"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (photo courtesy of Disney/Lucasfilm)
"The Peanuts Movie" is top animated film contender with five nods; "Game of Thrones" tops TV, overall competition with 9 noms
LOS ANGELES --
The Visual Effects Society (VES) has unveiled the nominees for the 14th Annual VES Awards, the prestigious yearly celebration that recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials and video games and the VFX supervisors, VFX producers and hands-on artists who bring this work to life.
Scoring the most nominations this year was "Game of Thrones" with nine across broadcast categories. Topping the feature film tally with seven was "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Leading the way among animated features was "The Peanuts Movie" with five nods.
Nominees were selected by VES members via events hosted by its nine sections – Australia, Bay Area, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, New Zealand, Toronto and Vancouver. The VES Awards will be held on February 2nd at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
As previously announced, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to award-winning director-producer Sir Ridley Scott. The Visionary Award will be presented to acclaimed visual futurist and conceptual artist Syd Mead.
“The artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world have come together to create truly remarkable imagery in a variety of media,” said Mike Chambers, VES chair. “We are seeing best in field work that elevates the art of storytelling and engages the audience in new and innovative ways. The VES Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our nominees.”
The nominees for the 14th Annual VES Awards in 23 categories are as follows:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Furious 7
Mike Wassel, Karen Murphy, Martin Hill, Kevin McIlwain, Dan Sudick
San Andreas
Colin Strause, Randall Starr, Bryan Grill, Nordin Rahhali, Brian Cox
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Roger Guyett, Luke O’Byrne, Patrick Tubach, Paul Kavanagh, Chris Corbould
Mad Max: Fury Road
Andrew Jackson, Holly Radcliffe, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver, Andy Williams
The Martian
Richard Stammers, Barrie Hemsley, Matt Sloan, Chris Lawrence, Steven Warner
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
In The Heart of The Sea
Jody Johnson, Leslie Lerman, Sean Stranks, Bryan Hirota, Mark Holt
Bridge of Spies
Sven Martin, Jennifer Meislohn, Charlie Noble, Sean Stranks, Gerd Nefzer
The Walk
Kevin Baillie, Camille Cellucci, Viktor Muller, Sebastien Moreau
Everest
Dadi Einarsson, Roma O-Connor, Matthias Bjarnasson, Glen Pratt, Richard Van Den Bergh
The Revenant
Rich McBride, Ivy Agregan, Jason Smith, Nicolas Chevallier, Cameron Waldbauer
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
The Peanuts Movie
Steve Martino, Michael J. Travers, Nick Bruno, Scott Carroll
Inside Out
Michael Fong, Jonas Rivera, Victor Navone, Paul Mendoza
Anomalisa
Derek Smith, Rosa Tran, Joe Passarelli, John Joyce
Hotel Transylvania 2
Karl Herbst, Skye Lyons, Alan Hawkins, Genndy Tartakovsky
The Good Dinosaur
Sanjay Bakshi, Denise Ream, Michael Venturini, Jon Reisch
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
The Order: 1886
Nathan Phail-Liff, Dana Jan, Anthony Vitale, Scot Andreason
Halo 5: Guardians
Nicolas Bouvier, Jon Wood, Brien Goodrich, Matt Aldridge
The Hobbit: A Thief in the Shadows
Alasdair Coull, Daniel Smith, Nick Donaldson, Tim Elek
Destiny: The Taken King
Michael Zak, Mark Noseworthy, Stephen Scott, Dave Matthews
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The โSmall Spacesโ campaign marks a major departure from Febrezeโs typical blue-and-white world. The home of the โRevolving Doorโ commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, โI asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that weโre not a monolith.โ
Following the success of the โSmall Spacesโ campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, โAbout two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed thereโs actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candiceโs reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where weโre trying to go.โ