“I’m here for the odds,” he said.
If you attended the 14th annual edition of the Visual Effects Society awards for the same reason, you might have left sensing the odds favored the latest Star Wars installment to walk away with visual effects honors at the Oscars at month’s end, because it was The Force Awakens, along with some Game of Thrones, a sociable orangutan, a virtual bear, a couple of animation upsets, and the mangling of Ridley Scott’s name, that dominated the evening.
Disney’s sequel to George Lucas’ cultural icon copped the evening’s main prize, winning outstanding visual effects in a photoreal feature, a rephrasing of VES’ former top category that attempts to keep up with Salman Rushdie’s observation from the early 2000s that essentially all films now – given the amount of rendering that goes on – are animated to one degree or another.
And therefore, all equally photoreal regardless of how much was actually photographed.
Is anything not photoreal anymore?
Well, perhaps films designed overtly as animation. In that regard, while the general favorite in Oscar’s own animation category, Inside Out, grabbed a best animated character award, Pixar found itself in the strange circumstance of being upset by… Pixar. That was for outstanding visual effects in an animated feature, where The Good Dinosaur – not even an Oscar nominee – managed to trump the highly regarded tale of a teenage girl’s psyche.
In non-feature film categories, there were a handful of awards for Game of Thrones, spread among different episodes, and accolades for the British energy company SSE, whose commercial, Pier, showed a rendered orangutan having a night adventure scored to a Nat King Cole tune.
There was also hilarity. When Oswalt was mentioning the credits of designer Syd Mead, given a Visionary Award by VES for his work in films ranging from Blade Runner to Tron, Mission Impossible III, and more, he mentioned drinking in Bar Basque, the Mead-designed upscale watering hole in NY, but said it couldn’t really top the “Ray Harryhausen Road House in Texas,” where, after all, a Cyclops served you your drinks.
If you didn’t find that immediately funny, it may be that the VES Awards weren’t meant for you, to begin with.
They were meant, however, for Sir Ridley Scott. When his name was surprisingly mangled at evening’s outset, it became a running gag for Oswalt, talking about Ridley “Scoot,” among other variations.
They certainly were at the VES Awards, or as Mead put it, “the expertise in this room is the best in the world.”
That expertise may extend to cementing the odds for further FX awards later this month. Regardless, expect things to keep getting more and more photoreal, whether they are set in space, a lost American frontier or even in Ray Harryhausen’s road house, somewhere in Texas.
The winners of the 2016 VES Awards are:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Roger Guyett
Luke O’Byrne
Patrick Tubach
Paul Kavanagh
Chris Corbould
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant
Rich McBride
Ivy Agregan
Jason Smith
Nicolas Chevallier
Cameron Waldbauer
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur
Sanjay Bakshi
Denise Ream
Michael Venturini
Jon Reisch
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones, “The Dance of Dragons”
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Eric Carney
Derek Spears
Stuart Brisdon
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Vikings, “To the Gates”
Dominic Remane
Bill Halliday
Paul Wishart
Ovidiu Cinazan
Paul Byrne
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
The Order: 1886
Nathan Phail-Liff
Dana Jan
Anthony Vitale
Scot Andreason
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
SSE, “Pier”
Neil Davies
Tim Lyall
Hitesh Patel
Jorge Montiel
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Fast and Furious: Supercharged
Chris Shaw
Alysia Cotter
Ben White
Diego Guerrero
Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant, The Bear
Matt Shumway
Gaelle Morand
Karin Cooper
Leandro Estebecorena
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature
Inside Out, Joy
Shawn Krause
Tanja Krampfert
Jacob Merrell
Alexis Angelidis
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
SSE, “Pier,” Orangutan
Jorge Montiel
Sauce Vilas
Philippe Moine
Sam Driscoll
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Falcon Chase/Graveyard
Yanick Dusseault
Mike Wood
Justin van der Lek
Quentin Marmier
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur, The Farm
David Munier
Matthew Webb
Matt Kuruc
Tom Miller
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Game of Thrones, City of Volantis
Dominic Piche
Christine Leclerc
Patrice Poissant
Thomas Montminy-Brodeur
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Falcon Chase/Graveyard
Paul Kavanagh
Colin Benoit
Susumu Yukuhiro
Greg Salter
Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, BB-8
Joshua Lee
Matthew Denton
Landis Fields
Cyrus Jam
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Mad Max: Fury Road, Toxic Storm
Dan Bethell
Clinton Downs
Chris Young
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
The Good Dinosaur
Stephen Marshall
Magnus Wrenninge
Michael Hall
Hemagiri Arumugam
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Game of Thrones, “Hardhome”
David Ramos
Antonio Lado
Piotr Weiss
Félix Bergés
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
The Revenant, Bear Attack
Donny Rausch
Alan Travis
Charles Lai
TC Harrison
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode
Game of Thrones, “Hardhome”
Eduardo Díaz
Guillermo Orbe
Oscar Perea
Inmaculada Nadela
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial
SSE, “Pier”
Gary Driver
Greg Spencer
Grant Connor
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Citipati
Andreas Feix
Francesco Faranna
