{"id":311217,"date":"2026-02-26T12:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/311217\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:05:07","slug":"fire-and-ash-takes-top-honors-at-vfx-society-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/311217\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ash’ Takes Top Honors at VFX Society Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>\u201d has won the top\u00a0Visual Effects Society<\/a>\u00a0Award for outstanding VFX in a photoreal feature at the 24th Visual Effects Society Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film which dominated with 10 nominations, took home seven awards in total including outstanding character in a photoreal feature for Varang (played by Oona Chaplin, outstanding CG cinematography, and the Emerging Technology Award, given to the Kora Fire Toolset.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn total, \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d needed over 3,000 visual effects shots. And since this was the third film in the franchise, the team upped their game. Aside from improving character animation, visual effects supervisor Eric Saindon at Weta FX says, technology-wise, fire was one of the hardest things to do properly in visual effects. Not only do people know what fire looks like, but it never looks the same. \u201cEvery time you look at a fire, it could dance a little differently depending on the environment it\u2019s in or burn a different color.\u201d That meant that any scene with fire required them to ensure they were pushing the right amount of fuel and oxygen to get the fire right. \u201cThe scale of the embers gives the idea of size,\u201d he told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d won three awards, including the top prize of outstanding animation in an animated feature, and outstanding character in an animated feature for Rumi.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cZootopia 2\u201d won outstanding environment in an animated feature for Marsh Market. In building that biome, co-director Jared Bush told Variety<\/a>, \u201cMarsh Market is for semi-aquatic animals. It\u2019s for marine mammals.\u201d He added that it would be a very comfortable place for beavers, who are adept in water and on land.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSinners\u201d won the award for outstanding supporting visual effects in a photoreal feature.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe VES is honored to recognize brilliant artistry and technological innovation across a wide range of disciplines,\u201d said VES Board Chair, Kim Davidson. \u201cThe craft of visual effects is constantly evolving to push the limits of our imaginations, and tonight\u2019s inspiring winners and nominees represent best-in-class work from around the world. Congratulations to all!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn TV, \u201cAndor\u201d took home two awards including outstanding special (practical) effects in a photoreal project. \u201cPrehistoric Planet: Ice Age\u201d also nabbed two awards taking home the prize for outstanding visual effects in a photoreal episode.<\/p>\n

\n\tComedy duo Randy and Jason Sklar (the Sklar Brothers) hosted the 24th Annual VES Awards<\/a> for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s special honorees included film producer Jerry Bruckheimer receiving the VES Lifetime Achievement Award, and W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Sir Richard Taylor receiving the VES Visionary Award.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his speech, Bruckheimer said, \u201cYou create the magic. You create the things that people go to theaters for. You\u2019re the people that we dream about when we go to the movies, when we go into that dark space in the theater, and the work that you do is truly phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe VES Awards were held on Feb. 25 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow is the full list of winners for the 24th Annual VES Awards:<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d
Richard Baneham
Peter Litvack
Eric Saindon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSinners\u201d
Michael Ralla
James Alexander
Nick Marshall
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d
Joshua Beveridge
Jacky Priddle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE<\/p>\n

\n\tPrehistoric 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 EPISODE<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Residence; \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d
Seth Hill
Tesa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGhost of Y\u014dtei\u201d
Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Joanna Wang
Jasmin Patry<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL<\/p>\n

\n\tBMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann
Tamara Watts Kent
Dr. Irfan Essa
Matt Dougan
Glenn Derry<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee
Stuart Adcock
Keven Norris
Joseph Kim<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Centeno
Marc Souliere
Joshua Beveridge<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\tIt: Welcome to Derry; \u201cThe Thing in the Dark;\u201d The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois
Pierric Danjou
Chloe Ostiguy
Jonathan Bourdua<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Pizzaia
Steve Bevins
Dziga Kaiser
Zsolt M\u00e1t\u00e9<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cZootopia 2\u201d; 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<\/p>\n

\n\tAndor; \u201cWelcome to the Rebellion;\u201d The Senate District
John O\u2019Connell
Falk Boje
Hasan Ilhan
Kevin George<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d
Steve Deane
AJ Briones
Zachary Brake
Andrew Moffett<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d; The Windtraders\u2019 Gondola
Michael Smale
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jacqi Dillon<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d; Simulating Pandora
Nicholas Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d
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<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPrehistoric Planet: Ice Age\u201d; The Big Freeze
Edward Ferrysienanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Schuleman
Kevin Tarpinian<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cF1: The Movie\u201d; Modern Race and POV Footage
Hugo Gauvreau
Chris Davies
Raushan Raj
Amaury Rospars<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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 COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL<\/p>\n

\n\tBMW; \u201cHeart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus\u201d
Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Chabane
Nicola Borsari<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\tAndor; \u201cWho Are You?\u201d
Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Jody Eltham
Darrell Guyon<\/p>\n

\n\tEMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d; Kora Fire Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
John Edholm
Murali Ramachari
Aleksandr Isakov<\/p>\n

\n\tOUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAzimuth\u201d
Thomas Teisseire
Cassandre Cinier
Martin Bluy
Mathis Giraudeau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d has won the top\u00a0Visual Effects Society\u00a0Award for outstanding VFX in a photoreal feature at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397,155701,155702],"class_list":{"0":"post-311217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-ves-awards","13":"tag-visual-effects-society"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}