VES Nominations: ‘Avatar’ Leads The Pack, ‘Zootopia 2,’ ‘Elio,’ ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Tied Among Animated Films

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has revealed the nominees for the upcoming 24th edition of the annual VES Awards, recognizing outstanding visual effects in film, television, animation, commercials, and video games.

Among animated contenders, there is a three-way tie for the most nominations: Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters, Pixar’s Elio, and Disney’s Zootopia 2 each received five nominations.

Avatar: Fire and Ash unsurprisingly led all projects overall with 10 nominations, topping the photoreal feature field and appearing across nearly every major technical category. The film’s nominations include outstanding visual effects, character, environment, effects simulations, compositing and lighting, cg cinematography, and multiple emerging technology citations.

In television, the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, HBO’s The Last of Us, and Apple TV+ and BBC Studios’ Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age tied in the episodic field, each receiving four nominations.

The VES Awards include nominees in 25 categories selected by Society members during a global nomination event spanning in-person and virtual judging panels around the world.

As previously announced, the ceremony will be hosted by Randy and Jason Sklar. Special honorees this year include producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who will receive the VES Lifetime Achievement Award, and Wētā Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor, who will receive the VES Visionary Award.

The 24th Annual VES Awards Gala will take place on Tuesday, February 25, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Below is the complete list of 2026 nominees.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

F1: The Movie
Ryan Tudhope, Nikeah Forde, Robert Harrington, Nicolas Chevallier, Keith Alfred Dawson

Jurassic World: Rebirth
David Vickery, Carlos Ciudad, Steve Aplin, Charmaine Chan, Neil Corbould

The Lost Bus
Charlie Noble, Gavin Round, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, Brandon K. McLaughlin

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Richard Baneham, Peter Litvack, Eric Saindon, Nicky Muir, Steve Ingram

How to Train Your Dragon
Christian Manz, Christopher Raimo, Glen McIntosh, Glenn Melenhorst, Terry Palmer

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Dongji Rescue
Tim Crosbie, Celeste Chen, Christian Sjöstedt, Lea Benjovitz

A House of Dynamite
Chris Harvey, Dione Wood, Jon Mitchell, Matthew Lane

Warfare
Simon Stanley-Clamp, Kaley Edwards, Andrew Kinnear, Samir Ansari, Ryan Conder

Sinners
Michael Ralla, James Alexander, Nick Marshall, Espen Nordahl, Donnie Dean

After the Hunt
Fabio Cerrito, Virginia Cefaly, Marco Fiorani Parenzi, Maura Manfredi

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

The Bad Guys 2
Pierre Perifel, Damon Ross, Matt Baer, Benjamin Willis

KPop Demon Hunters
Joshua Beveridge, Jacky Priddle, Benjamin Hendricks, Clara Chan

Zootopia 2
Gregory Smith, Laurie Au, Marlon West, Shweta Viswanathan

In Your Dreams
Sacha Kapijimpanga, Carey Smith, Nicola Lavender, Steve Pilcher

Elio
Claudia Chung Sanii, Mary Alice Drumm, Harley Jessup, Dave Quirus

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

Andor; “Who Are You?”
Mohen Leo, TJ Falls, Scott Pritchard, Olivier Beaulieu, Luke Murphy

It: Welcome to Derry; “Winter Fire”
Daryl Sawchuk, Steve Dellerson, Pier Lefebvre, Steven Tether, Darcy Callaghan

The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”
Alex Wang, Fiona Campbell Westgate, Nick Epstein, Philip Engström, Joel Whist

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; “The Big Freeze”
Russell Dodgson, Tracey Gibbons, Francois Dumoulin, Gavin McKenzie

Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”
Betsy Paterson, Tessa Roehl, Michael Maher Jr., Martin Hill

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

Man vs Baby; “Chapter One”
Rob Duncan, Ashlee Turner, Jean-Nicolas Costa, Adrian Eugene Daniel Williams

The Residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Seth Hill, Tesa Kubicek, John Nelson, Gabriel Vargas

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon; “Costa Da Morte”
Jao M’Changama, Justine Paynat-Sautivet, Sébastien Voisin, Xavier Allard, Pau Costa Moeller

Severance; “Hello, Ms. Cobel”
Eric Leven, Sean Findley, Brian Holligan, Radost Ridlen

Death By Lightning; “The Man from Ohio”
Rainer Gombos, Steve Kullback, Marko Ljubez, David Ramos

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT

Ghost of Yōtei
Jason Connell, Matt Vainio, Joanna Wang, Jasmin Patry

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Hideo Kojima, Yoji Shinkawa, Shota Hirasawa

Doom: The Dark Ages
Todd Boyce, Andrew Willis, Ian Malerich, Derek Best

South of Midnight
Ian Mac Gregor, Yasmeen Leclerc, Petro Kosariekov, Connor Bugni

Battlefield 6
Chris Bayol, Sean Tomek, Skye White, Jacob Bergman

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL

Coors Light; “Slow Monday”
Bruno Fukumothi, Ella Glazer, David Fleet, Martino Madeddu

BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Tom Raynor, Helen Tang, Jack Harris, Alex Kulikov

Virgin Media; “Trunk Trucker”
Sebastian Caldwell, Larisa Covaciu, Ben Cronin, Alex Grey

Columbia Sportswear; “Engineered for Whatever”
Kamen Markov, Alexia Paterson, David Lochhead, Henrique Campanha

Battlefield 6; “It’s Good to Be Back”
Michael Ralla, James Alexander, Brian Creasey, Luca Pelegatta

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann, Tamara Watts Kent, Dr. Irfan Essa, Matt Dougan, Glenn Derry

Zootopia: Better Zoogether!
Rich Enders, Kirk Bodyfelt, Darin Hollings, Darren Simpson

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment
Alan Woods, Maximilian McNair MacEwan, Jason Fox, Iris Chailloux

Disney Tales of Magic
Tim Lutkin, Patrick Aigouy, Adrien Mourey, Lydia Caplan

Stranger Things: Escape the Dark
Julien Héry, Antoine Sitruk, Simon Lecavalier, Martin Hesselink

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

A Minecraft Movie; Queen Malgosha
Kevin Estey, Fabio Leporelli, Matteo Stirati, Nick Grace

Lilo & Stitch; Stitch
Matthew Shumway, Claus Pedersen, Xiying Zhai, Enrique Mateo-Sagasta

Superman; Krypto the Superdog
Loic Mireault, Martine Chartrand, Marianne Morency, Matthias Schoenegger

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang, Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee, Stuart Adcock, Keven Norris, Joseph Kim

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Elio; Ooooo the Liquid Supercomputer
Catherine Luo, Anna-Christine Lykkegaard, Ferdi Scheepers, Julian Teo

Elio; Glordon
Marco Burbano, Edgar Rodriguez, Ben Rush, Patrick Yu Wang

Zootopia 2; Gary De’Snake
Adam Green, Jennifer Stratton, Christoffer Pedersen, Jesse Erickson

KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee, Andrea Centeno, Marc Souliere, Joshua Beveridge

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

It: Welcome to Derry; “The Thing in the Dark”; The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois, Pierric Danjou, Chloe Ostiguy, Jonathan Bourdua

It: Welcome to Derry; “Winter Fire”; Pennywise
Théo Perronard, Yan Morin-Dubuisson, Yan Detang, Jonathan Fleming-Bock

Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”; Mindflayer
James Moore, Layne Howe, Shawn Warawa, Yoshihiro Harimoto

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; Female Smilodon
Alvise Avati, Marc-André Coulombe, Youen Leclerc, Andrea De Martis

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Tron: Ares; Dillinger’s Grid City
Jared Michael, Noor Valibhoy, Cody Gramstad, Stefan Litterini

The Lost Bus; The Wildfires of Roe Road
Jamie Haydock, Francesco Ferraresi, Sergei Konorev, Frederick Vallee

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Pizzaia, Steve Bevins, Dziga Kaiser, Zsolt Máté

The Lost Bus; Feather River Canyon by the Pulga Bridge
David Schulz, Mareike Loges, Björn Markgraf, Philipp Hafellner

The Gorge; The Bodyweb
Daniel James Cox, Yosuke Inomata, Clint Rea, Gabriel Pires

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Zootopia 2; Marsh Market
Limei Z. Hshieh, Alexander Nicholas Whang, Joshua Fry, Ryan DeYoung

Elio; The Communiverse
Steve Arguello, Christopher M. Burrows, Andy Lin, Laura Murphy

KPop Demon Hunters; Seoul
Rafael Lescano, Gunsik Kim, Tyquane Wright, Hee-Chel Nam

The Bad Guys 2; Cairo City
John J. Lee, Greg Hettinger, Mikael Genachte-Le Bail, Mayumi Shimokawa

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

Foundation; “A Song for the End of Everything”; Clarion Station
Sylvain Lesaint, Ilyes Boutemeur, Blake Dewoody, Benjamin Rojek

Andor; “Welcome to the Rebellion”; The Senate District
John O’Connell, Falk Boje, Hasan Ilhan, Kevin George

The Last of Us; Post-Apocalyptic Seattle
Romain Simonnet, Abraham Ibanez, David Desplat, Minguk Lee

The Residence; “Dial M for Murder”; The White House Exterior
Gabriel Vargas, Eric Schoellnast, Andrew Wilkins, Omer Gurkan

OUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY

Zootopia 2
Tyler Kupferer, Daniel Rice, Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Steve Deane, AJ Briones, Zachary Brake, Andrew Moffett

Tron: Ares
Jhon Alvarado, Michael Beaulieu, Jayden Beveridge, Hayley Kim

KPop Demon Hunters
Benjamin Hendricks, Gary H. Lee, Randolph Lizarda, Linh Mai Nguyen Chan

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT

Mickey 17; The Niflheim Spaceship
Bikas Panigrahi, Nikolai Razuev, Ajinkya Nitin Phokmare, Manoj Vijay Kamble

Wicked: For Good; Bison
Marco Chau, Giorgio Pennisi, Sowmya Ramakumar, Balazs Meszaros

Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders’ Gondola
Michael Smale, Sam Sharplin, Joe W. Churchill, Jacqi Dillon

Superman; The Fortress of Solitude
Crystal Bretz, Martin Pelissier, Klaudio Ladavac, Conner Wessinger

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora
Nicholas Illingworth, Sarah C. Farmer, James Robinson, Ryan Bowden

Superman; Metropolis City Destruction
Rick Hankins, Marcel Kern, Eric Hollands, Masoud Aziminajjar

The Lost Bus; Escape from Hell
Billy Copley, Mathieu Chardonnet, Chetan Patkar, David Schott

Together
Darcy George, Andrew Dunkerley, Ray Leung, Steve Oakley

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

In Your Dreams
Stephanie McNair, Dmitiry Kolesnik, Stephen Paschke, David Sellares

The Bad Guys 2
Michael Losure, Landon Gray, Zachary Glynn, Steve Avoujageli

Zootopia 2
Sujil Sukumaran, Stuart Griese, Zoran Stojanoski, Paul Carman

KPop Demon Hunters
Filippo Maccari, Nikolaos Finizio, Daniel La Chapelle, Srdjan Milosevic

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

Battlefield 6
Björn Åkerstedt, Anders Egleus, Kasra Kalami, Craig Moroney

The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”; The Infected Horde
Duarte Victorino, Claudio Gonzalez, Andre Castelao, Igor Bondar

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze
Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Schuleman, Kevin Tarpinian

Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”; Assault on the Mindflayer
Michael Chrobak, Brandon James Fleet, Yasunobu Arahori, Hoi Ying Fung

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
Ziad Shureih, Stefano Oggeri, Jaume Creus Costabella, Hugo Debat-Burkarth

F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage
Hugo Gauvreau, Chris Davies, Raushan Raj, Amaury Rospars

Superman; Fights and Metropolis City Destruction
Can Chang, Nicolas Caillier, Bryan Smeall, Elona Musha

Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Wind Traders, Bridgehead, Rivers and Ocean
Alex Klaricich, Gianfranco Sgura, Brad Floyd, Ari Ross

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE

The Residence; “Pilot”
Spencer Hecox, Gunnar Heiss, Alexander Greenberg, Eric Schoellnast

Stranger Things; “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”; The Abyss and Vecna’s Face
Ben Roberts, Rachel E. Herbert, Don Bradford, Ken Lam

The Last of Us; “Through the Valley”; A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
Tobias Wiesner, Mark Julien, Owen Longstaff, Brendan Naylor

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
Puff Pisanwalerd, Jean-Baptiste Noyau, Marion Nove-Josserand, Sue Nelson

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL

Disney; “Best Christmas Ever”
Hudson Martins, Luke Warpus, Jinhui Wang, Alex Miller

BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Alex Kulikov, Jack Harris, Adam Chabane, Nicola Borsari

Virgin Media; “Trunk Trucker”
Alex Grey, Sebastian Caldwell, Nicola Borsari, Giacomo Cavaletti

Genesis; “No Old Ideas”
Greg McKneally, Christian Block, Alberto Pizzocchero, Alessandro Granella

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT

Gen V; “Bags”
Hudson Kenny, Curtis Carlson, John Koyama, Bruno Larizza

Andor; “Who Are You?”
Luke Murphy, Dean Ford, Jody Eltham, Darrell Guyon

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD

Win or Lose; Detached Facial Features
David Munier, Ana Gabriela Lacaze, Jonathan Page, Anna-Christine Lykkegaard

Mickey 17; REVIZE
John Bastian, Ben Ward, Thomas Rowntree, Robert Beveridge

Avatar: Fire and Ash; BodyOpt
Christoph Sprenger, Tobias Mack, Florian Fernandez, Niall Ryan

Elio; Real-Time High Fidelity Animation System Using Signed Distance Functions
Andrew Butts, Trent Crow, Anna-Christine Lykkegaard, Catherine Luo

Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin, John Edholm, Murali Ramachari, Aleksandr Isakov

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT

Au Delà des Mots
Antoine Barbannaud, Leandro Leijnen, Timothé Vergught, Mathis De Sauvecanne

Flying From War
Ciara Borgards

Two Kings
Eliot Hervier Blondel, Mathieu Keraudran, Adrian Delmotte, Jonas Lopez Del Castillo

Azimuth
Thomas Teisseire, Cassandre Cinier, Martin Bluy, Mathis Giraudeau

A Sparrow’s Song
Tobias Eckerlin, Vincent Maurer, Elias Weber, Lilli-Luisa Heckmann