A film whose battles left hordes of primates dead and another that celebrates the Day of the Dead were the big winners at tonight’s 16th annual VES Awards.
Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes took four prizes including the marquee Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. And Disney/Pixar’s Oscar front-runner Coco dominated the toon brigade, also scoring four statuettes. Check the Visual Effects Society’s full winners list below.
Blade Runner 2049 — which came into the gala tied with Planet of the Apes with a leading seven nominations — was the only other multiple winner of the film side, taking two trophies. Dunkirk and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 picked up one win apiece at the Beverly Hilton ceremony hosted for a seventh time by Patton Oswalt.
The winner of VES’ top film award has gone on to score the Visual Effects Oscar 10 out of 15 times including The Jungle Book last year. But the two previous VES champs – 2016’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2015’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, whose sequels did battle tonight – both missed out on the Academy Award.
Speaking of the Disney/Lucasfilm franchise, 2017’s top domestic grosser Star Wars: The Last Jedi came in with four nominations and left the Hilton with … bupkis. Including last year’s surprising VES shutout for spinoff pic Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, that means the behemoth series is 0-for-11 nominations in the past two years. This after The Force Awakens dominated the 2016 VES Awards.
Also shut out tonight was Despicable Me 3, the top-grossing toon of 2017 that came in with five nominations.
The big winner on the TV side, natch, was HBO’s Game of Thrones, which laid waste to its rivals again this year. Starz’s Black Sails managed to win for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode — a category in which Thrones was not nominated.
Mark Hamill was a surprise presenter for the top TV prize tonight, to the delight of the crowd. “Wouldn’t it be funny if I opened up the envelope and said, La La Land?” he asked.
Assassin’s Creed Origins and Avatar: Flight of Passage each scored one VES Award tonight, and the Visual Effects Society honored only one commercial this year: Samsung’s “Do What You Can’t – Ostrich” won all three trophies awarded for ads. Watch the minutelong version here:
The VFX crowd presented a pair of career honors tonight. Jon Favreau, who helmed the first two Iron Man pics and whose The Jungle Book was the big VES winner last year, received the VES Lifetime Achievement Award from Marvel lord Kevin Feige. Joe Letteri, a four-time VFX Oscar winner for Avatar, two Lord of the Rings films and 2005’s King Kong, was presented with the Georges Méliès Award by Jon Landau.
In accepting his award, Favreau said: “I really will treasure this. … You [VFX pros] are giving me the award for the work you all did. I don’t feel like a teacher, I feel like a student.” He also mentioned all the people whose work remains an inspiration for him. “This is not about technology, it’s the people. … We are creating the hand-painted tile that makes a mosaic that makes a movie.”
Letteri gave a shout-out to George Méliès, the namesake of his award tonight: “What he calls illusions, we call special effects,” he said. “As techniques evolve, so I hope does the artistry that we bring to the screen.” He also praised a new diversity in effects work, saying, “We owe ourselves a workplace free of injustice and harassment.”
VES Executive Director began the evening by addressing the biggest story in Hollywood these past few months. Here is the transcript of his speech:
As you know, every year it falls to me to thank our wonderful sponsors and volunteers, and shortly I will. But this year, I must first acknowledge that we are in the midst of a critical moment in time, galvanized by the brave leadership and widespread support of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements.
“With that in mind, let me state the obvious: we not only need more women in the entertainment industry at large … we need more women in visual effects. And we need more women in positions of power. And most importantly, we need to make sure that if there are instances, situations, or questionable moments of abuse, harassment, or power inequities that are impacting the lives of ANY ONE, it must stop IMMEDIATELY. Women must have a real voice in our industry and while I realize that as a white male I am an imperfect messenger for this task, I want to thank a very talented woman — Brooke Breton, visual effects producer and VES Board member — who will take the lead in dealing with this issue. Brooke will head a committee to be formed by the Board to come up with a plan of action, with recommendations and ideas for moving forward.
“In addition, I’d also like to salute Brooke and a few of her colleagues, including Camille Celluci, Lisa Cooke, Rose Duignan, Kim Bromley and others, who made sure that one very notable person, an extraordinary visual effects head of production whose career spanned more than 20 years — and who was a true pioneer for women in this industry — had a chance to be recognized earlier this evening in a special ceremony. Patty Blau!”
Here is the full list of winners at the 2018 VES Awards:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
War for the Planet of the Apes
Joe Letteri, Ryan Stafford, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, Joel Whist
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall
Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Chris Baird, David Ramos, Sam Conway
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
Coco
Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson, David Ryu, Michael K. O’Brien
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
Samsung; Do What You Can’t; Ostrich
Diarmid Harrison-Murray, Tomek Zietkiewicz, Amir Bazazi, Martino Madeddu
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
Coco; Hèctor
Emron Grover, Jonathan Hoffman, Michael Honsel, Guilherme Sauerbronn Jacinto
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
War for the Planet of the Apes; Caesar
Dennis Yoo, Ludovic Chailloleau, Douglas McHale, Tim Forbes
Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial
Samsung; Do What You Can’t; Ostrich
David Bryan, Maximilian Mallmann, Tim Van Hussen, Brendan Fagan
Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-‐Time Project
Game of Thrones; The Spoils of War; Drogon Loot Train Attack
Murray Stevenson, Jason Snyman, Jenn Taylor, Florian Friedmann
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
War for the Planet of the Apes
David Caeiro Cebrián, Johnathan Nixon, Chet Leavai, Gary Boyle
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
Coco
Kristopher Campbell, Stephen Gustafson, Dave Hale, Keith Klohn
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-‐Time Project
Game of Thrones; The Dragon and the Wolf; Wall Destruction
Thomas Hullin, Dominik Kirouac, Sylvain Nouveau, Nathan Arbuckle
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Blade Runner 2049; LAPD Headquarters
Alex Funke, Steven Saunders, Joaquin Loyzaga, Chris Menges
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
Assassin’s Creed Origins
Raphael Lacoste, Patrick Limoges, Jean-Sebastien Guay, Ulrich Haar
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Blade Runner 2049; Los Angeles
Chris McLaughlin, Rhys Salcombe, Seungjin Woo, Francesco Dell’Anna
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
Coco; City of the Dead
Michael Frederickson, Jamie Hecker, Jonathan Pytko, Dave Strick
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-‐Time Project
Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall; Frozen Lake
Daniel Villalba, Antonio Lado, José Luis Barreiro, Isaac de la Pompa
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Hybrids
Florian Brauch, Romain Thirion, Matthieu Pujol, Kim Tailhades
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Dunkirk
Andrew Jackson, Mike Chambers, Andrew Lockley, Alison Wortman, Scott Fisher
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Black Sails; XXIX
Erik Henry, Terron Pratt, Yafei Wu, David Wahlberg, Paul Dimmer
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
War for the Planet of the Apes
Christoph Salzmann, Robin Hollander, Ben Warner, Beck Veitch
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones; The Spoils of War; Loot Train Attack
Dom Hellier, Thijs Noij, Edwin Holdsworth, Giacomo Matteucci
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial
Samsung; Do What You Can’t; Ostrich
Michael Gregory, Andrew Roberts, Gustavo Bellon, Rashabh Ramesh Butani
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Groot Dance/Opening Fight
James Baker, Steven Lo, Alvise Avati, Robert Stipp
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Avatar: Flight of Passage
Richard Baneham, Amy Jupiter, David Lester, Thrain Shadbolt
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