Avatar and Up Top 8th Annual VES Awards

The Visual Effects Society announced the winners of the 8th Annual VES Awards on Sunday night at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The annual event recognizes outstanding visual effects in more than twenty categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games.

Filmmakers, producers and guests joined more than a thousand attendees from the visual effects industry for the sold-out gala which honored James Cameron with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr. Ed Catmull with the Georges Méliès Award for Pioneering.

Avatar was the evening’s big winner taking home six awards including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture. Up was honored with three awards including Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture.

The 2010 VES Awards will premiere on Friday, March 5 at 10pm ET/PT on ReelzChannel.

The following is the complete list of winners of the 8th Annual VES Awards:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture

Avatar – Joe Letteri, Joyce Cox, Eileen Moran, Richard Baneham

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture

Sherlock Holmes – Jonathan Fawkner, Chas Jarrett, David Vickery, Dan Barrow

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Up – Pete Docter, Jonas Rivera, Steve May, Gary Bruins

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special

Disney Prep & Landing – Gadgets, Globes, and other Garish Gizmos – Dorothy McKim, Scott Kersavage, David Hutchins, Kee Suong

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 -Ep. 421 “Daybreak” – Michael Gibson, Gary Hutzel, Jesse Toves, Dave Morton

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program

CSI Crime Scene Investigation – Ep. 1001 Opening Sequence – Rik Shorten, Sabrina Arnold, Steve Meyer, Derek Smith

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year

Avatar – Neytiri Drinking – Joe Letteri, Joyce Cox, Eileen Moran, Thelvin Cabezas

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

Audi – Intelligently Combined – Jay Barton, Rafael F. Colon, Ronald Herbst, Chris Fieldhouse

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

Dance of the Dragons – Eastern – Derry Frost, Michael Morreale

Outstanding Real Time Visuals in a Video Game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Gulag Extraction – Mark Rubin, Richard Kriegler, Robert Gaines, David Johnson

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Video Game Trailer

Halo 3: ODST – The Life – Robert Moggach, Ryan Meredith, Jens Zalzala, Michael Pardee

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Avatar – Neytiri – Joe Letteri, Andrew R. Jones, Jeff Unay, Zoe Saldana

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Up – ‘Carl’- No Dad Scene – Ed Asner, Ron Zorman, Brian Tindall, Carmen Ngai

Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast Program or Commercial

AMF – The Caterpillar – Robert Sethi, Jamie O’Hara, Becky Porter, Steve Beck

Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Up – Jason Johnston, Alexis Angelidis, Jon Reisch, Eric Froemling

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture

Avatar – Pandora – Yvonne Muinde, Brenton Cottman, Peter Baustaedter, Jean-Luc Azzis

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Broadcast Program or Commercial

Kaiser Permanente – Emerald City – Ben Walker, David Woodland, Kim Taylor, Ben Walsh

Outstanding Models & Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture

Avatar – Samson/Home Tree/Floating Mountains/Ampsuit – Paul Jenness, Rainer Zoettl, John Stevenson-Galvin, Simon Cheung

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture

Avatar – Jungle/Biolume – Eric Saindon, Shadi Almassizadeh, Dan Cox, Ula Rademeyer

Outstanding Created Environment in a Broadcast Program or Commercial

V – Pilot “Atrium and Ship Interiors” – Chris Zapara, Chris Irving, David Morton, Trevor Adams

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture

District 9 – Shervin Shogian, Hamish Schumacher, Janeen Elliott, Simon Hughes

Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program or Commercial

CSI Crime Scene Investigation – Ep. 1001 Opening Sequence – Derek Smith, Christina Spring, Steve Meyer, Zach Zaubi

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

They Will Come to Town – Thilo Ewers

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