Apes and Big Hero 6 Top Visual Effects Society (VES) Winners

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the animated Big Hero 6 dominated the Visual Effects Society awards, winning three apiece. X-Men: Days of Future Past won two and Interstellar took home one award. All three are nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. In the last two years, the film that has won the top award with the VES, Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture, has gone on to win the Oscar as well. Interestingly though, when 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes won here it ended up losing to Hugo at the Academy Awards. But, Hugo was also nominated for Best Picture and the old stat going back to 1970 of a film nominated for both Best Picture and Best Visual Effects winning over a non-BP nominee held true. This year, there are no Best Visual Effects nominees up for Best Picture so it’s a much more open race.

On the television side, Game of Thrones was the runaway winner with three; American Horror Story: Freak Show won one.

Here is the full list of winners:

FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Caesar

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Birdman

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal/Live Action Motion Media Project
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Kitchen Scene

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Quicksilver Pentagon Kitchen

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Interstellar; Tesseract

ANIMATED FILM

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6

Outstanding Models in any Motion Media Project
Big Hero 6; City of San Fransokyo

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6; Into the Portal

TELEVISION AND OTHER MEDIA

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones; “The Children”

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones; “The Watchers on the Wall”

Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
Game of Thrones; “Braavos Establisher”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
American Horror Story; Freak Show; “Edward Mordrake, Part 2”

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Outstanding Compositing in a in a Photoreal/Live Action Commercial
SSE

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
SSE; Maya

Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
SSE; Maya

Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Wrapped

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Torquee de Remy

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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