Project Description
7TH ANNUAL VES AWARDS
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel
Century City, CA
PREVIOUS VES AWARDS | PREVIOUS YEAR | NEXT YEAR
The 7th Annual VES Awards recognizes outstanding visual effects in over a dozen categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games.
Filmmakers, producers and guests joined more 1100 professionals from the visual effects industry for the gala.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button took home four awards—Including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture. The Dark Knight and Wall-E took home three awards each.
Honorees
Lifetime Achievement Award
Kathleen Kennedy
Frank Marshall
Awarded for significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by way of vision, artistry, invention and innovation.
Georges Méliès Award
Phil Tippett
Awarded for pioneering significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.
Highlights
Visual Effects Society – Visual Effects and Story
411 Production asks honorees at the VES Awards what motivates their creativity when developing effects.
Steven Spielberg Introduces VES Student Award
Steven Spielberg thanks Autodesk and the Visual Effects Society for making the VES student award a reality, and congratulates the students for their outstanding work.
Video & Photo Galleries
View The 7th Annual VES Awards televised on Starz
(Available to VES Members Only: Log In Required)
Winners and Nominees
Below is the complete list of Winners and Nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards. A sortable list for ALL years of VES Award winners / nominees can be found on the Previous VES Awards page. All archival viewing materials are cleared for viewing by logged-in VES members behind the VES website firewall. For more information, please review the VES Awards Rules & Procedures, Section 14: Ownership & Clearances here.
Please click on the category to reveal the nominees and winners
told without the active participation of the VFX (including Special Effects). On the whole, the VFX in an effects-driven film would be easily identifiable by the viewing public and professionals working in the VFX field.
Fully animated films are not eligible in this category.
Kevin Blank
Chantal Feghali
Michael Ellis
Eric Leven
Michael J. Wassel
Lucy Killick
Adrian de Wet
Eamonn Butler
Ben Snow
Hal Hickel
Victoria Alonso
John Nelson
Eric Barba
Edson Williams
Nathan McGuinness
Lisa Beroud
Effects-driven films may not enter their “invisible” effects in this category, and animated films are not eligible.
Michael Owens
Geoffrey Hancock
Jinnie Pak
Dennis Hoffman
Jim Rygiel
Jim Berney
Crys Forsyth-Smith
David Smith
Camille Cellucci
Scott Gordon
Fred Pienkos
James Straus
Mark Russell
Richard Friedlander
Eric Robertson
Brett Miller
Richard R. Hoover
Maricel Pagulayan
Peter Nofz
Daniel Eaton
Dave Houghton
Marie Jones
Matt McKinney
Murray Barber
Adam McInnes
Anthony Bluff
Stephane Paris
David Sewell
Steve Kullback
Erik Henry Robert Stromberg
Jeff Goldman
Sam Nicholson
Scott Ramsey
Chris Martin
Mike Enriquez
Gary Hutzel
Michael Gibson
Doug Drexler
Kyle Toucher
Armen Kevorkian
Arthur J. Codron
Matt Scharf
Stefan Brederock
Eric Grenaudier
Mark Spatny
Diego Galtieri
Michael Cook
James Lima
Raoul Bolognini
Andrew Orloff
Steve Meyer
Kevin Blank
Jay Worth
Andrew Orloff
Barbara Genicoff
Andrew Orloff
Blyth Dalton
Chris Jones
Michael Cliett
Max Ivins
Jenny Foster
Danny Kim
Shawn Lipowski
William Powloski
Elizabeth Castro
Melanie Tucker
Eric Chauvin
Michael Ellis
Chantal Feghali
David Vickery
Ben Taylor
Stephanie Hornish
Pablo Helman
Jeff White
Craig Hammack
Ben Snow
Wayne Billheimer
Victoria Alonso
John Nelson
Eric Barba
Lisa Beroud
Steve Preeg
Jonathan Litt
Jeffrey A. Okun
R. Christopher White
Thomas M. Boland
Ben Thompson
Alex Thiesen
Nikos Kalaitzidis
Jay Barton
Zsolt Krajcsik
Angus Kneale
Asher Edwards
Ben Smith
Dan Williams
Satoko Iinuma
Murray Butler
David Hulin
Spencer Lueders
William Bartlett
Helen Stanley
Dan Seddon
David Mellor
To be eligible, a Special Venue project must have been exhibited publicly:
- In a commercial venue for a paid admission, which may include the general admission to a theme park or special venue theater;
- For a minimum period of one week on a regular daily schedule; and
- Premiered in the current awards year in a Special Venue theater as defined above.
The following are not eligible in this category, regardless of the material’s original capture format:
- Special purpose events such as trade shows and conventions;
- Video material generally referred to as “pre-show” material;
- Repurposed films, i.e. projects initially intended for the theatrical market but which have been blown up for exhibition in large-format Special Venue theaters;
- Projects that were created as conventional 2D theatrical presentations but have been repurposed to stereographic 3D;
- Any 2D or stereographic 3D feature motion picture that either premiered first, or simultaneously, in any regular movie theater or in any broadcast medium;
- Any project that runs for an equal or greater amount of time in any regular movie theater or in any broadcast medium; and
- Movies intended for simultaneous distribution in both Special Venue and normal movie theaters. The intent of this category is to honor those projects made specifically for the Special Venue market.
Mark Freund
Alan Markowitz
Lee Nelson
Josh Mossotti
Chris Williams
Byron Howard
John Murrah
Doug Bennett
Markus Manninen
Dan Wagner
Alex Parkinson
Raymond Zibach
Pankaj Khandpur
Sherry Bharda
Shrirang Sathaye
Suhael Merchant
Andrew Stanton
Jim Morris
Lindsey Collins
Nigel Hardwidge
Yoni Goodman
Yael Nahlieli
Title sequences are not eligible in this category.
Colin McEvoy
Christoph Ammann
Hal Hickel
Bruce Holcomb
James Tooley
John Walker
Steve Preeg
Matthias Wittmann
Tom St. Amand
David McLean
Todd Labonte
Michael Brunet
Nathan Fredenburg
Aharon Bourland
Zoltan Pocza
Gabor Mogyorosi
Tamas Schlagl
Ian Milham
Ben Wanat
Christopher Stone
Henry LaBounta
Steve Barcia
Dave Taylor
Carl Jarrett
Title sequences are not eligible in this category.
Becky Bresee
Bob Davies
Renato Dos Anjos
Wayne Unten Jr.
Adam Dykstra
Dave Gottlieb
Clay Kaytis
Hyrum Osmond
Jack Black
Dan Wagner
Nico Marlet
Peter Farson
Ben Burtt
Victor Navone
Austin Lee
Jay Shuster
Richard Taylor
Benjamin Hopkins
KaTai Tang
Mical Pedriana
Henry LaBounta
Steve Barcia
Dave Taylor
Mark Raham
Jeff Chamberlain
Phillip Hillenbrand
James Atkinson
John Cooper
Phillip Prahl
Charles Felix Chabert
James Sindle
Jesus Parra
Josh Fourtwells
Ben Smith
Andrew Proctor
Jong Jim Choi
Keith Kim
This category judges not only the techniques for creating the environment, but also their integration with any practical plate photography. Before & Afters must show the integration of the multiple elements used to create the environment.
Stereo extractions of environments that do not contain any other significant enhancements, or fully animated productions, are not eligible in this category. For practical purposes, the environment should be a single setting within the story, and not, for example, all locations within an entire city.
Paul Graff
Robert Stromberg
Adam Watkins
Jack Zaloga
Jake Montgomery
Andy Boyd
Sean Durnan
Meliza Fermin
Michael Cook
Daniel Kumiega
Anthony Ocampo
Ludo Fealy
Dean Robinson
Adam Leary
Michael Gregory
Romain Bayle
Abel Milanes
Allan Lee
Debor Dunphy
Richard Bluff
Barry Williams
Yanick Dusseault
Yusei Uesugi
Lubo Hristov
Dennis Martin
Ron Crabb
Brett Miller
Garrett Eaton
Matthew Conner
John Murrah
Michael Kaschalk
Dale Mayeda
Adolph Lusinsky
Scott Peterson
Laurent Kermel
Andrew Wheeler
Greg Gladstone
Jason Johnston
Keith Daniel Klohn
Enrique Vila
Bill Watral
Simon Wickers
Charlie Bennett
Tim Barter
Arianna Lago
Christian Irles
Yannick Bourgie
Dave Early
Simon Wickers
Bryan Bartlett
Sara Bennet
David Fogler
Craig Hammack
Brian Gernand
Geoff Heron
Aaron McBride
Russell Paul
Gerald Gutschmidt
Keiji Yamaguchi
Taro Kiba
Kenji Nagatani
Yuki Minagawa
Hideo Udo
Ian Hunter
Forest Fischer
Scott Beverly
Adam Gelbart
Ian Hunter
Jon Warren
Matt Burlingame
Raymond Moore
David Vickery
Phil Johnson
Victor Wade
Sean Stranks
Michael Halsted
David Fogler
Steve Walton
David Weitzberg
Brett Miller
Garrett Eaton
Matthew Conner
Peter Bebb
Stuart Farley
Philippe Leprince
Andrew Lockley
Mike Meaker
Rich Mahon
Jason Iverson
Sho Hasegawa
Multiple entries from the same project are eligible provided the compositing teams are 100% different and the shots being submitted are completelydifferent. Title sequences are eligible as long as:
- They are submitted in textless form in order not to conflict with any other awards rule; and
- They are part of the storytelling and are not a specially designed separate animated title sequence in a live action project.
Animated films are not eligible in this category.
Jonathan Rothbart
Dav Rauch
Kyle McCulloch
Kent Seki
Anthony Smith
Christian Kaestner
Adrian Metzelaar
Jon Thum
Stuart Lashley
Arundi Asregadoo
Mark Curtis
Richard Baker
Janelle Croshaw
Paul Lambert
Sonja Burchard
Sarahjane Javelo
Animated programs or main title sequences are not eligible in this category.
Angus Kneale
Dan Williams
Andrew Proctor
Andy Walker
Spencer Lueders
Maryanne Butler
Murray Butler
Paul Graff
Joshua LaCross
Matt Collorafice
Richard de Carteret
Paul Downes
Oliver Dadswell
John Price
Chris Corbould
Peter Notley
Ian Lowe
Nathan Matsuda
Adrien CaYuS Toupet
Clement Delatre
Vivien Looky Chauvet
Sandy Widyanata
Courtney Wise