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‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Soul’ Top VES Award Nominations

‘Project Power’ and ‘The Witches’ lead the list of feature film field nominees; winners in 25 categories will be announced at a virtual ceremony streaming worldwide on April 6/7 depending upon time zone.

Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian, with a whopping 13 broadcast field nominations, Disney/Pixar’s Soul, with five animated film field nominations, and Netflix’s Project Power and Warner Bros.’ The Witches, with three feature film field nominations each, lead all nominees for the 19th Annual VES Awards, which due to the ongoing pandemic, will stream worldwide on April 6/7, depending upon the time zone.

Nominees in 25 categories were selected by VES members via 32 virtual nomination events held around the globe. As previously announced, Don Iwerks, Greg Jein and the late Ron Cobb were named Honorary Members.  This year’s venerated VES Fellows, bestowed with the post-nominal letters “VES” are: Warren Franklin, David Johnson, Janet Muswell Hamilton, Ken Ralston, and Sebastian Sylwan. The 2020 class of VES Hall of Fame honorees includes Irwin Allen, Mary Blair, Claire Parker, Gene Warren, Jr. and Gene Warren, Sr. Venerated industry executive Ray Scalice was named recipient of the 2020 VES Founders Award.  The Society also designated visual effects producer Debbie Denise, professor and FMX founder Thomas Haegele, visual effects supervisor Richard Hollander, VES and model shop supervisor-special effects artist Eugene “Gene” P. Rizzardi, Jr. with Lifetime VES memberships. 

“Traditions find a way to persist,” said Lisa Cooke, VES Board Chair.  “With vision and a lot of hard work, we are proud to host our annual celebration of the artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world – virtually.  We are seeing best in class work that elevates the art of storytelling and engages the audience in new and innovative ways.  The VES Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our nominees!”

“Autodesk is proud to sponsor the Visual Effects Society Student Award for a 12th year, supporting incredible up-and-coming talent in the VFX and animation industry,” said Jocelyn Moffatt, Entertainment Industry Marketing Manager, Autodesk. “In a year fraught with disruption and adapting to new ways of learning and collaborating remotely, it is truly inspiring to see the level of creativity and ingenuity in each of every one of this year’s student submissions. Autodesk extends a huge congratulations to this year’s nominees.”

The nominees for the 19th Annual VES Awards are as follow:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

  • Brad Parker
  • Roma Van Den Bergh
  • Eric Guaglione
  • Carlos Monzon
  • Stefano Pepin

PROJECT POWER

  • Ivan Moran
  • Leslie Hough
  • Joao Sita
  • Matthew Twyford
  • Yves Debono

TENET

  • Andrew Jackson
  • Mike Chambers
  • Andrew Lockley
  • David Lee
  • Scott Fisher

THE MIDNIGHT SKY

  • Matt Kasmir
  • Greg Baxter
  • Chris Lawrence
  • Max Solomon
  • David Watkins

THE WITCHES

  • Kevin Baillie
  • Sandra Scott
  • Sean Konrad
  • Glenn Melenhorst
  • Mark Holt

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

DA 5 BLOODS

  • Randall Balsmeyer
  • James Cooper
  • Watcharachai “Sam” Panichsuk

EXTRACTION

  • Marko Forker
  • Lynzi Grant
  • Craig Wentworth
  • Olivier Sarda

MANK

  • Wei Zheng
  • Peter Mavromates
  • Simon Carr
  • James Pastorius

NEWS OF THE WORLD

  • Roni Rodrigues
  • Dayaliyah Lopez
  • Ian Fellows
  • Andrew Morley
  • Brandon K. McLaughlin

WELCOME TO CHECHNYA

  • Ryan Laney
  • Eugen Bräunig
  • Maxwell Anderson
  • Johnny Han
  • Piers Dennis

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

ONWARD

  • Dan Scanlon
  • Kori Rae
  • Sanjay Bakshi
  • Vincent Serritella

OVER THE MOON

  • Glen Keane
  • Gennie Rim
  • Céline Desrumaux
  • David Alexander Smith

SOUL

  • Pete Docter
  • Dana Murray
  • Michael Fong
  • Bill Watral

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE

  • Joel Crawford
  • Mark Swift, PGA
  • Betsy Nofsinger
  • Jakob Hjort Jensen

TROLLS WORLD TOUR

  • Walt Dohrn
  • Gina Shay, PGA
  • Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin
  • Matt Baer

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Jig-A-Bobo

  • Kevin Blank
  • Robin Griffin
  • Pietro Ponti
  • Francois Dumoulin

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY; Su’Kal

  • Jason Michael Zimmerman
  • Aleksandra Kochoska
  • Ante Dekovic
  • Ivan Kondrup Jensen

THE MANDALORIAN, The Marshal

  • Joe Bauer
  • Abbigail Keller
  • Hal Hickel
  • Richard Bluff
  • Roy Cancino

TIMMY FAILURE

  • Rich McBride
  • Leslie Lerman
  • Nicolas Chevallier
  • Anders Beer
  • Tony Lazarowich

WESTWORLD; Crisis Theory

  • Jay Worth
  • Elizabeth Castro
  • Bruce Branit
  • Joe Wehmeyer
  • Mark Byers

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE; Episode 1

  • Eric Pascarelli
  • Keith Kolder
  • Ariel Altman

MRS. AMERICA; Shirley

  • Janelle Croshaw
  • Kaylie Whitcher
  • Leonardo Silva
  • Zena Bielewicz
  • Michael Innanen

SURVIVE

  • Ariel Altman
  • Rae Welty
  • Caius Wong
  • Carl Fong

THE CROWN; Gold Stick

  • Ben Turner
  • Reece Ewing
  • Andrew Scrase
  • Jonathan Wood

VIKINGS; Best Laid Plans

  • Dominic Remane
  • Bill Halliday
  • Tom Morrison
  • Ovidiu Cinazan
  • Paul Byrne

WARRIOR; Learn to Endure, Or Hire a Bodyguard

  • Jonathan Alenskas
  • Leah Orsini
  • Nate Overstrom
  • David Eschrich

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

  • Raphael Lacoste
  • Jean-Sebastien Guay
  • Virginie Cinq-Mars
  • Thierry Beaumont

CYBERPUNK 2077

  • Jakub Knapik
  • Małgorzata Mitręga
  • Piotr Suchodolski
  • Krzysztof Krzyścin

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

  • Jason Connell
  • Matt Vainio
  • Jasmin Patry
  • Joanna Wang

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES; REACTOR FINALE

  • Gavin Goulden
  • Jess Reed
  • Bryanna Lindsey
  • Mike Yosh

THE LAST OF US PART II

  • Neil Druckmann
  • Eben Cook
  • Erick Pangilinan
  • John Sweeney

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

ARM & HAMMER; Once Upon a Time

  • Kiril Mirkov
  • Solomon Tiigah
  • Vanessa Duquesnay
  • Prashanth Paramasivam

BURBERRY; Singin’ In The Rain

  • Fabian Frank
  • Ryan Hancocks
  • Rob Richardson
  • Alex Lovejoy

HORNBACH; It Seems Impossible Until You Do It

  • Ben Cronin
  • Tomek Zietkiewicz
  • Amir Bazzazi
  • Bruno Fukumothi

PLAYSTATION; The Edge

  • Diarmid Harrison-Murray
  • Tom Igglesden
  • Alex Gabucci
  • Tom Raynor

WALMART; Famous Visitors

  • Chris “Badger” Knight
  • Lori Talley
  • Yarin Mares
  • Matt Fuller

XBOX; Us Dreamers

  • Dan Seddon
  • Elexis Stearn
  • Fabian Frank
  • Zhenya Vladi

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

ASTEROID HUNTERS

  • Antoine Durr
  • Jini Durr
  • Bert Poole
  • Neishaw Ali

THE BOURNE STUNTACULAR

  • Salvador Zalvidea
  • Tracey Gibbons
  • George Allan
  • Matthías Bjarnason
  • Scott Smith

MICKEY & MINNIE’S RUNAWAY RAILWAY

  • Ryan Donoghue
  • Becky Train
  • Blaine Kennison
  • Nick da Silva
  • Corban Prim

THE MARCH

  • Aruna Inversin
  • Peter Nelson
  • Kevin Williams
  • Sean Kealey

Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature

DIE KÄNGURU-CHRONIKEN; Kangaroo

  • Claudius Urban
  • Sebastian Badea
  • Dorian Knapp
  • Ruth Wiegand

JINGLE JANGLE: A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY; Don Juan Diego

  • Eric Guaglione
  • Shuchi Singhal
  • Adrien Annesley
  • Mahmoud Ellithy

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN; Ivan

  • Valentina Rosselli
  • Thomas Huizer
  • Andrea De Martis
  • William Bell

THE WITCHES; Daisy

  • Jye Skinn
  • Sarah Fuller
  • Marco Iannaccone
  • Fredrik Sundqvist

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature

ONWARD; Dad Pants

  • Kristopher Campbell
  • Jonas Jarvers
  • Rob Jensen
  • Jacob Kuenzel

OVER THE MOON; Chang’e

  • Siggi Orri Thorhannesson
  • Hyesook Kim
  • Javier Solsona
  • Alan Chen

SOUL; Terry

  • Jonathan Hoffman
  • Jonathan Page
  • Peter Tieryas
  • Ron Zorman

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN; SpongeBob

  • Jacques Daigle
  • Guillaume Dufief
  • Adrien Montero
  • Liam Hill

Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project

THE CROWN; The Balmoral test; Imperial Stag

  • Ahmed Gharraph
  • Ross Burgess
  • Gabriela Ruch Salmeron
  • Joel Best

THE MANDALORIAN; The Jedi; The Child

  • John Rosengrant
  • Peter Clarke
  • Scott Patton
  • Hal Hickel

THE MANDALORIAN; The Marshal; Krayt Dragon

  • Paul Kavanagh
  • Zaini Mohamed Jalani
  • Michal Kriukow
  • Nihal Friedel

TIMMY FAILURE; Mistakes Were Made; Total

  • Maxime Masse
  • Hennadii Prykhodko
  • Luc Girard
  • Sophie Burie

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial

AFK ARENA; Toilet; Uzgahk

  • Chloe Dawe
  • Brad Noble
  • Tim van Hussen
  • Simon Legrand

ARM & HAMMER; Once Upon a Time; Tuxedo Tom

  • Shiny Rajan
  • Silvia Bartoli
  • Matias Heker
  • Tiago Dias Mota

FAR CRY; Legacy; Anton

  • Maxime Luere
  • Leon Berelle
  • Rémi Kozyra
  • Dominique Boidin

LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA; Breathe; Darius

  • Maxime Luere
  • Leon Berelle
  • Rémi Kozyra
  • Dominique Boidin

TK MAXX; The Lil Goat

  • Kiril Mirkov
  • Silvia Bartoli
  • Chris Welsby
  • David Bryan

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

BLOODSHOT: Neuralspace

  • Arnaud Brisebois
  • Patrick Bacon
  • Dawid Borkiewicz
  • Gérôme Viavant

MULAN; Imperial City

  • Jeremy Fort
  • Matt Fitzgerald
  • Ben Walker
  • Adrian Vercoe

THE EIGHT HUNDRED; 1937 Shanghai Downtown

  • Stefano Cieri
  • Aaron Auty
  • Simon Carlile
  • Patrick Zentis

THE EIGHT HUNDRED; Shanghai Warehouse District

  • Jamie Macdougall
  • Julian Hutchens
  • Mark Honer
  • David Pekarek

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

ONWARD; Swamp Gas

  • Eric Andraos
  • Laura Grieve
  • Nick Pitera
  • Michael Rutter

SOUL; You Seminar

  • Hosuk Chang
  • Sungyeon Joh
  • Peter Roe
  • Frank Tai

TROLLS WORLD TOUR; Techno Reef

  • Luke Heathcock
  • Zachary Glynn
  • Marina Ilic
  • Michael Trull

TROLLS WORLD TOUR; Volcano Rock City

  • Brian LaFrance
  • Sara Cembalisty
  • Christopher Sprunger
  • Ruben Perez

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

BRAVE NEW WORLD: New London

  • Guy Williams
  • Justin Gros-Désir
  • Markus Sterner
  • Ryan Clarke

CYBERPUNK 2077; Night City

  • Jakub Knapik
  • Lucjan Więcek

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Tulsa 1921

  • Patrice Poissant
  • Pauline Lavelle
  • Mohamed Abdou Elhakim
  • Alan Lam

THE MANDALORIAN; The Believer; Morak Jungle

  • Enrico Damm
  • Johanes Kurnia
  • Phi Tran
  • Tong Tran

THE MANDALORIAN; The Siege; Nevarro Canyon

  • Kevin George
  • Aaron Barr
  • Piotr Tatar
  • Abel Milanés Betancourt

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA; A Storm is Coming

  • Aladino Debert
  • Matt Dougan
  • Eric Beaver
  • David Liu

SOUL

  • Matt Aspbury
  • Ian Megibben

THE MANDALORIAN; The Believer

  • Richard Bluff
  • Matt Jensen
  • Chris Williams
  • Landis Fields IV

THE MANDALORIAN; The Siege

  • Dave Crispino
  • Kyle Winkelman
  • Paul Kavanagh
  • Jose Burgos

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project

THE MANDALORIAN; Boba Fett’s Ship

  • Jay Machado
  • Enrico Damm
  • Gerald Blaise
  • Ryan Church

THE MANDALORIAN; The Rescue; Light Cruiser

  • John Knoll
  • John Goodson
  • Dan Patrascu
  • Rene Garcia

THE MIDNIGHT SKY; Aether

  • Michael Balthazart
  • Jonathan Opgenhaffen
  • John-Peter Li
  • Simon Aluze

THE WITCHES; Rollercoaster

  • Jared Michael
  • Peter Dominik
  • Sylvain Lesaint
  • Emily Tilson

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

BLOODSHOT

  • Omar Meradi
  • Jeremy Poupin
  • Sylvain Robert
  • Deak Ferrand

GREYHOUND

  • Mike Nixon
  • Nicholas Papworth
  • Jeremy Smith
  • Yashdeep Sawant

MONSTER HUNTER

  • Vimal Mallireddy
  • Warren Lawtey
  • Tom O'Bready
  • Dominik Haase

MULAN

  • Theo Vandernoot
  • Sandra Balej
  • James Carson
  • Yuri Rudakov

PROJECT POWER

  • Yin Lai Jimmy Leung
  • Jonathan Edward Lyddon-Towl
  • Pierpaolo Navarini
  • Michelle Lee

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

ONWARD

  • Dave Hale
  • Jonah Blue Laird
  • Stephen Marshall
  • Ricardo Nadu

OVER THE MOON

  • Ian Farnsworth
  • Brian Casper
  • Reinhold Rittinger
  • Jennifer Lasrado

SOUL

  • Alexis Angelidis
  • Keith Daniel Klohn
  • Aimei Kutt
  • Melissa Tseng

TROLLS WORLD TOUR

  • Stephen Wood
  • Carl Hooper
  • Spencer Knapp
  • Nick Augello

THE WILLOUGHBYS

  • Helén Ahlberg
  • Kyle McQueen
  • Russell Smith
  • Raehyeon Kim

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

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Strange Case; Chrysalis

  • Federica Foresti
  • Johan Gabrielsson
  • Hugo Medda
  • Andreas Krieg

PLAYSTATION; The Edge

  • Tom Raynor
  • Andreu Lucio
  • Martin Aufinger
  • Platon Filimonov

TALES FROM THE LOOP; Loretta’s House

  • Dominik Kirouac
  • Gaël Chopin
  • Sylvain Nouveau
  • Laurent Pancaccini

THE MANDALORIAN; The Marshal; Krayt Dragon

  • HuaiYuan Teh
  • Don Wong
  • Mathieu Chardonnet
  • Prashanth Bhagavan

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature

GREYHOUND

  • Chris Gooch
  • Tiago Santos
  • Stu Bruzek
  • Sneha Amin

MULAN

  • Christoph Salzmann
  • Beck Veitch
  • Joerg Bruemmer
  • Indah Maretha

PROJECT POWER

  • Russell Horth
  • Matthew Patience
  • Julien Rousseau

UNDERWATER

  • Sreejith Venugopalan
  • Ruslan Borysov
  • Susil Sabat
  • Andreas Andersson

Outstanding Compositing in an Episode

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Strange Case; Chrysalis

  • Viktor Andersson
  • Linus Lindblom
  • Mattias Sandelius
  • Crawford Reilly

THE MANDALORIAN; The Believer

  • Peter Demarest
  • Christopher Balog
  • Shawn Mason
  • David Wahlberg

THE MANDALORIAN; The Marshal

  • Nicolas Caillier
  • Simon Rafin
  • SiangKee Poh
  • Simon Marinof

THE MANDALORIAN; The Passenger

  • TC Harrison
  • Tami Carter
  • Jaume Creus Costabella
  • Shane Davidson

Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial

BURBERRY; Singin’ In the Rain

  • Alex Lovejoy
  • Mithun Alex
  • David Filipe
  • Amresh Kumar

PERRIER; Heat

  • Stéphane Pivron
  • Franck Lambertz
  • Harry Bardak
  • Christophe Courgeau

PLAYSTATION; The Edge

  • Alex Gabucci
  • Rebecca Clay
  • Alex Grey
  • Alex Kulikov

WALMART; Famous Visitors

  • Chris “Badger” Knight
  • Ben Smith
  • Jake Albers
  • Franz Kol

Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD; Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg

  • Frank Iudica
  • Scott Roark
  • Daniel J. Yates

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

TIME’S DOWN

  • Valentin Soulard
  • François Brugalières
  • Nils Lemonnier
  • Yan Weitlauff

ARAL

  • Cédric Moens de Hase
  • Benoit Paya
  • Charles Morhain
  • Mathilde Dallamaggiore

STRANDS OF MIND

  • Adrian Meyer
  • Laura Messner

MIGRANTS

  • Antoine Dupriez
  • Hugo Caby
  • Lucas Lermytte
  • Zoé Devise

Source: Visual Effects Society

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