The VES Awards recognizes and honors the most outstanding visual effects work of the year and honors the artists who created them.

14th Annual VES Awards Ceremony took place Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Roger Guyett
Luke O'Byrne
Patrick Tubach
Paul Kavanagh
Chris Corbould

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur
Sanjay Bakshi
Denise Ream
Michael Venturini
Jon Reisch

Outstanding VFX in Photoreal Episode

Game Of Thrones, Dance of Dragons
Joe Bauer
Steve Kullback
Eric Carney
Derek Spears
Stuart Brisdon

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

SSE; Pier
Neil Davies
Tim Lyall
Hitesh Patel
Jorge Montiel

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant; The Bear
Matt Shumway
Gaelle Morand
Karin Cooper
Leandro Estebecorena

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature

Inside Out; Joy
Shawn Krause
Tanja Krampfert
Jacob Merrell
Alexis Angelidis

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

SSE; Pier; Orangutan
Jorge Montiel
Sauce Vilas
Philippe Moine
Sam Driscoll

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Mad Max: Fury Road; Toxic Storm
Dan Bethell
Clinton Downs
Chris Young

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur
Stephen Marshall
Magnus Wrenninge
Michael Hall
Hemagiri Arumugam

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

Game of Thrones; Hardhome
David Ramos
Antonio Lado
Piotr Weiss
Félix Bergés

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Citipati
Andreas Feix
Francesco Faranna

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

The Order: 1886
Nathan Phail-Liff
Dana Jan
Anthony Vitale
Scot Andreason

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard
Paul Kavanagh
Colin Benoit
Susumu Yukuhiro
Greg Salter

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

Fast and Furious: Supercharged
Chris Shaw
Alysia Cotter
Ben White
Diego Guerrero

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Falcon Chase / Graveyard
Yanick Dusseault
Mike Wood
Justin van der Lek
Quentin Marmier

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur; The Farm
David Munier
Matthew Webb
Matt Kuruc
Tom Miller

Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

Game of Thrones; City of Volantis
Dominic Piche
Christine Leclerc
Patrice Poissant
Thomas Montminy-Brodeur

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Star Wars: The Force Awakens; BB-8
Joshua Lee
Matthew Denton
Landis Fields
Cyrus Jam

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant; Bear Attack
Donny Rausch
Alan Travis
Charles Lai
TC Harrison

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial

SSE; Pier
Gary Driver
Greg Spencer
Grant Connor

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode

Game of Thrones; Hardhome
Eduardo Díaz
Guillermo Orbe
Oscar Perea
Inmaculada Nadela

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

The Revenant
Rich McBride
Ivy Agregan
Jason Smith
Nicolas Chevallier
Cameron Waldbauer

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode

Vikings; To the Gates
Dominic Remane
Bill Halliday
Paul Wishart
Ovidiu Cinazan
Paul Byrne

Visionary Award: Syd Mead

Lifetime Achievement Award: Sir Ridley Scott

The Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry's professional global honorary society, named multiple award-winning director- producer Sir Ridley Scott as the recipent of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his enormous contributions to filmed entertainment.   

The VES Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by the VES Board of Directors, recognizes an outstanding body of work that has significantly contributed to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry.  VES will honor Scott for his vision and dedication to storytelling that blends iconic visual effects and unforgettable narrative on an epic scale.  Scott’s fiercely innovative direction of groundbreaking films including science fiction classics Blade Runnerand Alien and the sweeping chronicleGladiator, has given rise to a new era of storytelling and had a profound impact on future generations of filmmakers.
 
"Ridley Scott is a defining voice of the feature, broadcast and commercial forms, and a true master of his craft,” said Mike Chambers, VES Board Chair.  “His vision and contribution to the art is incomparable and his impact upon the visual effects and technical fields is unparalleled.  Ridley's iconic films have entertained and inspired millions, and his oeuvre of groundbreaking work has been immensely influential. For this, and more, we are honored to award him with the prestigious Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award.”
 
“The best filmmaking has always been the result of collaboration between artists, craftspeople and technicians, both in front and behind the camera,” said Ridley Scott. “Over the years I have been very fortunate to work on films that are visual at their core and thus I have always been immensely reliant on the expertise of our visual effects teams. To be honored by the Visual Effects Society with this Lifetime Achievement Award is indeed extremely gratifying.”
 
Scott has received Academy Award® nominations for Best Director for his work on Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and Thelma & Louise.  All three films also earned him DGA Award nominations.  In 2003 Scott was awarded a knighthood from the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of his contributions to the arts.
 
Scott’s current release, The Martian, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastian is a box-office blockbuster receiving widespread critical acclaim. His other recent directorial credits include the Exodus: Gods and Kingsstarring Christian Bale, and the celebrated hits Prometheus starring Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron and The Counselor, starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, and Javier Bardem.   
 
In addition to his Academy Award® and DGA nominations, Scott also earned a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Director and a BAFTA nomination for Best Film for American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.  Scott also received Golden Globe® and BAFTA nominations for Best Director for Gladiator, which won the Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and BAFTA awards for Best Picture.
 
In 1977, Scott made his feature film directorial debut with The Duellists, for which he won the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed with the blockbuster science-fiction thriller Alien, which catapulted Sigourney Weaver to stardom and launched a successful franchise. In 1982, Scott directed the landmark film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. Considered a science-fiction classic, the futuristic thriller was added to the U.S. Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1993, and a director’s cut of Blade Runner was released to renewed acclaim in 1993 and again in 2007.  Scott’s additional film directing credits include Legend, Someone to Watch Over Me, Black Rain, 1492: Conquest of Paradise; White Squall, G.I. Jane, Hannibal, Body of Lies, A Good Year, Kingdom of Heaven, Matchstick Men and Robin Hood.
 
Ridley and his brother Tony formed commercial and advertising production company RSA in 1967.  RSA has an established reputation for creating innovating and groundbreaking commercials for some of the world's most recognized corporate brands.  In 1995, they formed the film and television production company Scott Free. With offices in Los Angeles and London, Scott Free produced such films as In Her Shoes, The A-Team,Cyrus, The Grey, and the Academy Award®-nominated The Assassination of Jesse James. 
 
Scott also executive produces the Emmy®, Peabody, and Golden Globe® winning hit TV show The Good Wife and the team served as executive producers on long-form projects including the Starz miniseries The Pillars of The Earth, the A&E miniseries The Andromeda Strain, the TNT miniseries The Company; and the award-winning HBO movies RKO 281,The Gathering Storm, and Into the Storm. 
 
Previous winners of the VES Lifetime Achievement Award have included James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Ray Harryhausen, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, John Dykstra and Frank Marshall & Kathleen Kennedy.