VES Awards: ‘The Creator’, ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’ & ‘The Last Of Us’ Dominate – Full List

The Visual Effects Society bowed before The Creator tonight. New Regency’s sci-fi flick scored a leading five trophies including Outstanding VFX in a Photoreal Feature at the 35th annual VES Awards. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — hot off dominating the Annie Awards over the weekend — picked up four awards including Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Movie.

See the full list of winners below.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was the night’s only other multiple winner on the film side, and Nyad swam home with the other marquee film prize — Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. Best Picture Oscar favorite Oppenheimer won for Special (Practical) Effects.

The Creator also is up for Best Visual Effects at next month’s 96th Academy Awards, vying against Godzilla Minus One, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Napoleon. The latter two also are nominated for top VES film awards. Across the Spider-Verse will compete for the Animated Feature Oscar.

The VES Awards and Movie Academy haven’t exactly seen camera eye-to-eye during the past decade, with only five of the Visual Effects Society’s marquee winners going on to score Oscars since 2013. They did agree on Avatar: The Way of Water and Dune in the past two years but differed in the previous three. Blade Runner 2049 (2107), The Jungle Book (2016) and Gravity (2013) also turned both tricks in the past 10 years.

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HBO’s The Last of Us came into the ceremony with a TV-leading half-dozen nominations and won four. Disney+’s The Mandalorian and HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty also scooped trophies tonight, but no other program has won than one.

The cellphones were came out as William Shatner beamed in to accept the 2024 VES Award for Creative Excellence. “I’m falling out of airplane!” he exclaimed in Kirkian fashion, then added, “and then I realized it was a special effect. … I accept this award for those great [VFX] artists, men and women.”

The award was presented by lifelong Star Trek fan Seth MacFarlane, who noted that the Beverly Hilton is the place “where agents bring hookers.” He later said he “asked AI to write a pilot, and it was so bad, Fox ordered 10 episodes.

Avatar and Titanic VFX producer and three-time VES Award  winner Joyce Cox received the VES’ Lifetime Achievement Award tonight.

Accepting the award, she referred to her career as “a circuitous path of happy accidents” and talked about how “girls like me weren’t mentored for a career — especially not a a career in film.” She ended with, “I’m very proud to have been chosen for this — thank you.”

A VES Fellow, Cox also has worked on such live-action blockbusters as Disney’s The Lion King and The Jungle Book, along with Superman Returns, X2, The Great Gatsby and Men in Black 3. VES also recognized her dedication and vision in working to create a unified visual effects budgeting system, through her work on the Curó VFX budgeting tool.  

Comic and SNL alum Jay Pharoah is hosting the show after serving as a presenter last year. “Ironically, the strikes ended just in time for awards season,” he quipped early on.

Said VES Chair Kim Davidson: “As we celebrate the 22nd annual VES Awards, we’re honored to shine a light on outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation. The honorees and their work represent best-in-class visual effects – work that engages audiences and enhances the art of storytelling. The VES Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding global artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of all our winners and nominees.”

Here are the 22nd annual VES Awards winners:

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Alan Hawkins, Christian Hejnal, Michael Lasker, Matt Hausman

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

The Last of Us; Season 1; Infected

Alex Wang, Sean Nowlan, Stephen James, Simon Jung, Joel Whist

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Nyad

Jake Braver, Fiona Campbell Westgate, R. Christopher White, Mohsen Mousavi

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty; Season 2; BEAT LA

Raymond McIntyre Jr., Victor DiMichina, Javier Menéndez Platas, Damien Stantina

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Spot

Christopher Mangnall, Craig Feifarek, Humberto Rosa, Nideep Varghese

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

The Last of Us; Endure & Survive; Bloater

Gino Acevedo, Max Telfer, Dennis You, Fabio Leporelli

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Rocket

Nathan McConnel, Andrea De Martis, Antony Magdalinidis, Rachel Williams

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

The Creator

Ludovic Ramisandraina, Raul Essig, Mathieu Chardonnet, Lewis Taylor

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Pav Grochola, Filippo Maccari, Naoki Kato, Nicola Finizio

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

The Mandalorian; Season 3; Lake Monster Attack Water

Travis Harkleroad, Florian Witzel, Rick Hankins, Aron Bonar

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE

The Creator; Bar

Phil Prates, Min Kim, Nisarg Suthar, Toshiko Miura

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL

Coca-Cola; Masterpiece

Ryan Knowles, Greg Mckneally, Taran Spear, Jordan Dunstall

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE

The Last of Us; Endure and Survive; Infected Horde Battle

Matthew Lumb, Ben Roberts, Ben Campbell, Quentin Hema

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT

Oppenheimer

Scott Fisher, James Rollins, Mario Vanillo

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT

The Creator; Nomad

Oliver Kane, Mat Monro, Florence Green, Serban Ungureanu

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT

Silhouette

Alexis Lafuente, Antoni Nicolaï, Chloé Stricher, Elliot Dreuille

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD

The Flash; Volumetric Capture

Stephan Trojansky, Thomas Ganshorn, Oliver Pilarski, Lukas Lepicovsky

OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A CG PROJECT

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Joanna Davison, Cheyana Wilkinson, Michael Cozens, Jason Desjarlais

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT

(Tie)

Postcard From Earth

Aruna Inversin, Eric Wilson, Corey Turner, William George

Rembrandt Immersive Artwork

Andrew McNamara, Sebastian Read, Andrew Kinnear, Sam Matthews

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT

Alan Wake 2

Janne Pulkkinen, Johannes Richter, Daniel Kończyk, Damian Olechowski

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL

Coca-Cola; Masterpiece

Ryan Knowles, Antonia Vlasto, Gregory McKneally, Dan Yargici

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

The Creator; Floating Village

John Seru, Guy Williams, Vincent Techer, Timothée Maron

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Taehyun Park, YJ Lee, Pepe Orozco, Kelly Han

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

The Last of Us: Post-Outbreak Boston

Melaina Mace, Adrien Lambert, Juan Carlos Barquet, Christopher Anciaume