VES Awards 2020: ‘The Lion King’ Wins Most Awards, ‘Missing Link’ Takes Top Animation Honor (Complete List Of Winners)
The Visual Effects Society presented the 18th annual VES Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The awards recognize outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, and video games.
The honors were spread out more evenly than in past years. For example, three different films won the four awards dedicated to animated features: Laika’s Missing Link accepted the top award for visual effects in an animated feature, as well as outstanding animated character, while Pixar’s Toy Story 4 won for created environment and Frozen 2 took the prize for effects simulation.
It’s been a fascinating and exciting awards season to watch as the various awards bodies have selected relatively diverse winners. Klaus, which overperformed last weekend at the Annie Awards, came up empty-handed in the two VES categories in which it was nominated, while Missing Link, which couldn’t break through at the Annies, won the two most prestigious VES animation categories (which it adds alongside its earlier Golden Globe win). Meanwhile the Oscar frontrunner Toy Story 4 picked up the Producers Guild Award for animated feature, but has otherwise had a fairly quiet award season.
The top VES award earner this year was The Lion King with three wins, including the top award for visual effects in a photoreal feature. Its three wins were among nine total wins for Disney productions throughout the evening.
Other projects with two wins apiece: The Irishman, Stranger Things 3, Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, and the Ridley Scott-directed Hennessy commercial “The Seven Worlds” (posted below):
The winners in the 25 categories were selected by members of the Visual Effects Society. For a list of all the nominees go here.
The complete list of winners is below:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
The Lion King
(Robert Legato, Tom Peitzman, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones)
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
The Irishman
(Pablo Helman, Mitchell Ferm, Jill Brooks, Leandro Estebecorena, Jeff Brink)
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
Missing Link
(Brad Schiff, Travis Knight, Steve Emerson, Benoit Dubuc)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
The Mandalorian; “The Child”
(Richard Bluff, Abbigail Keller, Jason Porter, Hayden Jones, Roy K. Cancion)
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Chernobyl; “1:23:45”
(Max Dennison, Lindsay McFarlane, Clare Cheetham, Paul Jones, Claudius Christian Rauch)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
Control
(Janne Pulkkinen, Elmeri Raitanen, Matti Hämäläinen, James Tottman)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
“Hennessy: The Seven Worlds”
(Carsten Keller, Selcuk Ergen, Kiril Mirkov, William Laban)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
(Jason Bayever, Patrick Kearney, Carol Norton, Bill George)
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
Alita: Battle Angel; Alita
(Michael Cozens, Mark Haenga, Olivier Lesaint, Dejan Momcilovic)
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
Missing Link; Susan
(Rachelle Lambden, Brenda Baumgarten, Morgan Hay, Benoit Dubuc)
Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project
Stranger Things 3; Tom/Bruce Monster
(Joseph Dubé-Arsenault, Antoine Barthod, Frederick Gagnon, Xavier Lafarge)
Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial
“Cyberpunk 2077”; Dex
(Jonas Ekman, Jonas Skoog, Marek Madej, Grzegorz Chojnacki)
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
The Lion King; The Pridelands
(Marco Rolandi, Luca Bonatti, Jules Bodenstein, Filippo Preti)
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
Toy Story 4; Antiques Mall
(Hosuk Chang, Andrew Finley, Alison Leaf, Philip Shoebottom)
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Game of Thrones; The Iron Throne; Red Keep Plaza
(Carlos Patrick DeLeon, Alonso Bocanegra Martinez, Marcela Silva, Benjamin Ross)
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project
The Lion King
(Robert Legato, Caleb Deschanel, Ben Grossmann, AJ Sciutto)
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
The Mandalorian; The Sin; The Razorcrest
(Doug Chiang, Jay Machado, John Goodson, Landis Fields IV)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
(Don Wong, Thibault Gauriau, Goncalo Cababca, François-Maxence Desplanques)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
Frozen 2
(Erin V. Ramos, Scott Townsend, Thomas Wickes, Rattanin Sirinaruemarn)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Stranger Things 3; “Melting Tom/Bruce”
(Nathan Arbuckle, Christian Gaumond, James Dong, Aleksandr Starkov)
Outstanding Compositing in a Feature
The Irishman
(Nelson Sepulveda, Vincent Papaix, Benjamin O’Brien, Christopher Doerhoff)
Outstanding Compositing in an Episode
Game of Thrones; “The Long Night”; “Dragon Ground Battle”
(Mark Richardson, Darren Christie, Nathan Abbot, Owen Longstaff)
Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial
“Hennessy: The Seven Worlds”
(Rod Norman, Guillaume Weiss, Alexander Kulikov, Alessandro Granella)
Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance; “She Knows All the Secrets”
(Sean Mathiesen, Jon Savage, Toby Froud, Phil Harvey)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
The Beauty
(Marc Angele, Aleksandra Todorovic, Pascal Schelbli, Noel Winzen)
