The Mill, Framestore, MPC and DNeg pick up VES nominations
The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards ceremony, recognising outstanding visual effects artistry in over twenty categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Avatar is of course well represented, but among the UK companies honoured, The Mill has received three nominations, MPC has four, Framestore has six, while Double Negative is also in the running for four awards.
Mill London has been nominated for its work on Skellig (pictured below), for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries or a Special. Mill LA has two nominations: AMF – Caterpillar for Outstanding Visual Effects in a commercial and AMF – Caterpillar for Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast program or commercial (pictured above).
“AMF Caterpillar was a fantastic project to collaborate on,” said Mill LA MD Ben Hampshire. “Working with Filip Engstrom to bring his Caterpillar to life was an exciting and creative opportunity for our talented CG and compositors.This is great news for our ever expanding CG department as we continue to work with our industries leading directors”.
The Moving Picture Company (MPC) has received four nominations at the awards, including two for Kerry LowLow for Best VFX and Best Compositing in a Commercial (daring mouse pictured below). Evian ‘Skating Babies’ is in the frame for best animated character and the planestupid ‘Polar Bears’ are in for best VFX in a commercial.
Framestore’s six award nominations include two for Avatar, two for Pepsi Penguin and one nomination apiece for the studio’s work on DJ Hero and Sherlock Holmes.
For Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, the Double Negative team were charged with the task of re-creating London in 1893. Effects included a version of Tower Bridge that was still under construction, in which to play out the final scenes
Double Negative’s work has been nominated for four awards, for work on films including Sherlock Holmes (above), Angels and Demons, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Franklyn. In the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture category, Double Negative’s Visual Effects Supervisors, David Vickery and Ryan Cook have been nominated for their work on Sherlock Holmes and Angel and Demons, respectively. In the Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture, Tania Richard and Christoph Unger were nominated for their work on the independent film, Franklyn. David Bassalla, Emily Cobb and Tania Richard are also nominated for the matte paintings in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The nominees were chosen on 16 January by panels of VES members made up of leading industry figures who viewed the submissions at the various screening facilities in Burbank, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Vancouver.
Jeffery A.Okun, Chairman of the Visual Effects Society said the Visual Effects Society was proud to present these nominations as the most outstanding work in the field this year. “It’s important to keep an open mind that it wasn’t machines that created these images but incredibly talented artists,” continued Okun. “We congratulate them all and look forward to seeing who is chosen as the best of the best at the awards show in February.”
This year James Cameron will be honoured with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr.Ed Catmull with the Georges Mêliés Award for pioneering.
The 8th Annual VES Awards will take place on 28 February at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Good luck to all the nominees!
View the full list of nominees.
See more information about VES
