Visual Effects Society announces annual award winners

Life of Pi has taken the top prize at the Visual Effects Society Awards, tying with Brave and Game of Thrones with four awards in total.

Among its awards, Life of Pi was honored for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture, while director Ang Lee also received the VES Visionary Award, presented by visual effects designer Dennis Muren. Actor Harrison Ford also presented veteran visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award.

Disney-Pixar's Brave scooped the animated film categories while HBO series Game of Thrones dominated the TV categories.

However, Australian effects company Fuel VFX lost out in both categories it was nominated in: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture and Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture for its work on Prometheus (both categories won by Life of Pi).

The Winners

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture

LIFE OF PI
Donald R. Elliott
Susan Macleod
Guillaume Rocheron
Bill Westenhofer

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture

THE IMPOSSIBLE
Felix Bergés
Sandra Hermida
Pau Costa Moeller

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

BRAVE
Mark Andrews
Steve May
Katherine Sarafian
Bill Wise

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program

GAME OF THRONES: Volar Morghulis
Rainer Gombos
Steve Kullback
Sven Martin
Juri Stanossek

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program

BOARDWALK EMPIRE: Episode 308
John Bair
Parker Chehak
Paul Graff
Lesley Robson-Foster

Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II
Jason Blundell
Barry Whitney
Colin Whitney

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

Nike: BIOMORPH
Rafael Colon
Aladino Debert
David Liu
Nicola Wiseman

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

DESPICABLE ME: MINION MAYHEM
Heather Drummons
Joel Friesch
Brooke Breton
Chris Bailey

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

LIFE OF PI: Richard Parker
Erik De Boer
Sean Comer
Betsy Asher Hall
Kai-Hua Lan

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

BRAVE: Merida
Travis Hathaway
Olivier Soares
Peter Sumanaseni
Brian Tindall

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial or Broadcast Program

GAME OF THRONES: Training the Dragons
Irfan Celik
Florian Friedmann
Ingo Schachner
Chris Stenner

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

THE AVENGERS: Midtown Manhattan
Richard Bluff
Barry Williams
David Meny
Andy Proctor

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

BRAVE: The Forest
Tim Best
Steve Pilcher
Inigo Quilez
Andrew Whittock

Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial or Broadcast Program

GAME OF THRONES: Pyke
Rene Borst
Thilo Ewers
Adam Figielski
Jonas Stuckenbrock

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
Matt Aitken
Victor Huang
Christian Rivers
R. Christopher White

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Commercial or Broadcast Program

ZombiU
Dominique Boidin
Léon Bérelle
Rémi Kozyra
Maxime Luère

Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture

THE AVENGERS: Helicarrier
Rene Garcia
Bruce Holcomb
Polly Ing
Aaron Wilson

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

LIFE OF PI: Storm of God
Harry Mukhopadhyay
David Stopford
Mark Williams
Derek Wolfe

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

BRAVE
Chris Chapman
Dave Hale
Michael K. O'Brien
Bill Watral

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Commercial or Broadcast Program

Guinness: CLOUD
Tom Bussell
Neil Davies

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture

LIFE OF PI: Storm of God
Ryan Clarke
Jose Fernandez
Sean Oharas
Hamish Schumacher

Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program

GAME OF THRONES, Episode 210: White Walker Army
Falk Boje
Esther Engel
Alexey Kuchinsky
Klaus Wuchta

Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial

Chevy 2012 Silverado
Dominik Bauch
Nicholas Kim
Benjamin Walsh

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

NATALIS
Daniel Brkovic
David Kirchner
Jan-Marcel Kuehn
Tom Ferstl