‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ leads the night with seven wins; ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ tops animation categories
Los Angeles (February 25, 2026) – Tonight the Visual Effects Society (VES), the VFX industry’s professional global honorary society, held its 24th Annual VES Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Encompassing 25 categories across film, television, technology, gaming, special venue, student projects, and more, the night’s biggest winner was Avatar: Fire and Ash, which took home seven awards in total, including the top prize of Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. Additional wins for Avatar: Fire and Ash included Outstanding Character in a Photoreal Feature for Varang (played by Oona Chaplin, who was on hand at tonight’s awards as a presenter), Outstanding CG Cinematography, and the Emerging Technology Award, given to the Kora Fire Toolset.
In the animation categories, KPop Demon Hunters led the night with three awards, including the top prize of Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature, and Outstanding Character in an Animated Feature for Rumi.
Rounding out the top category wins, Sinners won the award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age won for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode, and BMW’s Heart of Joy: Meet Okto the Octopus won for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial.
Additional winners at the 24th Annual VES Awards included the video game Ghost of Yōtei (Outstanding Visual Arts in a Real-Time Project), Andor (Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project), and Azimuth (Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project).
This year’s VES Awards hosts were comedy duo Randy and Jason Sklar (the Sklar Brothers), returning to this role for the second consecutive year. Acclaimed film producer Jerry Bruckheimer was honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by his longtime collaborator, F1: The Movie director Joseph Kosinski. Wētā Workshop co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Sir Richard Taylor received this year’s VES Visionary Award, presented by Adam Savage. Additional presenters included Enuka Okuma (Paradise), Haley Joel Osment (The Burbs, Happy Gilmore 2), Jazz Raycole (The Lincoln Lawyer), Lil Rel Howery (One of Them Days), Omar Benson Miller (Sinners), and singer/songwriter Raphael Saadiq (Sinners).
In his acceptance speech, Jerry Bruckheimer addressed the artists in the room, saying: “You create the magic. You create the things that people go to theaters for. You’re the people that we dream about when we go to the movies, when we go into that dark space in the theater, and the work that you do is truly phenomenal.”
Sir Richard Taylor shared in his acceptance speech: “Thank you to the VES for this honor. It is a privilege to be part of this remarkable community and a joy to be with you all here on this special night. And if I can leave one thought with you, as I say to our team, there’s only four tenets by which I operate, and that is simply: love of oneself, love of what you do, love of who you do it with, and love of who you do it for. If you can strike those four in your life, you’re doing pretty well.”
“The VES is honored to recognize brilliant artistry and technological innovation across a wide range of disciplines,” said VES Board Chair, Kim Davidson. “The craft of visual effects is constantly evolving to push the limits of our imaginations, and tonight’s inspiring winners and nominees represent best-in-class work from around the world. Congratulations to all!”
Below is the full list of winners for the 24th Annual VES Awards:
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Richard Baneham
Peter Litvack
Eric Saindon
Nicky Muir
Steve Ingram
- OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Sinners
Michael Ralla
James Alexander
Nick Marshall
Espen Nordahl
Donnie Dean
- OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Joshua Beveridge
Jacky Priddle
Benjamin Hendricks
Clara Chan
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; “The Big Freeze”
Russell Dodgson
Tracey Gibbons
François Dumoulin
Gavin McKenzie
- OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
The Residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Seth Hill
Tesa Kubicek
John Nelson
Gabriel Vargas
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
Ghost of Yōtei
Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Joanna Wang
Jasmin Patry
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Tom Raynor
Helen Tang
Jack Harris
Alex Kulikov
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Ben Grossmann
Tamara Watts Kent
Dr. Irfan Essa
Matt Dougan
Glenn Derry
- OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan
Stephen Clee
Stuart Adcock
Keven Norris
Joseph Kim
- OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi
Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee
Andrea Matamoros
Marc Souliere
Joshua Beveridge
- OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
IT: Welcome to Derry; “The Thing in the Dark;” The Pickle Monster
Philip Harris-Genois
Pierric Danjou
Chloé Ostiguy
Jonathan Bourdua
- OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City
Gianluca Pizzaia
Steve Bevins
Dziga Kaiser
Zsolt Máté
- OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia 2; Marsh Market
Limei Z. Hshieh
Alexander Nicholas Whang
Joshua Fry
Ryan DeYoung
- OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODIC, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Andor; “Welcome to the Rebellion;” The Senate District
John O’Connell
Falk Boje
Hasan Ilhan
Kevin George
- OUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Steve Deane
A.J. Briones
Zachary Brake
Andrew Moffett
- OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders’ Gondola
Michael Smale
Sam Sharplin
Joe W. Churchill
Jacqi Dillon
- OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora
Nicholas James Illingworth
Sarah C. Farmer
James Robinson
Ryan Bowden
- OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Filippo Maccari
Nikolaos Finizio
Daniel La Chapelle
Srdjan Milosevic
- OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze
Edward Ferrysienanda
Kevin Christensen
Guy Schuleman
Kevin Tarpinian
- OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage
Hugo Gauvreau
Chris Davies
Raushan Raj
Amaury Rospars
- OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
The Last of Us; “Through the Valley;” A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh
Tobias Wiesner
Mark Julien
Owen Longstaff
Brendan Naylor
- OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”
Alex Kulikov
Jack Harris
Adam Chabane
Nicola Borsari
- OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Andor; “Who Are You?”
Luke Murphy
Dean Ford
Jody Eltham
Darrell Guyon
- EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin
John Edholm
Murali Ramachari
Aleksandr Isakov
- OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT
Azimuth
Thomas Teisseire
Cassandre Cinier
Martin Bluy
Mathis Giraudeau
For more information about the VES, visit https://www.vesglobal.org/.
About the Visual Effects Society
The Visual Effects Society is a nonprofit global community of over 5,500 VFX professionals across 50+ countries, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of visual effects while upholding the highest standards for the profession. As the entertainment industry’s only official organization representing the extended global VFX community—including supervisors, artists, producers, technology developers, educators, and studio executives—VES members contribute to all areas of entertainment: film, television, commercials, animation, games, and new media. To learn more, visit www.vesglobal.org and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. Read our award-winning publication VFX Voice at www.vfxvoice.com.
# # #
Press Contact:
Shannon Deoul, Raz Public Relations