Project Description
18TH ANNUAL VES AWARDS
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Beverly Hilton Hotel
Beverly Hills, CA
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Andy Serkis presented the VES Award for Creative Excellence to acclaimed visual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal. Joey King presented the VES Visionary Award to acclaimed director-producer-screenwriter Roland Emmerich. And VFX Supervisor Pablo Helman presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Academy, DGA and Emmy Award winning director-producer-screenwriter Martin Scorsese, accepting via video from New York. Scorsese’s THE IRISHMAN also picked up two awards, including Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.
THE LION KING was named the photoreal feature winner, garnering three awards. MISSING LINK was named top animated film, winning two awards. THE MANDALORIAN was named best photoreal episode and garnered two awards, with GAME OF THRONES and STRANGER THINGS 3 also winning two awards each. HENNESSY: THE SEVEN WORLDS topped the commercial field with two wins. Presenters also included helmers, J.J. Abrams, Jon Favreau, Rian Johnson and Josh Cooley, actors Storm Reid, Madeline Brewer, Janina Gavankar, Sophie Skelton and Maxwell Jenkins. Lisa Campbell, Autodesk’s Chief Marketing Office and SVP, presented the Autodesk Student Award.
Honorees
Lifetime Achievement Award
Martin Scorsese
Awarded for significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by way of vision, artistry, invention and innovation.
Visionary Award
Roland Emmerich
Awarded for uniquely and consistently employing the art and science of visual effects to foster imagination and ignite future discoveries by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.
VES Award for Creative Excellence
Sheena Duggal
Awarded for significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by uniquely and consistently creating compelling and creative imagery in service to story.
Video & Photo Galleries
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Winners and Nominees
Below is the complete list of Winners and Nominees for the 18th Annual VES Awards. A sortable list for ALL years of VES Award winners / nominees can be found on the Previous VES Awards page.
Please click on the category to reveal the nominees and winners
This award is to honor the overall achievement of the visual effects within a photoreal motion picture where the visual effects are a visible, essential, and integral part of the story and play a principal and active role in the motion picture. A rule of thumb for defining whether a motion picture would be considered effects-driven would be to ask if the story could be told without the active participation of extensive digital effects, Special Effects, effects-enhanced stunts, practical effects, or nonhuman CG characters. On the whole, effects-driven films may be “tent-pole” or “independent”, but they are not possible to make without effects and the general public would easily identify the VFX.
Richard Hollander
Kevin Sherwood
Eric Saindon
Richard Baneham
Bob Trevino
Dan DeLeeuw
Jen Underdahl
Russell Earl
Matt Aitken
Daniel Sudick
Bill Westenhofer
Karen Murphy-Mundell
Guy Williams
Sheldon Stopsack
Mark Hawker
Roger Guyett
Stacy Bissell
Patrick Tubach
Neal Scanlan
Dominic Tuohy
Robert Legato
Tom Peitzman
Adam Valdez
Andrew R. Jones
Guillaume Rocheron
Sona Pak
Greg Butler
Vijay Selvam
Dominic Tuohy
Olivier Dumont
Kathy Siegel
Dave Morley
Malte Sarnes
Mark Byers
Edwin Rivera
Brice Parker
Mathew Giampa
Bryan Godwin
Jeff Brink
Louis Morin
Annie Godin
Christian Kaestner
Ara Khanikian
Mike Dawson
Pablo Helman
Mitchell Ferm
Jill Brooks
Leandro Estebecorena
Jeff Brink
This award considers all animation techniques to be a part of visual effects, and honors the overall technical achievement of the animation within an entire Animated Feature. This award recognizes the craftsmanship of the animation which best conveys the entirety of the setting, mood, and action, thereby defining the film’s overall visual and emotive effectiveness.
Steve Goldberg
Peter Del Vecho
Mark Hammel
Michael Giaimo
Sergio Pablos
Matthew Teevan
Marcin Jakubowski
Szymon Biernack
Brad Schiff
Travis Knight
Steve Emerson
Benoit Dubuc
David Burgess
Timothy Jason Smith
Mark Theriault
John Rix
Josh Cooley
Mark Nielsen
Bob Moyer
Gary Bruins
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Ted Rae
Mohsen Mousavi
Sam Conway
Russell Dodgson
James Whitlam
Shawn Hillier
Robert Harrington
Robert Weaver
Christopher Raimo
Arslan Elver
Michael Cozens
Bruno Van Zeebroeck
Jabbar Raisani
Terron Pratt
Niklas Jacobson
Juri Stanossek
Paul Benjamin
Paul Graff
Tom Ford
Michael Maher Jr.
Martin Pelletier
Andy Sowers
Richard Bluff
Abbigail Keller
Jason Porter
Hayden Jones
Roy K. Cancino
Effects-driven series may not enter their “invisible” effects in this category.
Max Dennison
Lindsay McFarlane
Clare Cheetham
Paul Jones
Claudius Christian Rauch
Jay Worth
Jacqueline VandenBussche
Chris Wright
Tristan Zerafa
Adrian de Wet
Eve Fizzinoglia
Matthew Welford
Pedro Sabrosa
Tom Blacklock
Ben Turner
Reece Ewing
David Fleet
Jonathan Wood
Dominic Remane
Mike Borrett
Ovidiu Cinazan
Tom Morrison
Paul Byrne
Pre-rendered “cinematics” or other elements that are rendered outside a game engine are not eligible for this category, nor are real-time projects created for education or demonstration purposes. Stage productions should show the audience’s POV of the project in the Before & Afters.
Regardless of source, all submissions for the VES Awards must be in the appropriate specifications laid out below. No special facilities will be made available to nomination judges and members for interactivity, VR, 3D, or other setups.
Charles Chabert
Chris Parise
Attila Zalanyi
Patrick Hagar
Janne Pulkkinen
Elmeri Raitanen
Matti Hämäläinen
James Tottman
Aryan Hanbeck
Laura Kippax
Greg Mitchell
Stu Maxwell
Jeff Gipson
Nicholas Russell
Brittney Lee
Jose Luis Gomez Diaz
Ben Snow
Mike Doran
Aaron McBride
Steve Henricks
Commercials as aired have no running time limit but they must clearly be demonstrated solely as an advertisement and should clearly appear to be one to the general public. The Work To Be Considered must be no more than two minutes, regardless of source length.
Viktor Muller
Lenka Likarova
Chris Harvey
Petr Marek
Michael Gregory
Christian Downes
Tim Kafka
Toya Drechsler
Carsten Keller
Selçuk Ergen
Kiril Mirkov
William Laban
Sam Driscoll
Clare Melia
Gary Driver
Stefan Susemihl
Jules Janaud
Emma Cook
Matthew Thomas
Philip Child
To be eligible, a Special Venue project must have been exhibited publicly:
- In a commercial venue for a paid admission, which may include the general admission to a theme park or special venue theater;
- For a minimum period of one week on a regular daily schedule; and
- Premiered in the current awards year in a Special Venue theater as defined above.
The following are not eligible in this category, regardless of the material’s original capture format:
- Special purpose events such as trade shows and conventions;
- Video material generally referred to as “pre-show” material;
- Repurposed films, i.e. projects initially intended for the theatrical market but which have been blown up for exhibition in large-format Special Venue theaters;
- Projects that were created as conventional 2D theatrical presentations but have been repurposed to stereographic 3D;
- Any 2D or stereographic 3D feature motion picture that either premiered first, or simultaneously, in any regular movie theater or in any broadcast medium;
- Any project that runs for an equal or greater amount of time in any regular movie theater or in any broadcast medium; and
- Movies intended for simultaneous distribution in both Special Venue and normal movie theaters. The intent of this category is to honor those projects made specifically for the Special Venue market.
Michael Koperwas
Shereif Fattouh
Ian Bowie
Kishore Vijay
Curtis Hickman
Hayden Landis
Friend Wells
Heath Kraynak
Ellen Coss
Asa Kalama
Rob Huebner
Khatsho Orfali
Susan Greenhow
Jason Bayever
Patrick Kearney
Carol Norton
Bill George
James Healy
Morgan MacCuish
Ben West
Charlie Bayliss
Michael Cozens
Mark Haenga
Olivier Lesaint
Dejan Momcilovic
Kevin Martel
Ebrahim Jahromi
Sven Jensen
Robert Allman
Paul Story
Stuart Adcock
Emiliano Padovani
Marco Revelant
Gabriel Arnold
James Hood
Julia Friedl
Daniel Fotheringham
Svetla Radivoeva
Marc Bryant
Richard E. Lehmann
Cameron Black
Yoshimichi Tamura
Alfredo Cassano
Maxime Delalande
Jason Schwartzman
Rachelle Lambden
Brenda Baumgarten
Morgan Hay
Benoit Dubuc
Radford Hurn
Tanja Krampfert
George Nguyen
Becki Rocha Tower
Thiago Martins
Arslan Elver
Stanislas Paillereau
Martine Chartrand
Joseph Dubé-Arsenault
Antoine Barthod
Frederick Gagnon
Xavier Lafarge
Terry Bannon
Rudy Massar
Hugo Leygnac
Aidan Martin
Craig Young
Olivier Beierlein
Laurent Herveic
Chris Bayol
John Fielding
Derrick Sesson
Nole Murphy
Martino Madeddu
Philippe Moine
Clement Granjon
Jon Wood
Jonas Ekman
Jonas Skoog
Marek Madej
Grzegorz Chojnacki
Tim van Hussen
Diarmid Harrison-Murray
Amir Bazazi
Michael Diprose
This category judges not only the techniques for creating the environment, but also their integration with any practical plate photography. Before & Afters must show the integration of the multiple elements used to create the environment.
All entries must focus on one contiguous environment and be consistent in scope by featuring either breadth or detail, but not both. For example, an entire city or large environment should be shown largely in flyovers and wide shots. Smaller, more intimate environments, such as a forest environment or building interior should be confined to a single setting of the immediate surroundings.
Daniel Schmid
Falk Boje
Stanislaw Marek
Kevin George
John Stevenson-Galvin
Ryan Arcus
Mathias Larserud
Mark Tait
John Bair
Vance Miller
Sebastian Romero
Steve Sullivan
Daniele Bigi
Steve Hardy
John Seru
Steven Denyer
Marco Rolandi
Luca Bonatti
Jules Bodenstein
Filippo Preti
This award is to honor the overall achievement of a single created environment in an Animated Feature that best creates an illusion of setting for the story being told. The environment may occur more than once in the project and under different conditions, but must be the same environment, created by the exact same team.
Samy Segura
Jay V. Jackson
Justin Cram
Scott Townsend
Chris Grun
Ronnie Cleland
Ariel Chisholm
Philippe Brochu
Oliver Jones
Phil Brotherton
Nick Mariana
Ralph Procida
Hosuk Chang
Andrew Finley
Alison Leaf
Philip Shoebottom
This category judges not only the techniques for creating the environment, but also their integration with any practical plate photography. Before & Afters must show the integration of the multiple elements used to create the environment. If the project is animated, then the environment should clearly match the style and complexity of the rest of the elements.
All entries must focus on one contiguous environment and be consistent in scope by featuring either breadth or detail, but not both. For example, an entire city or large environment should be shown largely in flyovers and wide shots. Smaller, more intimate environments, such as a forest environment or building interior should be confined to a single setting of the immediate surroundings.
Carlos Patrick DeLeon
Alonso Bocanegra Martinez
Marcela Silva
Benjamin Ross
Philip Engström
Benjamin Bernon
Martin Bergquist
Xuan Prada
Sulé Bryan
Charles Chorein
Christian Waite
Martyn Hawkins
Alex Murtaza
Yanick Gaudreau
Marco Tremblay
Maryse Bouchard
This award is to honor the outstanding use of motion picture camera and lighting techniques in a CG project and recognizes the collaboration among traditional cinematographers and visual effects artists. The project itself may be entirely computer-generated (ie. animated/real-time) or photographed, but the shots being submitted must be mostly or fully CG. The Before & Afters must focus on the cinematography and also include the contributions of previs, mocap, layout and lighting.
Emile Ghorayeb
Simon Jung
Nick Epstein
Mike Perry
Robert Legato
Caleb Deschanel
Ben Grossmann
AJ Sciutto
Richard Bluff
Jason Porter
Landis Fields IV
Barry Baz Idoine
Jean-Claude Kalache
Patrick Lin
The model may have been created virtually, physically, or any combination thereof, and may use any scale. Large environments such as cities may not be entered in this Category even if rendered as a single model. The model’s artistry, detail, textures, animation and lighting are to be considered. An entry may include multiples of the same model with minor variations, such as scale and features, but must have been created by the same team.
Xuan Prada
Jason Martin
Jonathan Vårdstedt
Eric Andersson
Todd Alan Harvey
Dan Casey
Katy Hughes
Neil Taylor
Casi Blume
Ben McDougal
Chris Kuhn
Doug Chiang
Jay Machado
John Goodson
Landis Fields IV
Multiple entries from the same project are eligible provided the artistic teams are 100% different and the shots being submitted are completely different.
Title sequences are eligible as long as they are submitted in textless form so as not to conflict with any other awards rule, and they are part of the storytelling and are not a specially designed separate animated title sequence in a live action project.
Sam Hancock
Victor Glushchenko
Andrew Savchenko
Arthur Moody
Adam Gailey
Jacob Santamaria
Jacob Clark
Stephanie Molk
Don Wong
Thibault Gauriau
Goncalo Cabaca
François-Maxence Desplanques
David Schneider
Samantha Hiscock
Andy Feery
Kostas Strevlos
Alex Timchenko
Domin Lee
Michael Losure
Eric Warren
Erin V. Ramos
Scott Townsend
Thomas Wickes
Rattanin Sirinaruemarn
Derek Cheung
Baptiste Van Opstal
Youxi Woo
Jason Mayer
Alexis Angelidis
Amit Baadkar
Lyon Liew
Michael Lorenzen
Marcel Kern
Paul Fuller
Ryo Sakaguchi
Thomas Hartmann
Selçuk Ergen
Radu Ciubotariu
Andreu Lucio
Vincent Ullmann
Juri Bryan
Hugo Medda
Kristian Olsson
John Perrigo
Nathan Arbuckle
Christian Gaumond
James Dong
Aleksandr Starkov
Xavier Martin Ramirez
Ian Baxter
Fabio Siino
Andrea Rosa
This award is to honor outstanding achievement in compositing multiple elements into a final visual effect shot or group of shots in a Photoreal (i.e., live action) or Animated Feature. This category is for a body of work created by an individual artist or team of artists, and entrants are limited to disciplines which contribute significantly to the entry, such as compositors, lighters, trackers, and rotoscopers. The Before & Afters should demonstrate the rendered elements which show the breadth of the composite.
Adam Bradley
Carlo Scaduto
Hirofumi Takeda
Ben Roberts
Tim Walker
Blake Winder
Tobias Wiesner
Joerg Bruemmer
Trent Claus
David Moreno Hernandez
Jeremiah Sweeney
Yuki Uehara
Jeff Sutherland
John Galloway
Sam Bassett
Charles Lai
Nelson Sepulveda
Vincent Papaix
Benjamin O’Brien
Christopher Doerhoff
Scott Joseph
James Elster
Corinne Teo
Sean Heuston
Mark Richardson
Darren Christie
Nathan Abbot
Owen Longstaff
Simon Lehembre
Andrew Kowbell
Karim El-Masry
Miklos Mesterhazy
Nathaniel Larouche
Iyi Tubi
Perunika Yorgova
Mitchell Beaton
This award is to honor outstanding achievement in compositing multiple elements into a final visual effect shot or group of shots in a Photoreal (i.e., live action) or Animated Commercial. This category is for a body of work created by an individual artist or team of artists, and entrants are limited to disciplines which contribute significantly to the entry, such as compositors, lighters, trackers, and rotoscopers. The Before & Afters should demonstrate the rendered elements which show the breadth of the composite.
Toya Drechsler
Vivek Tekale
Guillaume Weiss
Alexander Kulikov
Dan Giraldo
Marcelo Pasqualino
Alexander Koester
Rod Norman
Guillaume Weiss
Alexander Kulikov
Alessandro Granella
Gary Driver
Stefan Susemihl
Greg Spencer
Theajo Dharan
Mark Holt
Jay Mallet
Will Wyatt
Dickon Mitchell
Sam Conway
Terry Palmer
Laurence Harvey
Alastair Vardy
Neil Corbould
David Brighton
Ray Ferguson
Keith Dawson
Sean Mathiesen
Jon Savage
Toby Froud
Phil Harvey
Matías Heker
Stephen Moroz
Bradley Cocksedge
Denis Krez
Josephine Roß
Paulo Scatena
Lukas Löffler
Alan Guimont
Thomas Boileau
Malcom Hunt
Robin Courtoise
Marc Angele
Aleksandra Todorovic
Pascal Schelbli
Noel Winzen