Visual Effects Society Names Director Jon Favreau, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Among 2025 Honorees

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the honorees for its 2025 VES Honors Celebration, set for November 7 at Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new Los Angeles facility. The annual event recognizes individuals who have had a major impact on the art and science of visual effects.

This year, Jon Favreau and Tim Sweeney will be inducted as honorary VES members. Favreau, the director of Iron Man, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and the Disney+ hit series The Mandalorian, has frequently used groundbreaking digital effects in his filmmaking. Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, revolutionized the industry with the Unreal Engine, facilitating breakthroughs in real-time rendering and virtual production that have changed the way games, animation, and VFX are produced.

“The annual VES Honors Celebration serves to acknowledge the incredible contributors to our industry. Each individual is selected for advancing the craft of VFX and the sector overall. We’re excited to host this unique and intimate forum and give this year’s recipients their well-deserved recognition,” said VES Board Chair Kim Davidson in a release.

Other 2025 honorees include:

• Bob Coleman, VES – VES Founders Award for his decades of leadership and support for artists.
• Dennis Hoffman – Honorary VES Lifetime Membership for his contributions to the Society and industry growth.
• Colin Campbell, Darin Grant, Gayle Munro – VES Fellows for sustained impact on VFX over the past two decades.

The VES Hall of Fame will also posthumously induct three pioneering figures: Glenn Campbell, Mabel Normand, and Eiji Tsuburaya, whose groundbreaking work helped define modern visual effects.

Additionally, the Society will honor long-serving Section leaders Rachel Copp (New Zealand), Eric Greenlief (Washington State), Anthony Tan (Montreal), Agon Ushaku (Germany) and Philipp Wolf (Montreal) for their exceptional service.

The 2025 VES Honors Celebration is set to be an evening that bridges the past and future of the art form, honoring both the trailblazers who built its foundation and the contemporary artists redefining it today.