Avatar: The Way of Water emerged as the big winner at the Visual Effects Society’s VES Awards on Wednesday (February 15) night, taking nine awards including the prize for photoreal feature.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was the most honoured animated film, winning the animated feature award and two other prizes.
The Way of Water had gone into the ceremony, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, with 14 nominations, and Pinocchio with five.
The VES Award for Lifetime Achievement went to Gale Anne Hurd. The VES Board of Directors Award went to Eric Roth, the Society’s former executive Director.
Film category winners of the 21st Annual VES Awards:
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water
Richard Baneham,Walter Garcia, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, JD Schwalm
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Thirteen Lives
Jason Billington, Thomas Horton, Denis Baudin, Michael Harrison, Brian Cox
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Aaron Weintraub, Jeffrey Schaper, Cameron Carson, Emma Gorbey
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Kiri
Anneka Fris, Rebecca Louise, Leybourne Guillaume, Francois Jung, Rock Hwang
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Pinocchio
Oliver Beale, Richard Pickersgill, Brian Leif Hansen, Kim Slate
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; The Reef
Jessica Cowley, Joe W Churchill, Justin Stockton, Alex Nowotny
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; In the Stomach of a Sea Monster
Warren Lawtey, Anjum Sakharkar, Javier Gonzalez Alonso, Quinn Carvalho
OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A CG PROJECT
Avatar: The Way of Water
Richard Baneham, Dan Cox, Eric Reynolds, AJ Briones
OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Avatar: The Way of Water; The Sea Dragon
Sam Sharplin, Stephan Skorepa, Ian Baker, Guillaume Francois
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Simulations
Johnathan Nixon, David Moraton, Nicolas James Illingworth, David Caeiro Cebrian
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, Kiem Ching Ong, Jinguang Huang
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Integration
Sam Cole, Francois Sugny, Florian Schroeder, Jean Matthews
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Avatar: The Way of Water; Current Machine and Wave Pool
JD Schwalm, Richard Schwalm, Nick Rand, Robert Spurlock
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Toolset
Alexey Stomakhin, Steve Lesser, Sven Joel Wretborn, Douglas McHale
A full list of VES Award winners is available on the Society’s official site.
