A Guide to the Visual Effects Society Awards

The magicians behind many of the year’s most exciting visual effects accomplishment will gather for the 14th annual Visual Effects Society Awards on Tuesday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s event.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens leads the feature competition with seven nominations.

That includes a nod in the top category for outstanding visual effects in a photoreal feature (the category name was changed this year from VFX in a VFX-driven feature). It will face off against Furious 7, San Andreas, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian. Nominees for supporting VFX in a feature are Bridge of Spies, Everest, In the Heart of the Sea, The Revenant and The Walk.

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Following Star Wars‘ seven nominations in the feature categories was San Andreas, with four nods; and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant and The Walk, which earned three apiece.

In nine of the last 13 years, the winner of the top award (then called outstanding VFX in a VFX driven feature, now outstanding VFX in a photoreal feature) went on to win the Oscar in visual effects.

Once, the Oscar went to the winner of the category for outstanding supporting VFX, for Hugo.

Fox/Blue Sky’s The Peanuts Movies leads the animated feature categories with five nominations.

That’s followed by Pixar’s Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, which collected four apiece.

The Revenant Bear will take on Star Wars‘ Maz.

In the category for an animated performance in a photoreal feature, The Revenant‘s Bear will go up against Star Wars‘ Maz, Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s Hulk and Chappie‘s Chappie.

Game of Thrones dominated the TV competition.

It earned nine nominations.

Virtual reality projects entered the race.

Goosebumps‘ VR Adventure and Nike’s The Neymar Jr. Effect earning nods in the category for a special venue project.

Ridley Scott and Syd Mead will be honored.

Scott is this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and Mead will receive the society’s Visionary Award.