The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for the 18th Annual VES Awards, recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials and video games, and the VFX supervisors, VFX producers and hands-on artists who bring this work to life. Nominees in 25 categories were selected by VES members via events hosted by 11 of its Sections, including Australia, the Bay Area, Germany, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, New Zealand, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington.
The VES Awards will be held on January 29 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Alita: Battle Angel and The Lion King snagged the most feature film nominations with five each; Toy Story 4 is the top animated film contender with five nominations; and Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian tie to lead the broadcast field with six nominations each.
“The artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world have come together to create truly remarkable imagery in a variety of media,” said Mike Chambers, VES Chair. “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!”
As previously announced, the VES Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Academy, DGA and Emmy Award winning director-producer-screenwriter Martin Scorsese. The VES Visionary Award will be presented to acclaimed director-producer-screenwriter Roland Emmerich. And the VES Award for Creative excellence will be presented to acclaimed visual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal. Award-winning actor-comedian-author Patton Oswalt will once again host the VES Awards.
See the complete list of nominees on the VES website.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL Richard Hollander, Kevin Sherwood, Eric Saindon, Richard Baneham, Bob Trevino
AVENGERS: ENDGAME Daniel DeLeeuw, Jen Underdahl, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken, Daniel Sudick
GEMINI MAN Bill Westenhofer, Karen Murphy-Mundell, Guy Williams, Sheldon Stopsack, Mark Hawker
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Roger Guyett, Stacy Bissell, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy
THE LION KING Robert Legato, Tom Peitzman, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
FROZEN 2 Steve Goldberg, Peter Del Vecho, Mark Hammel, Michael Giaimo
KLAUS Sergio Pablos, Matthew Teevan, Marcin Jakubowski, Szymon Biernack
MISSING LINK Brad Schiff, Travis Knight, Steve Emerson, Benoit Dubuc
THE LEGO MOVIE 2 David Burgess, Tim Smith, Mark Theriault, John Rix
TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen, Bob Moyer, Gary Bruins
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
GAME OF THRONES; The Bells Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Ted Rae, Mohsen Mousavi, Sam Conway
HIS DARK MATERIALS; The Fight to the Death Russell Dodgson, James Whitlam, Shawn Hillier, Robert Harrington
LADY AND THE TRAMP Robert Weaver, Christopher Raimo, Arslan Elver, Michael Cozens, Bruno Van Zeebroeck
LOST IN SPACE; Ninety-Seven Jabbar Raisani, Terron Pratt, Niklas Jacobson, Juri Stanossek, Paul Benjamin
STRANGER THINGS – Chapter Six: E Pluribus Unum Paul Graff, Tom Ford, Michael Maher Jr., Martin Pelletier, Andy Sowers
THE MANDALORIAN; The Child Richard Bluff, Abbigail Keller, Jason Porter, Hayden Jones, Roy K. Cancion
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL; Alita Michael Cozens, Mark Haenga, Olivier Lesaint, Dejan Momcilovic
AVENGERS: ENDGAME; Smart Hulk Kevin Martel, Ebrahim Jahromi, Sven Jensen, Robert Allman
GEMINI MAN; Junior Paul Story, Stuart Adcock, Emiliano Padovani, Marco Revelant
THE LION KING; Scar Gabriel Arnold, James Hood, Julia Friedl, Daniel Fortheringham
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
FROZEN 2; The Water Nøkk Svetla Radivoeva, Marc Bryant, Richard E. Lehmann, Cameron Black
KLAUS; Jesper Yoshimichi Tamura, Alfredo Cassano, Maxime Delalande, Jason Schwartzman
MISSING LINK; Susan Rachelle Lambden, Brenda Baumgarten, Morgan Hay, Benoit Dubuc
TOY STORY 4; Bo Peep Radford Hurn, Tanja Krampfert, George Nguyen, Becki Rocha Tower
Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project
LADY AND THE TRAMP; Tramp Thiago Martins, Arslan Elver, Stanislas Paillereau, Martine Chartrand
STRANGER THINGS 3; Tom/Bruce Monster Joseph Dubé-Arsenault, Antoine Barthod, Frederick Gagnon, Xavier Lafarge
THE MANDALORIAN; The Child; Mudhorn Terry Bannon, Rudy Massar, Hugo Leygnac
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY; Pilot; Pogo Aidan Martin, Craig Young, Olivier Beierlein, Laurent Herveic
