VES Awards Add Short-Form Category, Expand Recognition For Animated Projects

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced several category changes for the 25th Annual VES Awards, including a new award for short-form work and expanded recognition for animation and practical effects.

The newly created Outstanding Visual Effects in a Short Project category will be open to photoreal and animated titles of up to 45 minutes. Eligible films include narrative and documentary shorts, music videos, experimental films, and content created natively for social media.

The organization said the category reflects both the growing sophistication of short-form work and a changing media landscape in which significant visual effects production increasingly takes place outside traditional features and episodic television.

“Visual effects artists are creating extraordinary work across more formats, platforms, and production methods than ever before,” said VES Awards Committee chair Lopsie Schwartz in a release. “As we approach the 25th Annual VES Awards, it is important that our categories continue to evolve alongside the work itself.”

Animation will also receive greater representation across the awards more broadly. The previous Outstanding CG Cinematography category has been divided into two awards: Outstanding CG Cinematography in a Photoreal Project and Outstanding CG Cinematography in an Animated Project. According to the VES, the split will allow lighting, layout, previs, and digital camera teams to be judged against more directly comparable work.

Several category titles are also being changed from Animated Feature to Animated Project, making animated series eligible to compete alongside films and other animation productions. In previous years, animated episodic work was either ineligible or required to compete against photoreal and/or feature projects.

Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project has been renamed Outstanding In-Camera Effects in a Photoreal Project and given a broader remit. The category will now recognize physical, optical, and mechanical effects captured by a camera, including pyrotechnics, miniatures, animatronics, special makeup effects, forced-perspective sets, and other practical techniques.

The awards’ Simulation categories are being renamed Procedural Effects to encompass a wider range of system-driven visual effects processes. Separate Procedural Effects awards will be presented for photoreal and animated projects.

The 25th VES Awards ceremony will take place on February 17, 2027, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The complete category descriptions and eligibility requirements are available in the VES’s official rules and procedures.