Tuesday, January 19, 2010

VES Announces Nominations for 8th VES Awards

Here's the press release sent out by the Visual Effects Society, announcing their nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards.

"Avatar" earned 11 nominations (from 8 live-action feature film categories). Other multiple nominees include "2012" and "District 9" with 3 nominations each, and "Star Trek," "Terminator: Salvation" and "Sherlock Holmes" grabbing 2 nominations each.

What follows is an edited list of nominees,
listing live-action feature film categories only.

-todd

VES Announces Nominees for 8th Annual VES Awards
Los Angeles, January 19, 2010 - The Visual Effects Society (VES) today announced the nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry in over twenty categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Nominees were chosen Saturday, January 16, 2010, by numerous blue ribbon panels of VES members who viewed submissions at the FotoKem screening facilities in Burbank and San Francisco as well as at other facilities in London, Sydney and Vancouver.

“The Visual Effects Society is proud to present these nominations as the most outstanding work in the field this year,” said Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society. “It’s important to keep in mind that it wasn’t machines that created these images but incredibly talented artists. We congratulate them all and look forward to seeing who is chosen as the best of the best at the awards show in February.”

As previously announced, this year James Cameron will be honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr. Ed Catmull with the Georges Méliès Award for pioneering.

The 8th Annual VES Awards will take place on Feb. 28, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.

The nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards for live-action feature film categories are the following (click here for full list):

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture
2012
Volker Engel, Josh Jaggars, Marc Weigert
AVATAR
Richard Baneham, Joyce Cox, Joe Letteri, Eileen Moran
DISTRICT 9
Stefanie Boose, Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, James Stewart
STAR TREK
Burt Dalton, Russell Earl, Roger Guyett, Shari Hanson
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Scott Benza, Wayne Billheimer, Scott Farrar, John Frazier

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
ANGELS & DEMONS
Angus Bickerton, Mark Breakspear, Ryan Cook, Barrie Hemsley
THE BOX
Peter Cvijanovic, Mark Kolpak, Olcun Tan, Thomas Tannenberger
INVICTUS
Geoff Hancock, Dennis Hoffman, Cyndi Ochs, Michael Owens
THE ROAD
Mark O. Forker, Paul Graff, Ed Mendez, Phillip Moses
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Dan Barrow, Jonathan Fawkner, Chas Jarrett, David Vickery

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
2012 - Escape from L.A.
Volker Engel, Josh R. Jaggars, Mohen Leo, Marc Weigert
AVATAR - Quarich's Escape
Jill Brooks, John Knoll, Frank Losasso Petterson, Tory Mercer
AVATAR- Neytiri Drinking
Thelvin Cabezas, Joyce Cox, Joe Letteri, Eileen Moran
KNOWING - Plane Crash
Dan Breckwoldt, Camille Cellucci, Andrew Jackson, Angelo Sahin
TERMINATOR SALVATION - VLA Escape
Chantal Feghali, Charles Gibson, Susan Greenhow, Ben Snow

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
AVATAR - Neytiri
Andrew R. Jones, Joe Letteri, Zoe Saldana, Jeff Unay

DISTRICT 9 - Christopher Johnson
Brett Ineson, Jeremy Mesana, Steve Nichols, Vera Zivny
G-FORCE - Bucky
Benjamin Cinelli, Peter Tieryas, Dustin Wicke, Ryan Yee
WATCHMEN - Doctor Manhattan
Aaron Campbell, Kevin Hudson, Victor Schutz, Keith Smith

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture
AVATAR - Pandora
Jean-Luc Azzis, Peter Baustaedter, Brenton Cottman, Yvonne Muinde
FRANKLYN - Meanwhile City Scapes
Tania Richard, Christoph Unger
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
David Bassalla, Emily Cobb, Tania Richard
STAR TREK
Brett Northcutt, Shane Roberts, Masahiko Tani, Dan Wheaton

Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
AVATAR - Samson/Home Tree / Floating Mountains / Ampsuit
Simon Cheung, Paul Jenness, John Stevenson-Galvin, Rainer Zoettl
CORALINE
Deborah Cook, Matthew DeLeu, Paul Mack, Martin Meunier
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN - National Air and Space Museum Escape
Robert Chapin, Tony Chen, Forest Fischer, Ian Hunter
TERMINATOR SALVATION-Practical Models and Miniatures
Nick d'Abo, Brian Gernand, Geoff Heron, Patrick Sweeney

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture
2012 - Los Angeles Destruction
Haarm-Pieter Duiker, Marten Larsson, Ryo Sakaguchi, Hanzhi Tang
AVATAR - Floating Mountains
Dan Lemmon, Keith F. Miller, Cameron Smith
AVATAR - Jungle / Biolume
Shadi Almassizadeh, Jessica Cowley, Dan Cox, Ula Rademeyer, Eric Saindon
AVATAR - Willow Glade
Thelvin Cabezas, Miae Kang, Daniel Macarin, Guy Williams

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
AVATAR
Erich Eder, Robin Hollander, Giuseppe Tagliavini, Erik Winquist
AVATAR - End Battle
Jay Cooper, Beth D'Amato, Eddie Pasquarello, Todd Vaziri
DISTRICT 9
Janeen Elliott, Simon Hughes, Hamish Schumacher, Shervin Shogian
SHERLOCK HOLMES - Wharf Explosion Sequence
Jan Adamczyk, Alex Cumming, Sam Osborne, Kate Windibank,


For more information on the VES Awards, sponsorship and tickets, please visit www.visualeffectssociety.com.

8 comments:

shanep said...

Yay! Star Trek got some love. Cool.

TylerMirage said...

Wow. Congratulations to “Avatar”, of course. And Todd, too. I saw your name in there! :D

Now, time for my concerns (and please don’t rage at me!): Is it really fair to have a film nominated in a single category more than once? I mean, even if it IS “Avatar”, I don’t believe that’s fair. I know that “Avatar” has several great scenes, but seriously, give some other films a chance too!)

“Best Single Visual Effect of the Year”: I think that “Transformers 2” should be in here, either for the ‘Forest Battle Sequence’, or the ‘Devastator Character/Sequence’ instead of a second “Avatar” spot. (“Avatar” should win, in my opinion, for ‘Quaritch’s Escape’.)

I wasn’t a fan of “Knowing” as a film, but I will admit that the ‘plane crash sequence’ was very well done. However, I personally think that “Star Trek” also deserves a spot in this category along with “Transformers 2”.

“Outstanding Animated Character in a Feature Motion Picture”: I think that Jetfire from “Transformers 2” should be nominated in this category. His persona, physical appearance and voice actor all helped to sell the realism of this 50 foot character. I loved him in the movie, and thought that the animators did a marvelous job giving him flare and style. (“Avatar” should win, in my opinion.)

“Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture”: “Avatar” has 3/4 of the nominations. Gee, why didn’t they just give the fourth spot to "Avatar" too and save the trouble of voting? (I’m both joking AND being serious. That’s just not reasonable.) This is one of the categories that “2012” deserves to be in. Although, I also think that “Transformers 2” should have a spot in this category for the “Nemesis Ship Sequence” environment, and “Star Trek” for its multiple space environments. (“Avatar” should win, in my opinion.)

*(I like “Transformers 2”. Can you tell?)

Question: Where is the “Best Special Effects (in Service to Visual Effects) in a Feature Motion Picture” category? It was there the last couple of years. This seems like a big category to be missing. In my mind, this is another category in which “Transformers 2” should’ve been nominated (and awarded).

I’d like to see some more categories brought in/brought back to the awards list. Like “Outstanding Visual Effects Photography in a Feature Motion Picture”, “Outstanding Visual Effects Art Direction in a Feature Motion Picture” and, as mentioned above, “Outstanding Special Effects in a Feature Motion Picture”.

Keep up the great articles, Todd!

vfx fan said...
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vfx fan said...
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vfx fan said...

Sorry for multiple deletions, but I thought some of my thoughts were inadequately expressed. Anyway:

I felt "Star Trek" should've gotten more than just two nominations, but at least it was recognized.

Also glad that Dr. Manhattan got a nomination; I thought he was the second best blue CG character of the year.

And it's good that the vfx committee doesn't exclude "Transformers 2" from a nomination because of the quality of the overall film.

And not to steal the heat from "Avatar," but I think "Knowing" should get the award for Best Single Visual Effect. I was really impressed with that shot.

And, of course, congrats on your nomination.

Oh yeah, and I'm also thankful that "New Moon" didn't get any nominations. Now I won't be compelled to see the movie.

But still, you gotta respect a man like Phil Tippett.

Phillip Gibb said...

Holding out for District 9 because I am a South Africa but I am sure Avatar will do the best.

Except Best Single Visual Effect of the Year: KNOWING - Plane Crash
just something about it made it so convincing, even my Wife told me afterwards that it looked so real.

michaelB said...

hello, my first comment here. i think avatar is an outstanding achievment in the visual effects department and it deserves all the praises and the awards is getting. the best parts of the work are , in my opinion, the enviroments, the vistas, the jungle: all these things look photorealistic. also the veichles, the mech and all the pandora animals are very well rendered. my only problem with the vfx are the main carchters: the na'vi. they are very well done cg carchters, the performance caputre works quite well most of the time, but the na'vi( expecially jake avatar, grace avatar and all the clan memebers. neytiri looks more real, imho ) dosen't look like living and breathing creatures. i think they are a step back in terms of photorealism compared to davy jones, king kong or even the aliens from district 9. please, i don't want dismiss the work of anyone, it's only my personal take on the effects and the CGI of the movie. thanks.

Anonymous said...

Wow I didn't know Avatar earned 11 nominations it should be because its cast is perfect and producers had the great imagination probably they have visited many times viagra online in order to create something like that.