{"id":789563,"date":"2026-02-26T05:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/789563\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:14:12","slug":"ves-awards-2026-winners-list-from-visual-effects-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/789563\/","title":{"rendered":"VES Awards 2026 Winners List From Visual Effects Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRefresh for updates\u2026 <\/strong>The Visual Effects Society<\/a> is handing out its 24th VES Awards<\/a> tonight at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, and Deadline is posting the winners in 26 categories live as they are announced. See the list below.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/a> comes into the show with a leading 10 nominations<\/a>, and it already has won four prizes, for Emerging Technology, Outstanding Model, Environment and CG Cinematography. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 20 Century Studios threequel \u2014 the 16th-highest-grossing film of all time<\/a> with more than $1.47 billion worldwide and counting \u2014 had its hopes of a category sweep ended when Apple Original Films\u2019 F1 won for Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature. That happened to be one of two categories where Fire and Ash was competing against itself. <\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe first film prize of the Sklar Brothers-hosted ceremony \u2014 punctuated as usual by a classic rock soundtrack \u2014 went to Zoopotia 2 for Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature. The highest-grossing Hollywood film in history<\/a> came into the evening with five noms, tied for second-most with Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation\u2019s\u00a0KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> and Disney\/Pixar\u2019s\u00a0Elio. <\/p>\n

\n\tLater, an 87-year-old movie won a 2026 VES Award \u2014 sort of \u2014 when The Wizard of Oz at Sphere took the trophy for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+\u2019s now-wrapped<\/a> Star Wars series Andor leads the TV field with two wins, for Outstanding Environment and Practical Effects. The Last of Us\u00a0later took the trophy for Compositing and Lighting in an episode. The HBO drama was tied with Netflix\u2019s\u00a0recently wrapped<\/a>\u00a0Stranger Things<\/a> and Apple TV\/BBC Studios\u2019\u00a0Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age\u00a0with four VES noms each.<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, BMW has won two VES Awards for its commercial titled \u201cHeart of Joy: Meet Okto the Octopus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2026 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tEarly on, the ceremony\u2019s In Memoriam segment included VES professionals we lost during the past year including Roger Allers<\/a>, Greg Cannom<\/a>, Vince Zampella<\/a>, Bob Burns, George Bloom, Loren Carpenter, Simon Cheung, Fabien Girodot, Jack Haye, Ian Jenkins, Jeremy Kendall, Tom Lynnes, Ralph S. Maiers, Con Pederson, Mike Schmitt and Dane Allen Smith.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s VES Awards special honorees<\/a> are prolific film and TV producer\u00a0Jerry Bruckheimer<\/a>\u00a0and W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop co-founder and COO\u00a0Richard Taylor<\/a>,\u00a0who will receive the 2026 VES Lifetime Achievement Award and VES Visionary Award, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Visual Effects Society and Movie Academy haven\u2019t followed the same script much during the past decade-plus, with only five of winners of the marquee VES prize \u2014 Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature \u2014 going on to score the FX Oscar since 2013.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED:\u00a0The 2026 Oscars: Everything We Know About The Ceremony, Host, Date & More So Far<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tHere are the 2026 VES winners revealed so far, followed by the remaining nominees:<\/p>\n

\t\tWinners\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE<\/strong>
F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage
<\/strong>Hugo Gauvreau
Chris Davies
Raushan Raj
Amaury Rospars<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL<\/strong>
BMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
<\/strong>Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Chabane
Nicola Borsari<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE<\/strong>
The Last of Us; \u201cThrough the Valley;\u201d A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
<\/strong>Tobias Wiesner
Mark Julien
Owen Longstaff
Brendan Naylor<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT<\/strong>
Andor; \u201cWho Are You?\u201d
<\/strong>Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Jody Eltham
Darrell Guyon<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora
<\/strong>Nicholas Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT
Azimuth<\/strong>
Thomas Teisseire
Cassandre Cinier
Martin Bluy
Mathis Giraudeau<\/p>\n

\n\tEMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD<\/strong>
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset
<\/strong>Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
John Edholm
Murali Ramachari
Aleksandr Isakov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY<\/strong>
Avatar: Fire and Ash
<\/strong>Steve Deane
AJ Briones
Zachary Brake
Andrew Moffett<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
<\/strong>Ben Grossmann
Tamara Watts Ken
Dr. Irfan Essa
Matt Dougan
Glenn Derry<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
Ghost of Y\u014dtei
<\/strong>Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Joanna Wang
Jasmin Patr<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL<\/strong>
BMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
<\/strong>Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/strong>
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
<\/strong>Gianluca Pizzaia
Steve Bevins
Dziga Kaiser
Zsolt M\u00e1t\u00e9<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia 2; Marsh Market
<\/strong>Limei Z. Hshieh
Alexander Nicholas Whang
Joshua Fry
Ryan DeYoung<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT<\/strong>
Andor; \u201cWelcome to the Rebellion;\u201d The Senate District
<\/strong>John O\u2019Connell
Falk Boje
Hasan Ilhan
Kevin George<\/p>\n

\t\tNominees\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tF1: The Movie<\/strong>
Ryan Tudhope
Nikeah Forde
Robert Harrington
Nicolas Chevallier
Keith Alfred Dawson<\/p>\n

\n\tJurassic World: Rebirth<\/strong>
David Vickery
Carlos Ciudad
Steve Aplin
Charmaine Chan
Neil Corbould, VES<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Lost Bus<\/strong>
Charlie Noble
Gavin Round
David Zaretti
Russell Bowen
Brandon K. McLaughlin<\/p>\n

\n\tAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/strong>
Richard Baneham
Peter Litvack
Eric Saindon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram<\/p>\n

\n\tHow To Train Your Dragon<\/strong>
Christian Manz
Christopher Raimo
Glen McIntosh
Glenn Melenhorst
Terry Palmer<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tDongji Rescue<\/strong>
Tim Crosbie
Celeste Chen
Christian Sj\u00f6stedt
Lea Benjovitz<\/p>\n

\n\tA House of Dynamite<\/strong>
Chris Harvey
Dione Wood
Jon Mitchell
Matthew Lane<\/p>\n

\n\tWarfare<\/strong>
Simon Stanley-Clamp
Kaley Edwards
Andrew Kinnear
Samir Ansari
Ryan Conder<\/p>\n

\n\tSinners<\/strong>
Michael Ralla
James Alexander
Nick Marshal
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the Hunt<\/strong>
Fabio Cerrito
Virginia Cefaly
Marco Fiorani Parenzi
Maura Manfredi<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
<\/strong>
The Bad Guys 2
<\/strong>Pierre Perifel
Damon Ross
Matt Baer
Benjamin Willis<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters
<\/strong>Joshua Beveridge
Jacky Priddle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan<\/p>\n

Zootopia 2
<\/strong>Gregory Smith
Laurie Au
Marlon West
Shweta Viswanathan<\/p>\n

In Your Dreams
<\/strong>Sacha Kapijimpanga
Carey Smith
Nicola Lavender
Steve Pilcher<\/p>\n

Elio<\/strong>
Claudia Chung Sanii
Mary Alice Drumm
Harley Jessup
Dave Quirus<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
<\/strong>
Andor; \u201cWho Are You?\u201d
<\/strong>Mohen Leo
TJ Falls
Scott Pritchard
Olivier Beaulieu
Luke Murphy<\/p>\n

It: Welcome to Derry; \u201cWinter Fire\u201d
<\/strong>Daryl Sawchuk
Steve Dellerson
Pier Lefebvre
Steven Tether
Darcy Callaghan<\/p>\n

The Last of Us; \u201cThrough the Valley\u201d
<\/strong>Alex Wang
Fiona Campbell Westgate
Nick Epstein
Philip Engstr\u00f6m
Joel Whist<\/p>\n

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; \u201cThe Big Freeze\u201d
<\/strong>Russell Dodgson
Tracey Gibbons
Francois Dumoulin
Gavin McKenzie<\/p>\n

Stranger Things; \u201cChapter Eight: The Rightside Up\u201d
<\/strong>Betsy Paterson
Tessa Roehl
Michael Maher Jr.
Martin Hill<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
<\/strong>
Man vs Baby; \u201cChapter One\u201d
<\/strong>Rob Duncan
Ashlee Turner
Jean-Nicolas Costa
Adrian Eugene Daniel Williams<\/p>\n

The Residence; \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d
<\/strong>Seth Hill
Tesa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas<\/p>\n

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon; \u201cCosta Da Morte\u201d
<\/strong>Jao M\u2019Changama
Justine Paynat-Sautivet
S\u00e9bastien Voisin
Xavier Allard
Pau Costa Moeller<\/p>\n

Severance; \u201cHello, Ms. Cobel\u201d
<\/strong>Eric Leven
Sean Findley
Brian Holligan
Radost Ridlen<\/p>\n

Death By Lightning; \u201cThe Man from Ohio\u201d
<\/strong>Rainer Gombos
Steve Kullback
Marko Ljubez
David Ramos<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
<\/strong>
A Minecraft Movie; Queen Malgosha
<\/strong>Kevin Estey
Fabio Leporelli
Matteo Stirati
Nick Grace<\/p>\n

Lilo & Stitch; Stitch
<\/strong>Matthew Shumway
Claus Pedersen
Xiying Zhai
Enrique Mateo-Sagasta<\/p>\n

Superman; Krypto the Superdog
<\/strong>Loic Mireault
Martine Chartrand
Marianne Morency
Matthias Schoenegger<\/p>\n

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan
<\/strong>Stephen Clee
Stuart Adcock
Keven Norris
Joseph Kim<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
<\/strong>
Elio; Ooooo the Liquid Supercomputer
<\/strong>Catherine Luo
Anna-Christine Lykkegaard
Ferdi Scheepers
Julian Teo<\/p>\n

Elio; Glordon
<\/strong>Marco Burbano
Edgar Rodriguez
Ben Rush
Patrick Yu Wang<\/p>\n

Zootopia 2; Gary De\u2019Snake
<\/strong>Adam Green
Jennifer Stratton
Christoffer Pedersen
Jesse Erickson<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi
<\/strong>Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Centeno
Marc Souliere
Joshua Beveridge<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
<\/strong>
It: Welcome to Derry; \u201cThe Thing in the Dark;\u201d The Pickle Monster
<\/strong>Philip Harris-Genois
Pierric Danjou
Chloe Ostiguy
Jonathan Bourdua<\/p>\n

It: Welcome to Derry; \u201cWinter Fire;\u201d Pennywise
<\/strong>Th\u00e9o Perronard
Yan Morin-Dubuisson
Yan Detang
Jonathan Fleming-Bock<\/p>\n

Stranger Things; \u201cChapter Eight: The Rightside Up;\u201d Mindflayer
<\/strong>James Moore
Layne Howe
Shawn Warawa
Yoshihiro Harimoto<\/p>\n

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; Female Smilodon
<\/strong>Alvise Avati
Marc-Andr\u00e9 Coulombe
Youen Leclerc
Andrea De Martis<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
<\/strong>
Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders\u2019 Gondola
<\/strong>Michael Smale
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jacqi Dillon<\/p>\n

Superman; The Fortress of Solitude
<\/strong>Crystal Bretz
Martin Pelissier
Klaudio Ladavac
Conner Wessinger<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
<\/strong>
In Your Dreams
<\/strong>Stephanie McNair
Dmitiry Kolesnik
Stephen Paschke
David Sellares<\/p>\n

The Bad Guys 2
<\/strong>Michael Losure
Landon Gray
Zachary Glynn
Steve Avoujageli<\/p>\n

Zootopia 2
<\/strong>Sujil Sukumaran
Stuart Griese
Zoran Stojanoski
Paul Carman<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters
<\/strong>Filippo Maccari
Nikolaos Finizio
Daniel La Chapelle
Srdjan Milosevic<\/p>\n

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
<\/strong>
Battlefield 6
<\/strong>Bj\u00f6rn \u00c5kerstedt
Anders Egleus
Kasra Kalami
Craig Moroney<\/p>\n

The Last of Us; \u201cThrough the Valley;\u201d The Infected Horde
<\/strong>Duarte Victorino
Claudio Gonzalez
Andre Castelao
Igor Bondar<\/p>\n

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze
<\/strong>Edward Ferrysienanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Schuleman
Kevin Tarpinian<\/p>\n

Stranger Things; \u201cChapter Eight: The Rightside Up;\u201d Assault on the Mindflayer
<\/strong>Michael Chrobak
Brandon James Fleet
Yasunobu Arahori
Hoi Ying Fung<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Refresh for updates\u2026 The Visual Effects Society is handing out its 24th VES Awards tonight at the Beverly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3935],"tags":[89660,186360,77,129659,3943,14062,16,15,229746,229747],"class_list":["post-789563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","tag-awardsnews","tag-entertainment","tag-kpop-demon-hunters","tag-movies","tag-novid","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-ves-awards","tag-visual-effects-society"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116135229152931288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}