The Jungle Book is going above and beyond the bare necessities this awards season.
Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 novel — inspired by Disney’s 1967 animated film of the same name — triumphed in five categories at Tuesday’s Visual Effects Society Awards, toppling fellow competitors like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Doctor Strange, and Kubo and the Two Strings.
In addition to taking the industry organization’s highest award for visual effects in a feature film, the box office juggernaut, released in April 2016, earned VES prizes for its virtual cinematography, character animation, effects simulation, and composting. Its studio brethren, Moana, scored two accolades, while Kubo nabbed the biggest animated prize of the night. Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon won in the supporting visual effects category.
On the television side, HBO’s Game of Thrones won five VES awards as well, including outstanding visual effects in a photoreal episode and outstanding effects simulations in a TV episode, while the animated performance of Daenerys Targaryen’s mythical beast, Drogon, also bagged a VES trophy.
Since 2002, the VES’ top honoree has gone on to win the best visual effects Oscar nine times. The VES’ supporting feature winner has won the corresponding Oscar only once across the last 14 ceremonies.
This year, both The Jungle Book and Deepwater Horizon were nominated by the Academy’s VFX branch, as were fellow VES winners Doctor Strange (outstanding created environment in a photoreal feature) and Kubo (outstanding visual effects in an animated feature). The only 2017 Oscar nominee not to win a VES award this year is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which became 2016’s highest-grossing film at the domestic box office with $524.9 million (and counting) in ticket sales.
Since its establishment in 1997, the VES remains “the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio executives, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers,” according to its official website. The honorary society boasts more than 3,400 members in roughly 30 countries around the world, and is headquartered in Los Angeles.
Winners of the 15th annual VES Awards are:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
THE JUNGLE BOOK
Robert Legato
Joyce Cox
Andrew R. Jones
Adam Valdez
JD Schwalm
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
DEEPWATER HORIZON
Craig Hammack
Petra Holtorf-Stratton
Jason Snell
John Galloway
Burt Dalton
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Travis Knight
Arianne Sutner
Steve Emerson
Brad Schiff
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Glenn Melenhorst
Matthew Rouleau
Sam Conway
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
BLACK SAILS; XX
Erik Henry
Terron Pratt
Aladino Debert
Yafei Wu
Paul Stephenson
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
UNCHARTED 4
Bruce Straley
Eben Cook
Iki Ikram
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer
Diarmid Harrison-Murray
Hannah Ruddleston
Fabian Frank
William Laban
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN; Battle for the Sunken Treasure
Bill George
Amy Jupiter
Hayden Landis
David Lester
Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature
THE JUNGLE BOOK; King Louie
Paul Story
Dennis Yoo
Jack Tema
Andrei Coval
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature
FINDING DORY; Hank
Jonathan Hoffman
Steven Clay Hunter
Mark Piretti
Audrey Wong
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode or Real-Time Project
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Drogon
James Kinnings
Michael Holzl
Matt Derksen
Joeseph Hoback
Outstanding Animated Performance in a Commercial
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer
Tim van Hussen
David Bryan
Chloe Dawe
Maximillian Mallman
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
DOCTOR STRANGE; New York City
Adam Watkins
Martijn van Herk
Tim Belsher
Jon Mitchell
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
MOANA; Motonui Island
Rob Dressel
Andy Harkness
Brien Hindman
Larry Wu
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Meereen City
Deak Ferrand
Dominic Daigle
François Croteau
Alexandru Banuta
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
THE JUNGLE BOOK
Bill Pope
Robert Legato
Gary Roberts
John Brennan
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
DEEPWATER HORIZON; Deepwater Horizon Rig
Kelvin Lau
Jean Bolte
Kevin Sprout
Kim Vongbunyong
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
THE JUNGLE BOOK; Nature Effects
Oliver Winwood
Fabian Nowak
David Schneider
Ludovic Ramisandraina
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
MOANA
Marc Henry Bryant
David Hutchins
John M. Kosnik
Dale Mayeda
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Meereen City
Thomas Hullin
Dominik Kirouac
James Dong
Xavier Fourmond
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
THE JUNGLE BOOK
Christoph Salzmann
Masaki Mitchell
Matthew Adams
Max Stummer
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode
GAME OF THRONES; Battle of the Bastards; Retaking Winterfell
Dominic Hellier
Morgan Jones
Thijs Noij
Caleb Thompson
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial
John Lewis; Buster the Boxer
Tom Harding
Alex Snookes
David Filipe
Andreas Feix
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
BREAKING POINT
Johannes Franz
Nicole Rothermel
Thomas Sali
Alexander Richter
Comments