The Visual Effects Society held their annual awards last night, with some predictable, if not undeserving, picks for prize-winners. Denis Villeneuve's Dune was victorious across four Live Action categories, including the big one: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. And, on the Animated front, Disney's Encanto was equally successful, also taking four, again including the top prize: Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature. No other movie won more than one award, so it was a very strong night for these two movies in two strong fields respectively. Check out the 2021 VES award nominations here, and the winners below.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
DUNE (Paul Lambert, Brice Parker, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer)
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (Thomas Proctor, Gavin Gregory, Julian Gnass and Fabricio de Vasconcellos Baessa Antonio)
Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project
JUNGLE CRUISE (J. D. Schwalm, Nick Rand, Robert Spurlock and Nick Byrd*)
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
FINCH - 'Jeff' (Harinarayan Rajeev, Daniel Matthias Schoenegger, Simon Allen and Paul Nelson)
Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature
DUNE - 'Attack on Arrakeen' (Gregory C. Haas, Francesco Dell'Anna, Abhishek Chaturvedi and Cleve Yi Lun Zhu)
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME - 'The Mirror Dimension' (Eric le Dieu de Ville, Thomas Dotheij, Ryan Olliffe and Claire le Teuff)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
DUNE - 'Dunes of Arrakis' (Gero Grimm, Ivan Larinin, Okano Hideki and Zuny An)
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project
ENCANTO - 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' (Nathan Warner, Dorian Bustamante, Tyler Kupferer and Michael Woodside)
Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project
DUNE - 'Royal ornithopter' (Marc Austin, Anna Yamazoe, Michael Chang and Rachael Dunk)
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
ENCANTO (Scott Kersavage, Brad Simonsen, Thaddeus P. Miller and Ian Gooding)
Oustanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
ENCANTO - 'Mirabel Madrigal' (Kelly McClanahan, Sergi Caballer, Mary Twohig and Jose Luis Velasquez)
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
ENCANTO - 'Antonio's room' (Camille Andre, Andrew Finley, Chris Patrick O'Connell and Amol Sathe)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (Le Joyce Tong, Henrik Falt, Rattanin Sirinaruemarn and Jake Rice)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
GREEN (Camille Poiriez, Arielle Cohen, Eloise Thibaut and Louis Florean)