Star Wars, The Revenant, Game of Thrones Top Visual Effects Guild (VES) Wins

Star Wars: The Force Awakens led the field of winners of the Visual Effects Society (VES) last night with four wins, including the top category – Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. The film went into the night with the most nominations, seven. The Revenant was right behind with three wins, including Animated Performance for The Bear. Mad Max: Fury Road came away with a single win, for the Toxic Storm.

9 of the last 14 winners of the top award at the VES have gone on to win the Visual Effects Oscar but there’s an even bigger statistic here. Since 1970, no film has won the Visual Effects Oscar without being nominated for Best Picture against a film in that category that is. That doesn’t bode well for Star Wars and looks good for The Revenant (and to a lesser extent, Mad Max). However, The Revenant wasn’t even nominated for the top award here yet it won in every category that it did receive one. But, this is and will be a year of stat-breaking and history making in many categories so a win at the Academy Awards for any of these three is entirely still in play.

On the Animated Feature side, The Good Dinosaur bested Inside Out in almost every category. Inside Out is heavily favored to win the Oscar, where The Good Dinosaur isn’t even nominated. On Television, Game of Thrones yet again dominated the wins with four; Vikings won one.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to director Ridley Scott (The Martian) and the Visionary Award to Syd Mead (Tron, Blade Runner).

Here is the complete list of winners:

FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Star Wars: The Force Awakens; BB-8

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant; The Bear

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant; Bear Attack

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Mad Max: Fury Road; Toxic Storm

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur; The Farm

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature
Inside Out; Joy

TELEVISON

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones; “The Dance of Dragons”

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Game of Thrones; “Hardhome”

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones; “Hardhome”

Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Game of Thrones; “City of Volantis”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Vikings; “To the Gates”

COMMERCIAL OR OTHER MEDIA

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
SSE; Pier

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
SSE; Pier; Orangutan

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Citipati

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
The Order: 1886

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Fast and Furious: Supercharged

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial
SSE; Pier

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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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