<i>Jungle Book, Kubo</i> take top honors at 15th Annual VES Awards
February 8, 2017

Jungle Book, Kubo take top honors at 15th Annual VES Awards

LOS ANGELES — The Visual Effects Society held its 15th Annual VES Awards last night, recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, video games and special venues. Comedian Patton Oswalt served as host to the more than 1,000 guests gathered at the Beverly Hilton to celebrate VFX talent in 24 awards categories.

The Jungle Book was named photoreal feature film winner, earning five awards. Kubo and the Two Strings was named top animated film. Game of Thrones was named best photoreal episode and garnered five awards. And John Lewis: Buster the Boxer won top honors in the commercial field.
 
Director Taika Waititi presented the VES Visionary Award to acclaimed producer and Marvel Studios executive vice president of physical production, Victoria Alonso. Jim Morris, president, Pixar Animation Studios, presented the VES Lifetime Achievement Award to multiple Academy Award-winning visual effects pioneer Ken Ralston. Awards presenters included directors Gareth Edwards and Albert Hughes, Yara Shahidi, Auli’I Cravalho, Jessica Parker Kennedy and Brenton Thwaites.
 
Winners of the 15th Annual VES Awards are as follows: 
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature 
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK         
   Robert Legato  
   Joyce Cox           
   Andrew R. Jones             
   Adam Valdez    
   JD Schwalm
 
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
 
DEEPWATER HORIZON 
   Craig Hammack              
   Petra Holtorf-Stratton 
   Jason Snell         
   John Galloway 
   Burt Dalton
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
 
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS    
   Travis Knight   
   Arianne Sutner
   Steve Emerson
   Brad Schiff        
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
 
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards    
   Joe Bauer           
   Steve Kullback
   Glenn Melenhorst          
   Matthew Rouleau          
   Sam Conway
 
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
 
BLACK SAILS; XX               
   Erik Henry        
   Terron Pratt     
   Aladino Debert
   Yafei Wu            
   Paul Stephenson
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
 
UNCHARTED 4                      
   Bruce Straley                                   
   Eben Cook                           
   Iki Ikram
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
 
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer             
   Diarmid Harrison-Murray         
   Hannah Ruddleston      
   Fabian Frank    
   William Laban 
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
 
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN; Battle for the Sunken Treasure              
   Bill George        
   Amy Jupiter      
   Hayden Landis
   David Lester     
 
Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK; King Louie               
   Paul Story         
   Dennis Yoo       
   Jack Tema         
   Andrei Coval    
 
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature
 
FINDING DORY; Hank   
   Jonathan Hoffman         
   Steven Clay Hunter       
   Mark Piretti      
   Audrey Wong
 
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode or Real-Time Project
 
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Drogon                
James Kinnings               
Michael Holzl   
Matt Derksen   
Joseph Hoback
 
Outstanding Animated Performance in a Commercial
 
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer             
   Tim van Hussen              
   David Bryan     
   Chloe Dawe      
   Maximilian Mallmann
 
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
 
DOCTOR STRANGE; New York City          
   Adam Watkins
   Martijn van Herk            
   Tim Belsher      
   Jon Mitchell
 
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature        
 
MOANA; Motunui Island           
   Rob Dressel      
   Andy Harkness
   Brien Hindman               
   Larry Wu
 
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
 
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Meereen City   
   Deak Ferrand   
   Dominic Daigle               
   François Croteau 
   Alexandru Banuta
 
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK          
   Bill Pope            
   Robert Legato  
   Gary Roberts    
   John Brennan
 
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
 
DEEPWATER HORIZON; Deepwater Horizon Rig          
   Kelvin Lau         
   Jean Bolte          
   Kevin Sprout    
   Kim Vongbunyong
 
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK; Nature Effects       
   Oliver Winwood            
   Fabian Nowak 
   David Schneider             
   Ludovic Ramisandraina
 
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
 
MOANA                
   Marc Henry Bryant       
   David Hutchins               
   Ben Frost           
   Dale Mayeda
 
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
 
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Meereen City   
   Thomas Hullin
   Dominik Kirouac           
   James Dong      
   Xavier Fourmond
 
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK          
   Christoph Salzmann     
   Masaki Mitchell              
   Matthew Adams             
   Max Stummer
 
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode
 
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Retaking Winterfell    
   Dominic Hellier              
   Morgan Jones   
   Thijs Noij           
   Caleb Thompson
 
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial
 
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer             
   Tom Harding   
   Alex Snookes    
   David Filipe      
   Andreas Feix
 
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
 
BREAKING POINT             
   Johannes Franz               
   Nicole Rothermel          
   Thomas Sali      
   Alexander Richter