{"id":500295,"date":"2026-02-26T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500295\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:09:08","slug":"fire-and-ash-kpop-demon-hunter-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500295\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ash’, ‘KPop Demon Hunter’ Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAnother Avatar film, another domination at the VES Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/a> took seven trophies during Wednesday night\u2019s 24th annual ceremony at the Beverly Hilton, including the marquee Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. It also won for Emerging Technology and Outstanding Model, Environment, Character, Effects Simulations and CG Cinematography.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash took seven trophies during Wednesday night\u2019s 24th annual ceremony at the Beverly Hilton, including the marquee Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. It also won for Emerging Technology and Outstanding Model, Environment, Character, Effects Simulations and CG Cinematography.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a near-sweep for the 20 Century Studios threequel, which came into the show with a leading 10 nominations<\/a>. The 16th-highest-grossing film of all time<\/a>, with more than $1.47 billion worldwide and counting, had those hopes dashed when Apple Original Films\u2019 F1 won for Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature. That happened to be one of two categories where Fire and Ash was competing against itself.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a sucker bet to pick against an Avatar movie at the VES Awards. The first film in the multibillion-dollar franchise won six prizes at the 2010 ceremony, and The Way of Water topped that with nine in 2023<\/a>. That means the Na\u2019vi now have 22 VES statuettes.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral of Wednesday night\u2019s winners for Fire and Ash called out the franchise\u2019s late producer Jon Landau, who died in 2024 at 63<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only other film to win multiple awards Wednesday was Netflix and Sony Animation\u2019s streaming phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>, which won three for Outstanding Animation, Character (Rumi) and Effect Simulations in an Animated Feature. Hot off its sweep of the Annie Awards<\/a> over the weekend, the anime-inspired pic has been viewed more than 482 million times, and its soundtrack has been streamed some 11 billion times (with a capital B).<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSinners, which leads the Oscar race<\/a> with a record 16 nominations<\/a>, won the VES Award for Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Visual Effects Society<\/a> and Movie Academy haven\u2019t followed the same script much during the past decade-plus, with only five of winners of the top VES prize going on to score the FX Oscar since 2013. That trend held\u00a0last year<\/a>, when\u00a0Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes\u00a0won Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature \u2014 though it was the pic\u2019s only win on six nominations \u2014 but\u00a0Dune: Part Two\u00a0went on to\u00a0claim Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards<\/a>. Denis Villeneuve\u2019s sequel did, however, lead the live-action film field with four wins at the 2025 VES Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED:\u00a0The 2026 Oscars: Everything We Know About The Ceremony, Host, Date & More So Far<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe first film prize of the Sklar Brothers-hosted ceremony \u2014 punctuated as usual by a classic rock soundtrack \u2014 went to Zoopotia 2 for Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature. The highest-grossing Hollywood film in history<\/a> came into the evening with five noms, tied for second-most with KPop Demon Hunters and Disney\/Pixar\u2019s\u00a0Elio.<\/p>\n

\n\tLater, an 87-year-old movie won a 2026 VES Award, sort of, when The Wizard of Oz at Sphere took the trophy for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the TV side, Disney+\u2019s now-wrapped<\/a> Star Wars series Andor and Apple TV\/BBC Studios\u2019\u00a0Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age were the only multiple winners with two each, the latter taking the marquee prize for Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode. Other series taking VES Awards were The Residence, IT: Welcome to Derry,, The Last of Us and Ghosts of Y\u014dtei.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix\u2019s\u00a0recently wrapped<\/a>\u00a0Stranger Things<\/a> came in tied with Prehistoric Planet and The Last of Us with four VES noms each but went home empty-handed.<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, BMW has won two VES Awards for its commercial titled \u201cHeart of Joy: Meet Okto the Octopus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2026 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tEarly on, the ceremony\u2019s In Memoriam segment included VES professionals we lost during the past year including Roger Allers<\/a>, Greg Cannom<\/a>, Vince Zampella<\/a>, Bob Burns, George Bloom, Loren Carpenter, Simon Cheung, Fabien Girodot, Jack Haye, Ian Jenkins, Jeremy Kendall, Tom Lynnes, Ralph S. Maiers, Con Pederson, Mike Schmitt and Dane Allen Smith.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJerry Bruckheimer accepts the 2026 VES Lifetime Achievement Award<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVisual Effects Society<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s VES Awards special honorees<\/a> were prolific film and TV producer\u00a0Jerry Bruckheimer<\/a>\u00a0and W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop co-founder and COO\u00a0Richard Taylor<\/a>,\u00a0who received the 2026 VES Lifetime Achievement Award and VES Visionary Award, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHere are the 2026 VES winners:<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Richard Baneham
Peter Litvack
Eric Saindon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Joshua Beveridge
Jacky Priddle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; \u201cThe Big Freeze\u201d
Russell Dodgson
Tracey Gibbons
Francois Dumoulin
Gavin McKenzie<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Sinners
Michael Ralla
James Alexander
Nick Marshal
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
The Residence; \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d
Seth Hill
Tesa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Matamoros
Marc Souliere
Joshua Beveridge<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
It: Welcome to Derry; \u201cThe Thing in the Dark;\u201d The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois
Pierric Danjou
Chloe Ostiguy
Jonathan Bourdu<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee
Stuart Adcock
Keven Norris
Joseph Kim<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora
Nicholas Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Filippo Maccari
Nikolaos Finizio
Daniel La Chapelle
Srdjan Milosevic<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze
Edward Ferrysienanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Schuleman
Kevin Tarpinian<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage
Hugo Gauvreau
Chris Davies
Raushan Raj
Amaury Rospars<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Chabane
Nicola Borsari<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
The Last of Us; \u201cThrough the Valley;\u201d A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
Tobias Wiesner
Mark Julien
Owen Longstaff
Brendan Naylor<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Andor; \u201cWho Are You?\u201d
Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Jody Eltham
Darrell Guyon<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT
Azimuth
Thomas Teisseire
Cassandre Cinier
Martin Bluy
Mathis Giraudeau<\/p>\n

\n\tEMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
John Edholm
Murali Ramachari
Aleksandr Isakov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Steve Deane
AJ Briones
Zachary Brake
Andrew Moffett<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann
Tamara Watts Ken
Dr. Irfan Essa
Matt Dougan
Glenn Derry<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders\u2019 Gondola
Michael Smale
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jacqi Dillon<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
Ghost of Y\u014dtei
Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Joanna Wang
Jasmin Patr<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Pizzaia
Steve Bevins
Dziga Kaiser
Zsolt M\u00e1t\u00e9<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia 2; Marsh Market
Limei Z. Hshieh
Alexander Nicholas Whang
Joshua Fry
Ryan DeYoung<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Andor; \u201cWelcome to the Rebellion;\u201d The Senate District
John O\u2019Connell
Falk Boje
Hasan Ilhan
Kevin George<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another Avatar film, another domination at the VES Awards. James Cameron\u2019s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash took seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5960,77471,49,48,75,2744,337,18321,200047,200048],"class_list":{"0":"post-500295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-awardsnews","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-novid","16":"tag-ves-awards","17":"tag-visual-effects-society"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}