-producer Sir Ridley Scott, recipient of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award. Industry veteran Scott Ross presented the VES Visionary Award to acclaimed conceptual artist Syd Mead. The show also featured a salute to ILM’s 40th anniversary. Awards presenters included directors Pete Docter and Zack Snyder, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Terry Crews, Michael Pena, Dennis Haysbert, Portia Doubleday, Erika Christensen, Camilla Luddington and Sharlto Copley.

Winners of the 14th Annual VES Awards are as follows:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Roger Guyett
Luke O’Byrne
Patrick Tubach
Paul Kavanagh
Chris Corbould

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant
Rich McBride
Ivy Agregan
Jason Smith
Nicolas Chevallier
Cameron Waldbauer

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur
Sanjay Bakshi
Denise Ream
Michael Venturini
Jon Reisch

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Game of Thrones; The Dance of Dragons
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Eric Carney
Derek Spears
Stuart Brisdon

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Vikings; To the Gates
Dominic Remane
Bill Halliday
Paul Wishart
Ovidiu Cinazan
Paul Byrne

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

The Order: 1886
Nathan Phail-Liff
Dana Jan
Anthony Vitale
Scot Andreason

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

SSE; Pier
Neil Davies
Tim Lyall
Hitesh Patel
Jorge Montiel

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

Fast and Furious: Supercharged
Chris Shaw
Alysia Cotter
Ben White
Diego Guerrero

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant; The Bear
Matt Shumway
Gaelle Morand
Karin Cooper
Leandro Estebecorena

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature

Inside Out; Joy
Shawn Krause
Tanja Krampfert
Jacob Merrell
Alexis Angelidis

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

SSE; Pier; Orangutan
Jorge Montiel
Sauce Vilas
Philippe Moine
Sam Driscoll

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase/Graveyard
Yanick Dusseault
Mike Wood
Justin van der Lek
Quentin Marmier

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur; The Farm
David Munier
Matthew Webb
Matt Kuruc
Tom Miller

Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

Game of Thrones; City of Volantis
Dominic Piche
Christine Leclerc
Patrice Poissant
Thomas Montminy-Brodeur

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase/Graveyard
Paul Kavanagh
Colin Benoit
Susumu Yukuhiro
Greg Salter

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; BB-8
Joshua Lee
Matthew Denton
Landis Fields
Cyrus Jam

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Mad Max: Fury Road; Toxic Storm
Dan Bethell
Clinton Downs
Chris Young

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur
Stephen Marshall
Magnus Wrenninge
Michael Hall
Hemagiri Arumugam

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

Game of Thrones; Hardhome
David Ramos
Antonio Lado
Piotr Weiss
Félix Bergés

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant; Bear Attack
Donny Rausch
Alan Travis
Charles Lai
TC Harrison

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode

Game of Thrones; Hardhome
Eduardo Díaz
Guillermo Orbe
Oscar Perea
Inmaculada Nadela

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial

SSE; Pier
Gary Driver
Greg Spencer
Grant Connor

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Citipati
Andreas Feix
Francesco Faranna

The Visual Effects Society is a professional global honorary society dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and applications of visual effects and to upholding the highest standards and procedures for the visual effects profession. It is the entertainment industry’s only official organization representing the extended global community of visual effects practitioners, including supervisors, artists, producers, technology developers, educators and studio executives. VES’ more than 3,000 members in 30+ countries worldwide contribute to all areas of entertainment – film, television, commercials, animation, music videos, games and new media.

Source: The Visual Effects Society

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.