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The Visual Effects Society revealed the winners of its 24th Annual VES Awards Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, honoring standout achievements in visual effects, animation, real-time projects, and emerging technology across film, television, games, and commercials.
James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash dominated the ceremony with seven wins, including outstanding visual effects in a photoreal feature, reaffirming the franchise’s role as a technological benchmark for the industry. In animation, KPop Demon Hunters emerged as the top performer, winning three awards, including outstanding animation in an animated feature and outstanding character for Rumi.
The VES awards weren’t quite as straightforward as last weekend’s Annies, where only a few titles seemed to take all the awards in their respective formats. Other major winners on Wednesday night included Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, Zootopia 2, Andor, BMW’s “Heart of Joy” commercial, and the student project Azimuth.
How to Train Your Dragon
Christian Manz, Christopher Raimo, Glen McIntosh, Glenn Melenhorst, Terry Palmer
It: Welcome to Derry; “Winter Fire”
Daryl Sawchuk, Steve Dellerson, Pier Lefebvre, Steven Tether, Darcy Callaghan
The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”
Alex Wang, Fiona Campbell Westgate, Nick Epstein, Philip Engström, Joel Whist
WINNER: The Residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Seth Hill, Tesa Kubicek, John Nelson, Gabriel Vargas
WINNER: The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann, Tamara Watts Kent, Dr. Irfan Essa, Matt Dougan, Glenn Derry
WINNER: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang, Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee, Stuart Adcock, Keven Norris, Joseph Kim
OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
WINNER: It: Welcome to Derry; “The Thing in the Dark”; The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois, Pierric Danjou, Chloe Ostiguy, Jonathan Bourdua
It: Welcome to Derry; “Winter Fire”; Pennywise
Théo Perronard, Yan Morin-Dubuisson, Yan Detang, Jonathan Fleming-Bock
The Lost Bus; The Wildfires of Roe Road
Jamie Haydock, Francesco Ferraresi, Sergei Konorev, Frederick Vallee
The Lost Bus; Feather River Canyon by the Pulga Bridge
David Schulz, Mareike Loges, Björn Markgraf, Philipp Hafellner
OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Foundation; “A Song for the End of Everything”; Clarion Station
Sylvain Lesaint, Ilyes Boutemeur, Blake Dewoody, Benjamin Rojek
WINNER: Andor; “Welcome to the Rebellion”; The Senate District
John O’Connell, Falk Boje, Hasan Ilhan, Kevin George
The Last of Us; Post-Apocalyptic Seattle
Romain Simonnet, Abraham Ibanez, David Desplat, Minguk Lee
The Residence; “Dial M for Murder”; The White House Exterior
Gabriel Vargas, Eric Schoellnast, Andrew Wilkins, Omer Gurkan
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”; The Infected Horde
Duarte Victorino, Claudio Gonzalez, Andre Castelao, Igor Bondar
Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”; Assault on the Mindflayer
Michael Chrobak, Brandon James Fleet, Yasunobu Arahori, Hoi Ying Fung
Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Wind Traders, Bridgehead, Rivers and Ocean
Alex Klaricich, Gianfranco Sgura, Brad Floyd, Ari Ross
Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”; The Abyss and Vecna’s Face
Ben Roberts, Rachel E. Herbert, Don Bradford, Ken Lam
WINNER: The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”; A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
Tobias Wiesner, Mark Julien, Owen Longstaff, Brendan Naylor…Read more by Jamie Lang