Refresh for updates… We’re nearing the end of the Visual Effects Society‘s 24th VES Awards, which are being handed out tonight at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Deadline is posting the winners in all 26 categories live as they are announced. See the list below.
James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash comes into the show with a leading 10 nominations, and it already has won six prizes, for Emerging Technology and Outstanding Model, Environment, Character, Effects Simulations and CG Cinematography.
The 20 Century Studios threequel — the 16th-highest-grossing film of all time with more than $1.47 billion worldwide and counting — had its hopes of a category sweep ended when Apple Original Films’ F1 won for Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature. That happened to be one of two categories where Fire and Ash was competing against itself.
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Sinners, which leads the Oscar race with a record 16 nominations, won the VES Award for Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.
So far, Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s streaming phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters is the only other movie win multiple VES Awards tonight, taking for Outstanding Effects Simulations and Character (Rumi) in an Animated Feature.
The first film prize of the Sklar Brothers-hosted ceremony — punctuated as usual by a classic rock soundtrack — went to Zoopotia 2 for Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature. The highest-grossing Hollywood film in history came into the evening with five noms, tied for second-most with KPop Demon Hunters and Disney/Pixar’s Elio.
Later, an 87-year-old movie won a 2026 VES Award, sort of, when The Wizard of Oz at Sphere took the trophy for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project.
On the TV side, Disney+’s now-wrapped Star Wars series Andor is the only series with two wins so far. Other series taking VES Awards are Prehistoric Planet, The Residence, IT: Welcome to Derry,, The Last of Us and Ghosts of Yōtei.
Elsewhere, BMW has won two VES Awards for its commercial titled “Heart of Joy: Meet Okto the Octopus.”
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Early on, the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment included VES professionals we lost during the past year including Roger Allers, Greg Cannom, Vince Zampella, Bob Burns, George Bloom, Loren Carpenter, Simon Cheung, Fabien Girodot, Jack Haye, Ian Jenkins, Jeremy Kendall, Tom Lynnes, Ralph S. Maiers, Con Pederson, Mike Schmitt and Dane Allen Smith.
This year’s VES Awards special honorees were prolific film and TV producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Wētā Workshop co-founder and COO Richard Taylor, who received the 2026 VES Lifetime Achievement Award and VES Visionary Award, respectively.
The Visual Effects Society and Movie Academy haven’t followed the same script much during the past decade-plus, with only five of winners of the marquee VES prize — Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature — going on to score the FX Oscar since 2013.
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Here are the 2026 VES winners revealed so far, followed by the remaining nominees:
Winners
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Sinners
Michael Ralla
James Alexander
Nick Marshal
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
The Residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Seth Hill
Tesa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas
OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Matamoros
Marc Souliere
Joshua Beveridge
OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
It: Welcome to Derry; “The Thing in the Dark;” The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois
Pierric Danjou
Chloe Ostiguy
Jonathan Bourdu
OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee
Stuart Adcock
Keven Norris
Joseph Kim
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora
Nicholas Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Filippo Maccari
Nikolaos Finizio
Daniel La Chapelle
Srdjan Milosevic
OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze
Edward Ferrysienanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Schuleman
Kevin Tarpinian
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage
Hugo Gauvreau
Chris Davies
Raushan Raj
Amaury Rospars
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Chabane
Nicola Borsari
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
The Last of Us; “Through the Valley;” A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
Tobias Wiesner
Mark Julien
Owen Longstaff
Brendan Naylor
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Andor; “Who Are You?”
Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Jody Eltham
Darrell Guyon
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT
Azimuth
Thomas Teisseire
Cassandre Cinier
Martin Bluy
Mathis Giraudeau
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
John Edholm
Murali Ramachari
Aleksandr Isakov
OUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Steve Deane
AJ Briones
Zachary Brake
Andrew Moffett
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann
Tamara Watts Ken
Dr. Irfan Essa
Matt Dougan
Glenn Derry
OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders’ Gondola
Michael Smale
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jacqi Dillon
OUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
Ghost of Yōtei
Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Joanna Wang
Jasmin Patr
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov
OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Pizzaia
Steve Bevins
Dziga Kaiser
Zsolt Máté
OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia 2; Marsh Market
Limei Z. Hshieh
Alexander Nicholas Whang
Joshua Fry
Ryan DeYoung
OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Andor; “Welcome to the Rebellion;” The Senate District
John O’Connell
Falk Boje
Hasan Ilhan
Kevin George
Nominees
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
F1: The Movie
Ryan Tudhope
Nikeah Forde
Robert Harrington
Nicolas Chevallier
Keith Alfred Dawson
Jurassic World: Rebirth
David Vickery
Carlos Ciudad
Steve Aplin
Charmaine Chan
Neil Corbould, VES
The Lost Bus
Charlie Noble
Gavin Round
David Zaretti
Russell Bowen
Brandon K. McLaughlin
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Richard Baneham
Peter Litvack
Eric Saindon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram
How To Train Your Dragon
Christian Manz
Christopher Raimo
Glen McIntosh
Glenn Melenhorst
Terry Palmer
OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
The Bad Guys 2
Pierre Perifel
Damon Ross
Matt Baer
Benjamin Willis
KPop Demon Hunters
Joshua Beveridge
Jacky Priddle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan
Zootopia 2
Gregory Smith
Laurie Au
Marlon West
Shweta Viswanathan
In Your Dreams
Sacha Kapijimpanga
Carey Smith
Nicola Lavender
Steve Pilcher
Elio
Claudia Chung Sanii
Mary Alice Drumm
Harley Jessup
Dave Quirus
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Andor; “Who Are You?”
Mohen Leo
TJ Falls
Scott Pritchard
Olivier Beaulieu
Luke Murphy
It: Welcome to Derry; “Winter Fire”
Daryl Sawchuk
Steve Dellerson
Pier Lefebvre
Steven Tether
Darcy Callaghan
The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”
Alex Wang
Fiona Campbell Westgate
Nick Epstein
Philip Engström
Joel Whist
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; “The Big Freeze”
Russell Dodgson
Tracey Gibbons
Francois Dumoulin
Gavin McKenzie
Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”
Betsy Paterson
Tessa Roehl
Michael Maher Jr.
Martin Hill
