Visual Effects Society Awards: 'Apes,' 'Blade Runner 2049' Lead Feature Nominees

Four VFX Oscar shortlisted films fail to make the VES nominations list.

'War for the Planet of the Apes' (left), 'Blade Runner 2049'

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Warner Bros.

War for the Planet of the Apes and Blade Runner 2049 lead the feature nominees for the Visual Effects Society Awards, with seven nominations apiece.

This includes the top category of outstanding VFX in a photoreal feature, where those films are nominated alongside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kong: Skull Island and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The outstanding supporting VFX category includes Dunkirk, along with Darkest Hour, Downsizing, mother! and Only the Brave.

In six of the last 10 years, the winner in the top VES category went on to win the VFX Oscar. Once, in 2011, the winner of the VES category for supporting VFX (Hugo) collected the VFX Oscar.

This year's VFX Oscar shortlist includes War for the Planet of the Apes and Blade Runner 2049, Kong: Skull Island and The Last Jedi (both with four VES noms), Guardians 2 (with three VES noms) and Dunkirk (one nom).

Unusually, four of the 10 films shortlisted for the VFX Oscar failed to earn a single VES nomination: Alien: Covenant, Okja, The Shape of Water and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

In 2016, Ex Machina won the Oscar in VFX, though it wasn't nominated by the VES.

The work on Apes was led by Weta; Last Jedi and Kong: Skull Island by Industrial Light & Magic; and Dunkirk by Double Negative. The bulk of the work of Blade Runner 2049 and Guardians 2 was shared by a collection of VFX houses.

Despicable Me 3 earned five VES nominations, the most for an animated feature.

On the TV side, Game of Thrones dominated with 11 nominations, the most for any of this year's contenders.

As previously announced, the Georges Méliès Award will be presented to Academy Award-winning VFX supervisor Joe Letteri, who is also nominated for War for the Planet of the Apes. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Jon Favreau.

The 16th annual VES Awards will be handed out Feb. 13 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The complete list of nominees follows.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Blade Runner 2049
John Nelson
Karen Murphy Mundell
Paul Lambert
Richard Hoover
Gerd Nefzer

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Christopher Townsend
Damien Carr
Guy WilliamsJonathan Fawkner
Dan Sudick

Kong: Skull Island
Jeff White
Tom Peitzman
Stephen Rosenbaum
Scott Benza
Michael Meinardus

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Ben Morris
Tim Keene
Eddie Pasquarello
Daniel Seddon
Chris Corbould

War for the Planet of the Apes
Joe Letteri
Ryan Stafford
Daniel Barrett
Dan Lemmon
Joel Whist
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Bros. Pictures

Darkest Hour
Stephane Naze
Warwick Hewitt
Guillaume Terrien
Benjamin Magana

Downsizing
James E. Price
Susan MacLeod
Lindy De Quattro
Stephane Naze

Dunkirk
Andrew Jackson
Mike Chambers
Andrew Lockley
Alison Wortman
Scott Fisher

Mother!
Dan Schrecker
Colleen Bachman
Ben Snow
Wayne Billheimer
Peter Chesney

Only the Brave
Eric Barba
Dione Wood
Matthew Lane
Georg Kaltenbrunner
Michael Meinardus
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Captain Underpants
David Soren
Mark Swift
Mirielle Soria
David Dulac

Cars 3
Brian Fee
Kevin Reher
Michael Fong
Jon Reisch

Coco
Lee Unkrich
Darla K. Anderson
David Ryu
Michael K. O'Brien

Despicable Me 3
Pierre Coffin
Chris Meledandri
Kyle Balda
Eric Guillon

The LEGO Batman Movie
Rob Coleman
Amber Naismith
Grant Freckelton
Damien Gray

The LEGO Ninjago Movie
Gregory Jowle
Fiona Chilton
Miles Green
Kim Taylor
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Courtesy of Netflix

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Orientation Part 1
Mark Kolpack
Sabrina Arnold
David Rey
Kevin Yuille
Gary D'Amico

Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Chris Baird
David Ramos
Sam Conway

Legion; Chapter 1
John Ross
Eddie Bonin
Sebastien Bergeron
Lionel Lim
Paul Benjamin

Star Trek: Discovery; The Vulcan Hello
Jason Michael Zimmerman
Aleksandra Kochoska
Ante Dekovic
Mahmoud Rahnama

Stranger Things 2; The Gate
Paul Graff
Christina Graff
Seth Hill
Joel Sevilla
Caius the Man
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Courtesy of Starz

Black Sails; XXIX
Erik Henry
Terron Pratt
Yafei Wu
David Wahlberg
Paul Dimmer

Fear The Walking Dead; Sleigh Ride
Peter Crosman
Denise Gayle
Philip Nussbaumer
Martin Pelletier
Frank Ludica

Mr. Robot; eps3.4_runtime-err0r.r00
Ariel Altman
Lauren Montuori
John Miller
Luciano DiGeronimo

Outlander; Eye of the Storm
Richard Briscoe
Elicia Bessette
Aladino Debert
Filip Orrby
Doug Hardy

Taboo; Pilot
Henry Badgett
Tracy McCreary
Nic Birmingham
Simon Rowe
Colin Gorry

Vikings; On the Eve
Dominic Remane
Mike Borrett
Ovidiu Cinazan
Paul Wishart
Paul Byrne
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature

Courtesy of Alcon Entertainment

Blade Runner 2049; Rachael
Axel Akkeson
Stefano Carta
Wesley Chandler
Ian Cooke-Grimes

Kong: Skull Island; Kong
Jakub Pistecky
Chris Havreberg
Karin Cooper
Kris Costa

War for the Planet of the Apes; Bad Ape
Eteuati Tema
Aidan Martin
Florian Fernandez
Mathias Larserud

War for the Planet of the Apes; Caesar
Dennis Yoo
Ludovic Chailloleau
Douglas McHale
Tim Forbes
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

Courtesy of Call of Duty

Assassin's Creed Origins
Raphael Lacoste
Patrick Limoges
Jean-Sebastien Guay
Ulrich Haar

Call of Duty: WWII
Joe Salud
Atsushi Seo
Danny Chan
Jeremy Kendall

Fortnite; A Hard Day's Night
Michael Clausen
Gavin Moran
Brian Brecht
Andrew Harris

Sonaria
Scot Stafford
Camille Cellucci
Kevin Dart
Theresa Latzko

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Shaun Escayg
Tate Mosesian
Eben Cook
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

Beyond Good and Evil 2
Leon Berelle
Maxime Luere
Dominique Boidin
Remi Kozyra

Kia Niro; Hero's Journey
Robert Sethi
Anastasia von Rahl
Tom Graham
Chris Knight
Dave Peterson

Mercedes Benz; King of the Jungle
Simon French
Josh King
Alexia Paterson
Leonardo Costa

Monster; Opportunity Roars
Ruben Vandebroek
Clairellen Wallin
Kevin Ives
Kyle Cody

Samsung; Do What You Can't; Ostrich
Diarmid Harrison-Murray
Tomek Zietkiewicz
Amir Bazazi
Martino Madeddu
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

Courtesy of Disney

Avatar: Flight of Passage
Richard Baneham
Amy Jupiter
David Lester
Thrain Shadbolt

Corona; Paraiso Secreto
Adam Grint
Jarrad Vladich
Roberto Costas Fernández
Ed Thomas
Felipe Linares

Guardians of the Galaxy; Mission: BREAKOUT!
Jason Bayever
Amy Jupiter
Mike Bain
Alexander Thomas

National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey
Thilo Ewers
John Owens
Gioele Cresce
Mariusz Wesierski

Nemo and Friends SeaRider
Anthony Apodaca
Kathy Janus
Brandon Benepe
Nick Lucas
Rick Rothschild

Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire
Ben Snow
Judah Graham
Ian Bowie
Curtis Hickman
David Layne
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature

DreamWorks

Coco; Hector
Emron Grover
Jonathan Hoffman
Michael Honsel
Guilherme Sauerbronn Jacinto

Despicable Me 3; Bratt
Eric Guillon
Bruno Dequier
Julien Soret
Benjamin Fournet

The Lego Ninjago Movie; Garma Mecha Man
Arthur Terzis
Wei He
Jean-Marc Ariu
Gibson Radsavanh

The Boss Baby; Boss Baby
Alec Baldwin
Carlos Puertolas
Rani Naamani
Joe Moshier

The Lego Ninjago Movie; Garmadon
Matthew Everitt
Christian So
Loic Miermont
Fiona Darwin
Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project

Black Mirror: Metalhead
Steven Godfrey
Stafford Lawrence
Andrew Robertson
Lestyn Roberts

Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall; Zombie Polar Bear
Paul Story
Todd Labonte
Matthew Muntean
Nicholas Wilson

Game of Thrones; Eastwatch; Drogon Meets Jon
Jonathan Symmonds
Thomas Kutschera
Philipp Winterstein
Andreas Krieg

Game of Thrones; The Spoils of War; Drogon Loot Train Attack
Murray Stevenson
Jason Snyman
Jenn Taylor
Florian Friedmann
Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial

Beyond Good and Evil 2; Zhou Yuzhu
Dominique Boidin
Maxime Luère
Leon Berelle
Remi Kozyra

Mercedes Benz; King of the Jungle
Steve Townrow
Joseph Kane
Greg Martin
Gabriela Ruch Salmeron

Netto; The Easter Surprise; Bunny
Alberto Lara
Jorge Montiel
Anotine Mariez
Jon Wood

Samsung; Do What You Can't; Ostrich
David Bryan
Maximilian Mallmann
Tim Van Hussen
Brendan Fagan
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Blade Runner 2049; Los Angeles
Chris McLaughlin
Rhys Salcombe
Seungjin Woo
Francesco Dell'Anna

Blade Runner 2049; Trash Mesa
Didier Muanza
Thomas Gillet
Guillaume Mainville
Sylvain Lorgeau

Blade Runner 2049; Vegas
Eric Noel
Arnaud Saibron
Adam Goldstein
Pascal Clement

War for the Planet of the Apes; Hidden Fortress
Greg Notzelman
James Shaw
Jay Renner
Gak Gyu Choi

War for the Planet of the Apes; Prison Camp
Phillip Leonhardt
Paul Harris
Jeremy Fort
Thomas Lo
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

Courtesy of Disney Pixar

Cars 3; Abandoned Racetrack
Marlena Fecho
Thidaratana Annee Jonjai
Jose L. Ramos Serrano
Frank Tai

Coco; City of the Dead
Michael Frederickson
Jamie Hecker
Jonathan Pytko
Dave Strick

Despicable Me 3; Hollywood Destruction
Axelle De Cooman
Pierre Lopes
Milo Riccarand
Nicolas Brack

The Lego Ninjago Movie; Ninjago City
Kim Taylor
Angela Ensele
Felicity Coonan
Jean Pascal leBlanc
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial or Real-Time Project

Courtesy of HBO

Assassin's Creed Origins; City of Memphis
Patrick Limoges
Jean-Sebastien Guay
Mikael Guaveia
Vincent Lombardo

Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall; Frozen Lake
Daniel Villalba
Antonio Lado
Jose Luis Barreiro
Isaac de la Pompa

Game of Thrones; Eastwatch
Patrice Poissant
Deak Ferrand
Dominic Daigle
Gabriel Morin

Still Star-Crossed; City
Rafael Solorzano
Isaac de la Pompa
Jose Luis Barreiro
Oscar Perea

Stranger Things 2; The Gate
Saul Galbiati
Michael Maher
Seth Cobb
Kate McFadden
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Beauty and the Beast; Be Our Guest
Shannon Justison
Casey Schatz
Neil Weatherley
Claire Michaud

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Groot Dance/Opening Fight
James Baker
Steven Lo
Alvise Avati
Robert Stipp

Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Crait Surface Battle
Cameron Nielsen
Albert Cheng
John Levin
Johanes Kurnia

Thor: Ragnarok; Valkyrie's Flashback
Hubert Maston
Arthur Moody
Adam Paschke
Casey Schatz
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Photofest

Blade Runner 2049; LAPD Headquarters
Alex Funke
Steven Saunders
Joaquin Loyzaga
Chris Menges

Despicable Me 3; Dru's Car
Eric Guillon
François-Xavier Lepeintre
Guillaume Boudeville
Pierre Lopes

Life; The ISS
Tom Edwards
Chaitanya Kshirsagar
Satish Kuttan
Paresh Dodia

US Marines; Anthem; Monument
Tom Bardwell
Paul Liaw
Adam Dewhirst
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Warner Bros.

Kong: Skull Island
Florent Andorra
Alexis Hall
Raul Essig
Branko Grujcic

Only the Brave; Fire & Smoke
Georg Kaltenbrunner
Thomas Bevan
Philipp Zaufel
Himanshu Joshi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Bombing Run
Peter Kyme
Miguel Perez Senent
Ahmed Gharraph
Billy Copley

Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Mega Destroyer Destruction
Mihai Cioroba
Ryoji Fujita
Jiyong Shin
Dan Finnegan

War for the Planet of the Apes
David Caeiro Cebrian
Johnathan Nixon
Chet Leavai
Gary Boyle
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

Courtesy of Illumination and Universal

Cars 3
Greg Gladstone
Stephen Marshall
Leon JeongWook Park
Tim Speltz

Coco
Kristopher Campbell
Stephen Gustafson
Dave Hale
Keith Klohn

Despicable Me 3
Bruno Chauffard
Frank Baradat
Milo Riccarand
Nicolas Brack

Ferdinand
Yaron Canetti
Allan Kadkoy
Danny Speck
Mark Adams

The Boss Baby
Mitul Patel
Gaurav Mathur
Venkatesh Kongathi
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

Courtesy of HBO

Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall; Frozen Lake
Manuel Ramirez
Oscar Marquez
Pablo Hernandez
David Gacituaga

Game of Thrones; The Dragon and the Wolf; Wall Destruction
Thomas Hullin
Dominik Kirouac
Sylvain Nouveau
Nathan Arbuckle

Heineken; The Trailblazers
Christian Bohm
Andreu Lucio Archs
Carsten Keller
Steve Oakley
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment

Blade Runner 2049; LAPD Approach and Joy Holograms
Tristan Myles
Miles Lauridsen
Joel Delle-Vergin
Farhad Mohasseb

Kong: Skull Island
Nelson Sepulveda
Aaron Brown
Paolo Acri
Shawn Mason

Thor: Ragnarok; Bridge Battle
Gavin McKenzie
David Simpson
Owen Carroll
Mark Gostlow

War for the Planet of the Apes
Christoph Salzmann
Robin Hollander
Ben Morgan
Ben Warner
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode

Jan Thijs/CBS

Game of Thrones; Beyond the Wall; Frozen Lake
Oscar Perea
Santiago Martos
David Esteve
Michael Crane

Game of Thrones; Eastwatch
Thomas Montminy Brodeur
Xavier Fourmond
Reuben Barkataki
Sebastien Raets

Game of Thrones; The Spoils of War; Loot Train Attack
Dom Hellier
Thijs Noij
Edwin Holdsworth
Giacomo Matteucci

Star Trek: Discovery
Phil Prates
Rex Alerta
John Dinh
Karen Cheng
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial

Destiny 2; New Legends Will Rise
Alex Unruh
Michael Ralla
Helgi Laxdal
Timothy Gutierrez

Nespresso; Comin' Home
Matt Pascuzzi
Steve Drew
Martin Lazaro
Karch Koon

Samsung; Do What You Can't; Ostrich
Michael Gregory
Andrew Roberts
Gustavo Bellon
Rashabh Ramesh Butani

Virgin Media; Delivering Awesome
Jonathan Westley
John Thornton
Milo Paterson
George Cressey
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Creature Pinup
Christian Leitner
Juliane Walther
Kiril Mirkov
Lisa Ecker

Hybrids
Florian Brauch
Romain Thirion
Matthieu Pujol
Kim Tailhades

Les Pionniers de l'Univers
Clementine Courbin
Matthieu Guevel
Jérôme Van Beneden
Anthony Rege

The Endless
Nicolas Lourme
Corentin Gravend
Edouard Calemard
Romaric Vivier