Awards season is upon us once again and while the actors and directors are busy receiving accolades from other shows, the Visual Effects Society has released the full list of nominees for the 21st Annual VES Awards. Each year, the show looks to spotlight visual effects artists from throughout the film, television, video game, and other industries, giving credit to everyone responsible for the most visually stunning moments across all mediums and the biggest advancements in technology. This year was a massive one for VFX artists as it saw the release of several projects that represented massive undertakings in the field. To further celebrate these artists, this will also be the first year the VES Emerging Technology Award will be presented to celebrate the creators who built the innovative tools, methods, and more to create the biggest effects of the year.
Unsurprisingly, the leading nominees in the film and television categories were the two projects that boasted truly absurd budgets to recapture the beautiful worlds of their predecessors - Avatar: The Way of Water and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. James Cameron's sequel needed to get well past the one billion mark to even turn a profit while the highly-anticipated Prime Video prequel series cost Amazon around $500 million for the first season alone. The result was two projects that pushed the boundaries of visual fidelity to their limits for their respective mediums and both are getting rewarded for it with 14 and 7 nominations respectively. No film even sniffed the number of nominations that The Way of Water racked up as Top Gun Maverick and The Batman tied for second with three each. Only Stranger Things 4 even approached The Rings of Power, nabbing three nominations of its own.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was the other frontrunner, leading the animation category with six nominations. It was a slightly crowded year in animation featuring other animated darlings like Phil Tippett's stop-motion masterpiece Mad God, DreamWorks' beautifully animated The Bad Guys, and the painting-like frames of The Sea Beast among others, but Guillermo del Toro's labor of love stood out from the crowd both for its beautiful retelling of the classic tale and the ornate stop-motion figures given life on screen. The Sea Beast and Strange World managed a close second, following del Toro with four nominations each while Turning Red managed three.
Check Out the Full List of VES Awards Nominees Below
Among the other photoreal movie projects to earn a nomination or two were some recently-released favorites including Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans and the Christian Bale-led The Pale Blue Eye. Other categories up for grabs featured nominees in both the video game and commercial categories among other mediums. Some big names include God of War Ragnorok, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2018's God of War that rivaled FromSoftware's colossal hit Elden Ring for Game of the Year in 2022, and The Callisto Protocol which earned two nominations for its visual effects and main character Jacob Lee portrayed by Josh Duhamel. For commercials, Ladbrokes scored a pair of nominations for its use of the famous Rocky II running scene.
VES Chair Lisa Cooke expressed her excitement and pride for this year's batch of nominees, saying in a statement:
We’re honored to keep shining a light on remarkable visual effects artistry and innovation. In all of our nominees, we see best in class work that elevates the art of storytelling and exemplifies the spirit of adaptation and ingenuity -- talents that have kept audiences engaged and uplifted, now, more than ever. The VES Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding global artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our nominees!
Awards will be presented from The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on February 15. See the full list of nominees below:
21st Annual VES Awards Nominees
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water
Richard Baneham
Walter Garcia
Joe Letteri
Eric Saindon
JD Schwalm
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Christian Mänz
Olly Young
Benjamin Loch
Stephane Naze
Alistair Williams
Jurassic World: Dominion
David Vickery
Ann Podlozny
Jance Rubinchik
Dan Snape
Paul Corbould
The Batman
Dan Lemmon
Bryan Searing
Russell Earl
Anders Langlands
Dominic Tuohy
Top Gun: Maverick
Ryan Tudhope
Paul Molles
Seth Hill
Bryan Litson
Scott Fisher
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Death on the Nile
George Murphy
Claudia Dehmel
Mathieu Raynault
Jonathan Bowen
David Watkins
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Paul Norris
Tim Field
Don Libby
Andrew Simmonds
The Fabelmans
Pablo Helman
Jennifer Mizener
Cernogorods Aleksei
Jeff Kalmus
Mark Hawker
The Gray Man
Swen Gilberg
Viet Luu
Bryan Grill
Cliff Welsh
Michael Meinardus
The Pale Blue Eye
Jake Braver
Catherine Farrell
Tim Van Horn
Scott Pritchard
Jeremy Hays
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
Mad God
Chris Morley
Phil Tippett
Ken Rogerson
Tom Gibbons
Strange World
Steve Goldberg
Laurie Au
Mark Hammel
Mehrdad Isvandi
The Bad Guys
Pierre Perifel
Damon Ross
Matt Baer
JP Sans
The Sea Beast
Joshua Beveridge
Christian Hejnal
Stirling Duguid
Spencer Lueders
Turning Red
Domee Shi
Lindsey Collins
Danielle Feinberg
Dave Hale
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
House of the Dragon; The Black Queen
Angus Bickerton
Nikeah Forde
Sven Martin
Michael Bell
Michael Dawson
Prehistoric Planet; Ice Worlds
Lindsay McFarlane
Fay Hancocks
Elliot Newman
Kirstin Hall
Stranger Things 4; The Piggyback
Jabbar Raisani
Niklas Jacobson
Justin Mitchell
Richard E. Perry
The Boys; Payback
Stephan Fleet
Shalena Oxley-Butler
Tristan Zerafa
Anthony Paterson
Hudson Kenny
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn
Jason Smith
Ron Ames
Nigel Sumner
Tom Proctor
Dean Clarke
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Five Days at Memorial; Day Two
Eric Durst
Danny McNair
Matt Whelan
Goran Pavles
John MacGillivray
See; I See You
Chris Wright
Parker Chehak
Tristan Zerafa
Oscar Perea
Tony Kenny
Severance; Pilot
Vadim Turchin
Nicole Melius
David Piombino
David Rouxel
The Old Man; Episode III
Erik Henry
Matt Robken
Jamie Klein
Sylvain Théroux
J.D. Streett
Vikings: Valhalla; The Bridge
Ben Mossman
Melanie Callaghan
Matt Schofield
Chris Cooper
Paul Byrne
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
God of War: Ragnarok
Christopher Lloyd
Carrie Watts
James Adkins
Kevin Huynh
Gotham Knights
Jay Evans
Bryan Theberge
Mathieu Houle
Alexandre Bélanger
Supermassive Games; The Quarry
Aruna Inversin
Paul Pianezza
Kevin Williams
Kimberly Cheifer
The Callisto Protocol
Glen Schofield
Steve Papoutsis
Chris Stone
Demetrius Leal
The Last of Us Part I
Erick Pangilinan
Evan Wells
Eben Cook
Mary Jane Whiting
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
B&Q; Flip
Patrick Krafft
Holly Treacy
Alex Snookes
Frito-Lay; Push It
Tom Raynor
Sophie Harrison
Ben Cronin
Martino Madeddu
Ladbrokes; Rocky
Greg Spencer
Alex Fitzgerald
Mickey O'Donoghue
Adame Boutrif
Minions: The Rise of Gru
Gerome Viavant
Gilles de Lusignan
Benjamin Le Ster
Virgin Media; Highland Rider
Amir Bazzazi
George Reid
Sebastian Caldwell
Alex Kulikov
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
ABBA: Voyage
Ben Morris
Edward Randolph
Stephen Aplin
Ian Comley
Avengers: Quantum Encounter
Alan Woods
Bernice Howes
Scott Sohan
Jason Fox
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Christopher Smith
Meghan Short
William George
Jon Alexander
Jumanji: The Adventure
Martin Cutbill
Liam Thompson
Baptiste Roy
Marco Parenzi
Star Wars: Galactic Star Cruiser
Rob Blue
Patrick Kearney
Khatsho Orfali
Gabe Sabourin
Daniel Joseph
Stranger Things: The Experience
Javier Roca
Antoine Sitruk
Cale Jacox
Julien Forest
Camille Michaud
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Kiri
Anneka Fris
Rebecca Louise Leybourne
Guillaume Francois
Jung-Rock Hwang
Beast; Lion
Alvise Avati
Bora Şahin
Chris McGaw
Krzysztof Boyoko
Disney's Pinocchio; Honest John
Christophe Paradis
Valentina Rosselli
Armita Khanlarpour
Kyoungmin Kim
Slumberland; Pig
Fernando Lopes Herrera
Victor Dinis
Martine Chartrand
Lucie Martinetto
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; Geppetto
Charles Greenfield
Peter Saunders
Shami Lang-Rinderspacher
Noel Estevez-Baker
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; Pinocchio
Oliver Beale
Richard Pickersgill
Brian Leif Hansen
Kim Slate
Strange World; Splat
Leticia Gillett
Cameron Black
Dan Lipson
Louis Jones
Turning Red; Panda Mei
Christopher Bolwyn
Ethan Dean
Bill Sheffler
Kureha Yokoo
OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law; She-Hulk
Elizabeth Bernard
Jan Philip Cramer
Edwina Ting
Andrew Park
Skull & Bones; Sam
Jonas Skoog
Jonas Törnqvist
Goran Milic
Jonas Vikström
The Callisto Protocol; Jacob Lee
Martin Contel
Glauco Longhi
Jorge Jimenez
Atsushi Seo
The Umbrella Academy; Pogo
AIdan Martin
Hannah Dockerty
Olivier Beierlein
Miae Kang
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Metkayina Village
Ryan Arcus
Lisa Hardisty
Paul Harris
TaeHyoung David Kim
Avatar: The Way of Water; The Reef
Jessica Cowley
Joe W. Churchill
Justin Stockton
Alex Nowotny
Jurassic World Dominion; Biosyn Valley
Steve Ellis
Steve Hardy
Thomas Dohlen
John Seru
Slumberland; The Wondrous Cuban Hotel Dream
Daniël Dimitri Veder
Marc Austin
Pavan Rajesh Uppu
Casey Gorton
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
Lightyear; T’Kani Prime Forest
Lenora Acidera
Amy Allen
Alyssa Minko
Jose L. Ramos Serrano
Strange World; The Windy Jungle
Ki Jong Hong
Ryan Smith
Jesse Erickson
Benjamin Fiske
The Sea Beast; The Hunting Ship
Yohan Bang
Enoch Ihde
Denil George Chundangal
John Wallace
Wendell & Wild; The Scream Fair
Tom Proost
Nicholas Blake
Colin Babcock
Matthew Paul Albertus Cross
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Andor; Reckoning; Ferrix
Pedro Santos
Chris Ford
Jeff Carson-Bartzis
Alex Murtaza
The Book of Boba Fett; In the Name of Honor; Mos Espa
Daniel Schmid Leal
Phi Tran
Hasan Ilhan
Steve Wang
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Adar; Númenor City
Dan Wheaton
Nico Delbecq
Dan LeTarte
Julien Gauthier
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Adrift; Khazud Dûm
James Ogle
Péter Bujdosó
Lon Krung
Shweta Bhatnagar
OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A CG PROJECT
ABBA: Voyage
Pär M. Ekberg
John Galloway
Paolo Acri
Jose Burgos
Avatar: The Way of Water
Richard Baneham
Dan Cox
Eric Reynolds
A.J Briones
Prehistoric Planet
Daniel Fotheringham
Krzysztof Szczepanski
Wei-Chuan Hsu
Claire Hill
The Batman; Rain Soaked Car Chase
Dennis Yoo
Michael J. Hall
Jason Desjarlais
Ben Bigiel
OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Avatar: The Way of Water; The Sea Dragon
Sam Sharplin
Stephan Skorepa
Ian Baker
Guillaume Francois
The Sea Beast
Maxx Okazaki
Susan Kornfeld
Edward Lee
Doug Smith
Top Gun: Maverick; F-14 Tomcat
Christian Peck
Klaudio Ladavac
Aram Jung
Peter Dominik
Wendell & Wild; Dream Faire
Peter Dahmen
Paul Harrod
Nicholas Blake
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Fire and Destruction
Miguel Perez Senent
Xavier Martin Ramirez
David Kirchner
Ole Geir Eidsheim
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Simulations
Johnathan M. Nixon
David Moraton
Nicolas Illingworth
David Caeiro Cebrian
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; City Street Flooding
Matthew Hanger
Alexis Hall
Hang Yang
Mikel Zuloaga
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Jesse Parker Holmes
Grayden Solman
Toyokazu Hirai
Rob Richardson
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Lightyear
Alexis Angelidis
Chris Chapman
Jung-Hyun Kim
Keith Klohn
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Derek Cheung
Michael Losure
Kiem Ching Ong
Jinguang Huang
Strange World
Deborah Carlson
Scott Townsend
Stuart Griese
Yasser Hamed
The Sea Beast
Spencer Lueders
Dmitriy Kolesnik
Brian D. Casper
Joe Eckroat
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities; Graveyard Rats
Amit Khanna
Oleg Memukhin
Mario Marengo
Josh George
Stranger Things 4; Hawkins Destructive Fissures
Ahmad Ghourab
Gavin Templer
Rachel Ajorque
Eri Ohno
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn; Volcano Destruction
Kurt Debens
Hamish Bell
Robert Kelly
Gabriel Roccisano
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn; Water and Magma
Rick Hankins
Aron Bonar
Branko Grujcic
Laurent Kermel
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
Avatar: The Way of Water; Landing Rockets Forest Destruction
Miguel Santana Da Silva
Hongfei Geng
Jonathan Moulin
Maria Corcho
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Integration
Sam Cole
Francois Sugny
Florian Schroeder
Jean Matthews
The Batman; Rainy Freeway Chase
Beck Veitch
Stephen Tong
Eva Snyder
Rachel E. Herbert
Top Gun: Maverick
Saul Davide Galbiati
Jean-Frederic Veilleux
Felix B. Lafontaine
Cynthia Rodriguez del Castillo
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
House of the Dragon; The Black Queen; Dance of Dragons
Kevin Friederichs
Sean Raffel
Florian Franke
Andreas Steinlein
Love, Death and Robots; Night of the Mini Dead
Tim Emeis
José Maximiano
Renaud Tissandié
Nacere Guerouaf
The Book of Boba Fett; From the Desert Comes a Stranger; Luke Alike
Peter Demarest
Tami Carter
Brandon McNaughton
Sirak Ghebremusse
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Udûn; Tirharad Cavalry Charge
Sornalingam P
Ian Copeland
Nessa Mingfang Zhang
Yuvaraj S
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
Cartier; Tank
Stephane Pivron
Mathias Barday
Valentin Lesueur
Eric Lemains
Ladbrokes; Rocky
Greg Spencer
Theajo Dharan
Georgina Ford
Jonathan Westley
Samsung; Playtime is Over
Damien Canameras
Guillaume Dadaglio
Sébastien Podsiadlo
Christophe Plouvier
Samsung; The Spider and the Window
Marta Carbonell Amela
Stefan Susemihl
Lonni Wong
Jiyoung Lee
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Avatar: The Way of Water; Current Machine and Wave Pool
JD Schwalm
Richie Schwalm
Nick Rand
Robert Spurlock
Black Adam; Robotic Flight
JD Schwalm
Nick Rand
Andrew Hyde
Andy Robot
Mad God
Phil Tippett
Chris Morley
Webster Colcord
Johnny McLeod
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Adrift; Middle Earth Storm
Dean Clarke
Oliver Gee
Eliot Naimie
Mark Robson
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT (AWARD SPONSORED BY AUTODESK)
A Calling. From the Desert to the Sea
Mario Bertsch
Max Pollmann
Lukas Löffler
Till Sander-Titgemeyer
Boom
Romain Augier
Charles Di Cicco
Gabriel Augerai
Laurie Pereira De Figueiredo
Macula
Hady Abou Ghazale
Lothaire Rialhe
Marta Rodriguez-Noriega Nava
Jules Machicot
Maronii
Maxime Guitet
Dimitri Allonneau
Lucas Plata
Ngoc Mai Nguyen
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Avatar: The Way of Water; Depth Comp
Dejan Momcilovic
Tobias B. Schmidt
Benny Edlund
Joshua Hardgrave
Avatar: The Way of Water; Facial System
Byungkuk Choi
Stephen Cullingford
Stuart Adcock
Marco Revelant
Avatar: The Way of Water; Water Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
Steve Lesser
Sven Joel Wretborn
Douglas McHale
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; 3D Printed Metal Armature
Richard Pickersgill
Glen Southern
Peter Saunders
Brian Leif Hansen
Turning Red; Profile Mover and CurveNets
Kurt Fleischer
Fernando de Goes
Bill Sheffler