Feb 6, 2019

VES Awards 2019 Winners: Spider-Verse Sweep Animation Category

The winners were announced tonight for the 17th annual VES Awards, recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials, and video games.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swept the feature animation categories, winning all four of the VES honors dedicated to long-form animation. As it proved last weekend at the Annie Awards, the film is not just a critical and fan favorite, but one that has earned the respect of its industry peers for Sony Pictures Imageworks' innovative creative and technical approaches to feature animation.

Its four wins represents a remarkable feat for an animated film at the Disney-friendly VES. Over the last six years, 23 out of 24 VES Awards for feature animation had been won by a Walt Disney or Pixar film. The sole non-Walt Disney Company film to win an award at the VES in the last six years had been Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings, which picked up the top animation award for visual effects in 2017.

Illumination's The Grinch came up empty-handed for its four nominations, however studio founder and CEO Chris Meledandri earned this year's VES Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor was presented by Steve Carell, who came onstage in a Gru mask.

On the photoreal feature side, Disney-Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War dominated with four wins, including the top prize for outstanding visual effects. The film was a massive vfx production with 2,680 vfx shots handled by 13 different studios including Cinesite, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic, Method Studios, and Weta Digital, among others.

Additionally, Ready Player One picked up two honors, while Mortal Engines and First Man earned one prize apiece.

Netflix's Lost in Space scored big for series with four honors. The broadcast categories have been dominated in recent years by Game of Thrones, which had won 14 awards over the last three editions, but due to its staggered production schedule, the series did not have any new episodes to submit this year. The show was still recognized however as GoT's executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were presented with the VES Award for Creative Excellence.

The winners in the 24 categories were selected by members of the Visual Effects Society. Patton Oswalt hosted the VES Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

The complete list of winners is below:

Avengers: Infinity War Daniel DeLeeuw Jen Underdahl Kelly Port Matt Aitken Daniel Sudick

First Man Paul Lambert Kevin Elam Tristan Myles Ian Hunter JD Schwalm

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Joshua Beveridge Christian Hejnal Danny Dimian Bret St. Clair

Lost in Space; “Danger, Will Robinson” Jabbar Raisani Terron Pratt Niklas Jacobson Joao Sita

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan; “Pilot” Erik Henry Matt Robken Bobo Skipper Deak Ferrand Pau Costa

Age of Sail John Kahrs Kevin Dart Cassidy Curtis Theresa Latzko

John Lewis; “The Boy and the Piano” Kamen Markov Philip Whalley Anthony Bloor Andy Steele

Childish Gambino's Pharos Keith Miller Alejandro Crawford Thelvin Cabezas Jeremy Thompson

Avengers: Infinity War; Thanos Jan Philip Cramer Darren Hendler Paul Story Sidney Kombo-Kintombo

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Miles Morales Marcos Kang Chad Belteau Humberto Rosa Julie Bernier Gosselin

Lost in Space; Humanoid Chad Shattuck Paul Zeke Julia Flanagan Andrew McCartney

Volkswagen; Born Confident; Bam David Bryan Chris Welsby Fabian Frank Chloe Dawe

Ready Player One; The Shining, Overlook Hotel Mert Yamak Stanley Wong Joana Garrido Daniel Gagiu

Spider-Man; Into the Spider-Verse; Graphic New York City Terry Park Bret St. Clair Kimberly Liptrap Dave Morehead

Lost in Space; “Pilot”; Impact Area Philip Engström Kenny Vähäkari Jason Martin Martin Bergquist

Ready Player One; New York Race Daniele Bigi Edmund Kolloen Mathieu Vig Jean-Baptiste Noyau

Mortal Engines; London Matthew Sandoval James Ogle Nick Keller Sam Tack

Avengers: Infinity War; Titan Gerardo Aguilera Ashraf Ghoniem Vasilis Pazionis Hartwell Durfor

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Ian Farnsworth Pav Grochola Simon Corbaux Brian D. Casper

Altered Carbon Philipp Kratzer Daniel Fernandez Xavier Lestourneaud Andrea Rosa

Avengers: Infinity War; Titan Sabine Laimer Tim Walker Tobias Wiesner Massimo Pasquetti

Lost in Space; “Impact”; Crash Site Rescue David Wahlberg Douglas Roshamn Sofie Ljunggren Fredrik Lönn

Apple; “Welcome Home” Michael Ralla Steve Drew Alejandro Villabon Peter Timberlake

Terra Nova Thomas Battistetti Mélanie Geley Mickael Le Mezo Guillaume Hoarau

Chris Meledandri

Jonathan Nolan

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss