“Dune” and “Encanto” were the big winners at the Visual Effects Society’s 2022 VES Awards, which were handed out on Tuesday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Both films won four awards, with “Dune” taking Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, the VES category that most closely corresponds to the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Winners in the category have gone on to win the Oscar 10 times in the past 19 years, but the last film to do so was “The Jungle Book” in 2017.
“Dune” is nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar along with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which won a VES Award for its mirror-dimension environment, and “Free Guy” “No Time to Die” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which did not win anything.
“Encanto” won Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature and three other awards, sweeping all the animation categories except one, which was won by “Raya and the Last Dragon.” “Last Night in Soho” won the award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.
Other film winners included “Finch,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Jungle Cruise.”
In the television categories, “Foundation” won two awards, while others went to “The Witcher,” “Loki” and “See.”
Also at the ceremony, Guillermo del Toro received the VES Award for Creative Excellence and Lucasfilm’s Lynwen Brennan received the VES Lifetime Achievement Award. The show went on without host Drew Carey, who had a last-minute emergency after replacing original host Patton Oswalt, who had to withdraw after breaking his leg.
The full list of winners:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature: “Dune”
Paul Lambert, Brice Parker, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor, Gerd Nefzer
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature: “Last Night in Soho”
Tom Proctor, Gavin Gregory, Julian Gnass, Fabricio Baessa
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature: “Encanto”
Scott Kersavage, Bradford Simonsen, Thaddeus P. Miller, Ian Gooding
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: “Foundation”: “The Emperor’s Peace”
Chris MacLean, Addie Manis, Mike Enriquez, Chris Keller, Paul Byrne
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: “See”: “Rock-A-Bye”
Chris Wright, Parker Chehak, Javier Roca, Tristan Zerafa, Tony Kenny
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project: “Call of Duty: Vanguard”
Sandy Lin-Chiang, Joseph Knox, Gareth Richards, Shane Daley
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial: “Sheba”: Hope Reef
Grant Walker, Sophie Harrison, Hernan Llano, Michael Baker
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project: “Jurassic World Adventure”
Eugénie von Tunzelmann, Maximilian McNair MacEwan, Stephen Goalby, Brad Silby
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature: “Finch”: Jeff
Harinarayan Rajeev, Matthias Schoenegger, Simon Allen, Paul Nelson
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature: “Encanto”: Mirabel Madrigal
Kelly McClanahan, Sergi Caballer, Mary Twohig, Jose Luis “Weecho” Velasquez
Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project: “The Witcher”: Leshy Eskel; Tree Branch Creature
Hannes Faupel, Stéphane Paccolat, Ivan Cadena Ayala, Laurent Fortin
Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial: “Smart Energy, Einstein Knows Best”: Einstein
Alex Hammond, Harsh Borah, Clare Williams, Andreas Graichen
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature: “Spider-Man: No Way Home”: The Mirror Dimension
Eric Le Dieu de Ville, Thomas Dotheij, Ryan Olliffe, Claire Le Teuff
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature: “Encanto”: Antonio’s Room
Camille Andre, Andrew Finley, Chris Patrick O’Connell, Amol Sathe
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial or Real-Time Project: “Sheba”: Hope Reef
Henrique Campanha, Baptiste Roy, Luca Veronese, Timothee Maron
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project: “Encanto”: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Nathan Detroit Warner, Dorian Bustamante, Tyler Kupferer, Michael Woodside
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project: “Dune”: Royal Ornithopter
Marc Austin, Anna Yamazoe, Michael Chang, Rachael Dunk
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature: “Dune”: Dunes of Arrakis
Gero Grimm, Ivan Larinin, Hideki Okano, Zuny An
Outstanding Effects Simulation in an Animated Feature: “Raya and the Last Dragon”
Le Joyce Tong, Henrik Fält, Rattanin Sirinaruemarn, Jacob Rice
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial or Real-Time Project: “Foundation”: Collapse of the Galactic Empire
Giovanni Casadei, Mikel Zuloaga, Steven Moor, Louis Manjarres
Outstanding Compositing and Lighting in a Feature: “Dune”: Attack on Arrakeen
Gregory Haas, Francesco Dell’Anna, Abhishek Chaturvedi, Cleve Zhu
Outstanding Compositing and Lighting in an Episode: “Loki”: Lamentis; Shuroo City Destruction
Paul Chapman, Tom Truscott, Biagio Figliuzzi, Attila Szalma
Outstanding Compositing and Lighting in a Commercial: Verizon; The Reset
David Piombino, Rajesh Kaushik, Manideep Sanisetty, Tim Crean
Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project: “Jungle Cruise”
JD Schwalm, Nick Rand, Robert Spurlock, Nick Byrd
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project: “Green”
Camille Poiriez, Arielle Cohen, Eloise Thibaut, Louis Florean