The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the winners of its 2026 VES Awards, recognizing excellence in the craft across 25 categories, including film, television, special location projects, technological innovation, student projects, and more.
Avatar: Fire and Ashes He led the winners with seven, including the Grand Prize for Outstanding Visual Effects in the Photoreal feature. Demon hunters in kpop It led the Animation category and won three awards, including the Grand Prize for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature.
Sinners He won the award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a photorealistic feature, while Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age It won the award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Motion Picture Episode.
Heading towards the evening, Avatar: Fire and Ashes He led the nominations with 10 overall. Other nominees in the Senior Society Awards category were: F1: The movie, The birth of Jurassic World, Lost bus and How to train your dragon.
The 2026 VES Awards ceremony was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Jerry Bruckheimer received the VES Lifetime Achievement Award, and Weta Workshop co-founder and chief creative officer Sir Richard Taylor was honored with the VES Visionary Award. Comedy duo Randy and Jason Sklar (the Sklar Brothers) hosted the event.
Enuka Okuma (heaven), Haley Joel Osment (The Burps, Happy Gilmore 2), Jazz Raycol (Lincoln attorney), Lil Real Howery (One day of them), Omar Benson Miller (Sinners(and singer-songwriter Raphael Saadiq)Sinners) Offer prizes.
“VES is honored to recognize remarkable artistic and technological creativity across a broad range of disciplines,” Kim Davidson, VES Board of Directors Chairman, said in a statement. “The craft of visual effects is constantly evolving beyond our imaginations, and tonight’s inspiring winners and nominees represent the best work in their category from around the world. Congratulations to everyone!”
See below for the full list of winners.
1. Outstanding visual effects in feature images
Avatar: Fire and Ashes
Richard Banham
Peter Litvak
Eric Sandon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram
2. Distinctive supporting visual effects in photo feature
Sinners
Michael Rella
James Alexander
Nick Marshall
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean
3. Outstanding animation in feature animation
Demon hunters in kpop
Joshua Beveridge
Jackie Bridle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan
4. Outstanding visual effects in a comic episode
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; “The Big Freeze”
Russell Dodgson
Tracy Gibbons
François Dumoulin
Gavin McKenzie
5. Distinctive supporting visual effects in a comic episode
residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Seth Hill
Tessa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas
6. Featured visual arts in a real-time project
Ute ghost
Jason Connell
Vainio died
Joanna Wang
Jasmine Patry
7. Distinctive visual effects in commercial advertisements
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Octo Octopus”
Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov
8. Outstanding visual effects in a special place project
The Wizard of Oz in the field
Ben Grossman
Tamara Watts Kent
D. Irfan Issa
Dugan died
Glen Derry
9. The distinguished character in the visual feature
Avatar: Fire and Ashes; Farang: Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Klee
Stuart Adcock
Kevin Norris
Joseph Kim
10. Featured character in an animated feature
Demon Hunters in K-Pop; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Matamoros
Mark Soulier
Joshua Beveridge
11. The featured character in an episodic, commercial, cinematic, gaming or real-time project
IT: Welcome to Derry; “The thing in the dark;“ Pickle monster
Philip Harris Genoa
Berek Dango
Chloe Ostegui
Jonathan Bordua
12. Distinctive environment in feature photographs
Avatar: Fire and Ashes; Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Bezzaia
Steve Bivins
Dziga Kaiser
Matty is gone
13. Outstanding environment in feature animation
Zootopia 2; Marsh market
Lemmy Z. Hashia
Alexander Nicholas Wang
Joshua Fry
Ryan de Jong
14. A distinct environment in a demonstration, commercial, cinematic or real-time project
Andor; “Welcome to the rebellion.” Senate district
John O’Connell
Falk Boogie
Hassan Ilhan
Kevin George
15. Outstanding cinematography
Avatar: Fire and Ashes
Steve Dean
AJ Briones
Zachary Brick
Andrew Moffett
16. An outstanding model in an illustrated or animated project
Avatar: Fire and Ashes; Windtraders gondola
Michael Small
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jackie Dillon
17. Simulate premium effects in photo feature
Avatar: Fire and Ashes; Pandora simulation
Nicholas James Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden
18. Simulate premium effects in feature animation
Demon hunters in kpop
Filippo Macari
Nicholas Finizio
Danielle LaChapelle
Srdjan Milošević
19. Simulate premium effects in an episode, commercial project, cinematic or real-time game
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The big freeze
Edward Viresenanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Shulman
Kevin Tarpinian
20. Outstanding composition and lighting in a feature
F1: The movie; Modern racing and POV shots
Hugo Goffreau
Chris Davies
Roshan Raj
Amory Rospars
21. The episode’s outstanding composition and lighting
The last of us; “Through the valley.” A storm of ice, fire and flesh
Tobias Wiesner
Mark Julian
Owen Longstaff
Brendan Naylor
22. Outstanding composition and lighting in the business
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Octo Octopus”
Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Shaaban
Nicola Borsari
23. Special (practical) effects featured in the photo project
Andor; “Who are you?”
Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Judy Eltham
Darryl Guyon
24. Emerging Technology Award
Avatar: Fire and Ashes; Corafire Toolkit
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomachin
John Adholm
Murali Ramachari
Alexander Isakov
25. Distinctive visual effects in the student’s project
azimuth
Thomas Tessier
Cassandre Sener
Martin Blue
Matisse Giraudeau
