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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ Top 21st Annual VES Awards

Awards-season magic continues for both films, with James Cameron’s blockbuster ‘Avatar’ sequel taking home 9 awards, while the ‘Nightmare Alley’ director’s stop-motion tale takes home 3; ‘The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power’ led all episodics with 3 wins as well.

The pixel magicians of the visual effects community gathered tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel as the Visual Effects Society held its 21st Annual VES Awards, the organizations yearly celebration of outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, video games and special venues. 

Awards were handed out in 25 categories. To no one’s great surprise, Avatar: The Way of Water was named the photoreal feature winner, garnering a total of nine awards on the night.  Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was named top animated film, winning three awards.  The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power was named best photoreal episode, winning three awards.  Frito-Lay: Push It topped the commercial field. An especially tasty choice.

Patton Oswalt was back, hosting the awards for the 10th time. We missed his snark and jovial laughter last year as a broken leg kept him from attending. Sure it did… Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron presented the VES Lifetime Achievement award to acclaimed producer Gale Anne Hurd.  The Society’s current and former Board Chairs presented the VES Board of Directors Award to former Executive Director Eric Roth; the group included Lisa Cooke, current VES Chair; Jim Morris, VES, President of Pixar Animation and founding VES Chair; and former Chairs Jeffrey A. Okun, VES; Mike Chambers, VES; Carl Rosendahl, VES; and Jeff Barnes.  Award presenters included: Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson, Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Domee Shi; actors Tig Notaro, Jay Pharoah, Tyler Posey, Randall Park, Angela Sarafyan, Bashir Salahuddin, Josh McDermitt and Danny Pudi.  Dara Treseder, Autodesk’s Chief Marketing Officer, presented the VES-Autodesk Student Award.

"As we celebrate the 21st Annual VES Awards, we're honored to keep shining a light on remarkable visual effects artistry and innovation," said VES Chair Lisa Cooke.  "In all of our colleagues honored tonight, we see best in class work that elevates the art of storytelling and exemplifies the spirit of adaptation and ingenuity -- talents that have kept audiences engaged and uplifted, now, more than ever.  The VES Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding global artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our winners and nominees!”

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. The complete list of winners is as follows:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Avatar: The Way of Water

  • Richard Baneham
  • Walter Garcia
  • Joe Letteri
  • Eric Saindon
  • JD Schwalm

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Thirteen Lives

  • Jason Billington
  • Thomas Horton
  • Denis Baudin
  • Michael Harrison
  • Brian Cox

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

  • Aaron Weintraub
  • Jeffrey Schaper
  • Cameron Carson
  • Emma Gorbey

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn

  • Jason Smith
  • Ron Ames
  • Nigel Sumner
  • Tom Proctor
  • Dean Clarke

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Five Days at Memorial; Day Two

  • Eric Durst
  • Danny McNair
  • Matt Whelan
  • Goran Pavles
  • John MacGillivray

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

The Last of Us Part I

  • Erick Pangilinan
  • Evan Wells
  • Eben Cook
  • Mary Jane Whiting

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

Frito-Lay; Push It

  • Tom Raynor
  • Sophie Harrison
  • Ben Cronin
  • Martino Madeddu

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

ABBA Voyage

  • Ben Morris
  • Edward Randolph
  • Stephen Aplin
  • Ian Comley

Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature

Avatar: The Way of Water; Kiri

  • Anneka Fris
  • Rebecca Louise Leybourne
  • Guillaume Francois
  • Jung Rock Hwang

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; Pinocchio

  • Oliver Beale
  • Richard Pickersgill
  • Brian Leif Hansen
  • Kim Slate

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

The Umbrella Academy; Pogo

  • Aidan Martin
  • Hannah Dockerty
  • Olivier Beierlein
  • Miae Kang

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Avatar: The Way of Water; The Reef

  • Jessica Cowley
  • Joe W. Churchill
  • Justin Stockton
  • Alex Nowotny

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; In the Stomach of a Sea Monster

  • Warren Lawtey
  • Anjum Sakharkar
  • Javier Gonzalez Alonso
  • Quinn Carvalho

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

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Adar; Númenor City

  • Dan Wheaton
  • Nico Delbecq
  • Dan Letarte
  • Julien Gauthier

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project

Avatar: The Way of Water

  • Richard Baneham
  • Dan Cox
  • Eric Reynolds
  • AJ Briones

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Avatar: The Way of Water; The Sea Dragon

  • Sam Sharplin
  • Stephan Skorepa
  • Ian Baker
  • Guillaume Francois

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Simulations

  • Johnathan Nixon
  • David Moraton
  • Nicolas James Illingworth
  • David Caeiro Cebrian

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

  • Derek Cheung
  • Michael Losure
  • Kiem Ching Ong
  • Jinguang Huang

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

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn; Water and Magma

  • Rick Hankins
  • Aron Bonar
  • Branko Grujcic
  • Laurent Kermel

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature

Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Integration

  • Sam Cole
  • Francois Sugny
  • Florian Schroeder
  • Jean Matthews

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in an Episode

Love, Death and Robots; Night of the Mini Dead

  • Tim Emeis
  • José Maximiano
  • Renaud Tissandié
  • Nacere Guerouaf

Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Commercial

Ladbrokes; Rocky

  • Greg Spencer
  • Theajo Dharan
  • Georgina Ford
  • Jonathan Westley

Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project

Avatar: The Way of Water; Current Machine and Wave Pool

  • JD Schwalm
  • Richard Schwalm
  • Nick Rand
  • Robert Spurlock

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project (Sponsored by AUTODESK)

A Calling. From the Desert. To the Sea

  • Mario Bertsch
  • Max Pollmann
  • Lukas Löffler
  • Till Sander-Titgemeyer

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD

Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Toolset

  • Alexey Stomakhin
  • Steve Lesser
  • Sven Joel Wretborn
  • Douglas McHale

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 4,500 members in 45 countries worldwide contribute to all areas of entertainment – film, television, commercials, animation, music videos, games and new media.

Source: Visual Effects Society

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Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.