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The winners of the 22nd Annual VES Awards were announced last week, and to no one’s great surprise, Gareth Edwards’ The Creator did rather well.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) is the industry’s global professional honorary society and does some mighty fine work around the world. It’s perhaps most known outside dedicated VFX circles, though, for its VES Awards, and it just held the 22nd edition celebrating outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, video games and special venues.
Gareth Edwards’ The Creator scooped the cinematic honours, well the photorealistic ones at least. It was named the photoreal feature winner and, all in all, garnered five awards (see below for the full list).
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was deservedly named top animated film, winning four awards. The Last of Us was named best photoreal episode, winning four awards, and Coca-Cola topped the commercial field. There was a historic tie in the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project category, with honors going to both Rembrandt Immersive Artwork and Postcard From Earth.
A special VES Award for Creative Excellence went to legendary actor-director William Shatner. Shatner is a frankly remarkable 92 years old and is still very much going strong. He is also, lest us not forget, currently the oldest person to genuinely go into space, having been given a ride on a Blue Origin vehicle at the age of 90.
“This room is probably filled with the most creative people in the industry. I mean every one of them is an artist and thinking ahead all the time,” Shatner said as per Variety. “In the beginning, it was a flashlight and a little cardboard enterprise, and that became reality. That’s quite amazing to be here with all these wonderful people.”
In her opening remarks, without being specific, VES executive director Nancy Ward pointed to a practice in which some productions promote a movie in a way that minimizes — or in some cases doesn’t acknowledge at all — the contributions of VFX artists. She noted that “at a time when some are discounting the pivotal role of visual effects,” the VES “proudly “salutes these “technical visionaries and creative risk takers.”
The Winners of the 22nd Annual VES Awards in 25 categories were as follows:
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
The Creator
Jay Cooper Julian Levi Ian Comley Charmaine Chan Neil Corbould, VES
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Nyad
Jake Braver Fiona Campbell Westgate R. Christopher White Mohsen Mousavi
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Alan Hawkins Christian Hejnal Michael Lasker Matt Hausman
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
The Last of Us; Season 1; Infected
Alex Wang Sean Nowlan Stephen James Simon Jung Joel Whist
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty; Season 2; BEAT LA
Raymond McIntyre Jr. Victor DiMichina Javier Menéndez Platas Damien Stantina
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
Alan Wake 2
Janne Pulkkinen Johannes Richter Daniel Kończyk Damian Olechowski
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
Coca-Cola; Masterpiece
Ryan Knowles Antonia Vlasto Gregory McKneally Dan Yargici
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT- TIE (two winners)
Postcard From Earth
Aruna Inversin Eric Wilson Corey Turner William George
Rembrandt Immersive Artwork
Andrew McNamara Sebastian Read Andrew Kinnear Sam Matthews
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Rocket
Nathan McConnel Andrea De Martis Antony Magdalinidis Rachel Williams
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Spot
Christopher Mangnall Craig Feifarek Humberto Rosa Nideep Varghese
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
The Last of Us; Endure and Survive; Bloater
Gino Acevedo Max Telfer Dennis You Fabio Leporelli
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
The Creator; Floating Village
John Seru Guy Williams Vincent Techer Timothée Maron
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Mumbattan City
Taehyun Park YJ Lee Pepe Orozco Kelly Han
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL- TIME PROJECT
The Last of Us: Post-Outbreak Boston
Melaina Mace Adrien Lambert Juan Carlos Barquet Christopher Anciaume
OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A CG PROJECT
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Joanna Davison Cheyana Wilkinson Michael Cozens Jason Desjarlais
OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
The Creator; Nomad
Oliver Kane Mat Monro Florence Green Serban Ungureanu
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
The Creator
Ludovic Ramisandraina Raul Essig Mathieu Chardonnet Lewis Taylor
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Pav Grochola Filippo Maccari Naoki Kato Nicola Finizio
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
The Mandalorian; Season 3; Lake Monster Attack Water
Travis Harkleroad Florian Witzel Rick Hankins Aron Bonar
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
The Creator; Bar
Phil Prates Min Kim Nisarg Suthar Toshiko Miura
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
The Last of Us; Endure and Survive; Infected Horde Battle
Matthew Lumb Ben Roberts Ben Campbell Quentin Hema
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
Coca-Cola; Masterpiece
Ryan Knowles Greg Mckneally Taran Spear Jordan Dunstall
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Oppenheimer
Scott Fisher James Rollins Mario Vanillo
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
The Flash; Volumetric Capture
Stephan Trojansky Thomas Ganshorn Oliver Pilarski Lukas Lepicovsky
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT (AWARD SPONSORED BY AUTODESK)
Silhouette
Alexis Lafuente Antoni Nicolaï Chloé Stricher Elliot Dreuille
Tags: Post & VFX
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