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The Creator won big at the 22nd annual Visual Effects Society Awards Wednesday night.

The awards were handed out during a ceremony, hosted by actor-comedian Jay Pharoah, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

The Creator took home five awards in the feature competition, including outstanding visual effects in a photoreal feature. The Last of Us was also a top winner in the series categories, scoring four awards, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse led the animation competition with four wins.

Other winners of the night included Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Oppenheimer, Nyad, The Mandalorian and The Flash.

It was previously announced that producer Joyce Cox, who produced VFX on movies including Avatar and The Dark Knight, received the Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony.

Actor-producer-director William Shatner was also previously revealed as the recipient of the award for Creative Excellence in “recognition of his valuable contributions...

Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” was the big winner at the 22nd Visual Effects Society Awards (held February 21 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel). The AI-themed, sci-fi actioner earned five awards, including the top photoreal feature VFX prize. The other awards were for modeling (Nomad), created environment (Floating Village), effects simulations, and compositing & lighting (Bar).

“The Creator” utilized an innovative streamlining process in post, in which Ilm designed and placed the naturalistic VFX over the actors playing AI simulants and the photographic plates as set extensions. This made the $80 million indie look like a $200 million blockbuster, with director Edwards shooting the entire film guerilla-style in 80 locations throughout Southeast Asia as the primary camera operator with a small crew and natural light.

Meanwhile, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the animated feature Oscar favorite (snubbed by the Academy’s VFX branch), took home four awards, including the top animated VFX prize. Sony Pictures Imageworks innovated...

As had been generally expected, Gareth Edwards’ futuristic sci-fi film “The Creator” proved to be the favorite among visual effects practitioners. The film topped the feature competition at the 22nd Visual Effects Society Awards, claiming five wins including one in the leading category for outstanding VFX in a photoreal feature.

Wednesday night at the Beverly Hilton, it also won the categories for created environment, model, compositing and lighting and effects simulations. Also, in the feature competition, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” collected two awards for the digital character (the emotive Rocket) and virtual cinematography. “Oppenheimer” grabbed the trophy for practical effects, and “Nyad” took home the award for supporting VFX. Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was the big winner among the animated features, collecting four awards.

“The Creator,” whose VFX was led by Industrial Light + Magic, and Guardians 3, whose work was shared by roughly 10 VFX companies,...

“Oppenheimer,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “The Last of Us” are among the nominees for the Visual Effects Society (Ves) Awards.

Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” leads the feature film field with seven nominations. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is the top animated contender with seven nominations and 24-time Emmy-nominated drama “The Last of Us” leads the episodic field with six nominations.

“The artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world have come together to create remarkable imagery,” Ves chair Kim Davidson said. “We are seeing best-in-class work that elevates the art of storytelling and exemplifies the spirit of innovation. The Ves Awards is the only venue that showcases and honors these outstanding artists across a wide range of disciplines, and we are extremely proud of our nominees.”

The Ves is a global honorary society dedicated to “advancing the arts, sciences and applications of visual effects and to upholding...

The Visual Effects Society has composited the nominees for its 22nd annual Ves Awards, which will be handed out next month. Disney’s The Creator and Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse lead the field with seven noms apiece, and HBO’s The Last of Us tops TV with six. See the full list below.

The annual Ves Awards will be handed out during the group’s 22nd annual ceremony February 21 at the Beverly Hilton. They recognize outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in 25 categories spanning features, animation, television, commercials and video games and the VFX supervisors, VFX producers and hands-on artists who bring this work to life.

“The artistry, ingenuity and passion of visual effects practitioners around the world have come together to create remarkable imagery,” said Kim Davidson, newly elected Ves Chair. “We are seeing best-in-class work that elevates the art of storytelling and exemplifies the spirit of innovation.

The Spider-Society has webbed in a few honors. The Visual Effects Society has announced their nominations for the 22nd annual Ves Awards, with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” leading the pack.

Held every winter, the Ves Awards honor the best achievements in visual effects artistry over the previous calendar year, with VFX professionals in film, television, video games, and commercials receiving recognition. Nominees in 25 categories are selected by Ves members through a process of 39 in-person and virtual nomination events, held worldwide and conducted during a 36-hour period. A minimum of three judging panels review each submission for the awards, looking at “Before and Afters” for each prospective nominee. Ves judging panels this year included members of the society from 25 different countries.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was the top animated film to receive nominations this year, gaining seven nominations including Outstanding Effects in an Animated Feature and specific nods for modeling, character animation,...

The following contains spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, in cinemas now.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny production VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst and Ilm VFX supervisor Robert Weaver recently explained how Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) survives the film's opening flashback.

Whitehurst and Weaver discussed Voller's unlikely return later in Dial of Destiny's narrative during a joint interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "[Voller's survival] was a long conversation, with a lot of iterations," Whitehurst said. "The thing that he gets hit by is a very lightweight hose that they use for putting water into steam trains, which itself can rotate. So he's being hit by as soft a thing as you can be hit by that's gonna be hanging by a railway line in 1944. But, yes, it should be a little bit of a surprise when he shows up again later." Weaver then interjected that Voller cheating death...

Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic, which won Oscars for the visual effects in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, returned to use every trick in the book on the whopping 2,350 VFX shots in the fifth installment of the franchise.

In the opening action sequence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a young Harrison Ford appears in a 1944-set flashback highlighted by an action scene atop of moving train. Then we meet the elder Indy in 1969 for his next adventure, which includes a tuk-tuk chase in Morocco and — using the dial to time travel — a climax set during the epic siege of Syracuse.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with production VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst and Ilm VFX supervisor Robert Weaver about their work on the movie — the first in the franchise to be helmed by James Mangold (Logan, Ford v. Ferrari). “The conversation never stops,...

Hollywood star Harrison Ford, 80, was de-aged using several filmmaking techniques for his part in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’. Ford plays the whip-cracking archaeologist in the film.

The shots of a young Ford look impressive, and it’s thanks to the team of over 100 artists at Industrial Light and Magic, who spent three years on the film’s visual effects, which also included enhancing and developing their existing de-aging technology to create Ilm FaceSwap, reports Variety.

Photorealism de-aging was nothing new to the team. After all, technology such as Flux existed and had been used on films such as ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ and ‘The Irishman’. But when Whitehurst and Robert Weaver, VFX supervisor at Ilm, first took on the James Mangold-helmed ‘Dial of Destiny’, they knew this was going to be the biggest project they had undertaken.

“We knew we would have to use all...

Ilm VFX artists Andrew Whitehurst and Robert Weaver open up about de-aging Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, including why it took three years and 100-plus VFX artists to do so. The fifth and final installment of the adventure franchise saw Ford don the fedora and wield the whip one last time alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny finds an aged Indy in the 1960s embarking on a quest to find a powerful Greek artifact he first came across during World War II.

With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opening during Indy's WWII adventures, Whitehurst and Weaver opened up to Variety about the incredible process to de-age Ford's Indiana Jones during the prologue. Using a combination of pre-existing tools and new techniques developed for its production led to Ilm FaceSwap,...

Yes, the de-aging of Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is an impressive tech breakthrough by Ilm that far exceeds the much-debated work on “The Irishman.” No, they didn’t rely solely on AI or machine learning. Instead, the de-aging for the Nazi-fighting prologue set in 1944 (with Ford looking 35 years younger) was achieved with every tool in their VFX arsenal — known collectively as “Ilm FaceSwap” — and by more than 100 artists.

Was it necessary? Yes, according to director James Mangold, who told IndieWire’s Anne Thompson: “I thought there would be a way to carry the audience through Harrison’s present-day age by greeting them first with an energetic homage to the previous films. You confront the audience with a young Indy in full flower and full action, and then make a sharp turn. Take everything away and let the audience confront the difference between now and then in a brazen way.

Before “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” even opened, the Disney adventure tentpole sparked intrigue with a de-aged Harrison Ford, who, in his fifth film playing the whip-cracking archaeologist, is now 80 years old.

The shots of a young Ford look impressive, and it’s thanks to the team of over 100 artists at Industrial Light and Magic, who spent three years on the film’s visual effects, which also included enhancing and developing their existing de-aging technology to create Ilm FaceSwap.

Photorealism de-aging was nothing new to the team. After all, technology such as Flux existed and had been used on films such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Irishman.”

But when the film’s VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst and Robert Weaver, VFX supervisor at Ilm, first took on the James Mangold-helmed “Dial of Destiny,” they knew this was going to be the biggest project they had undertaken.

Disney dominated the 18th annual Ves Awards with five nominations apiece for Jon Favreau’s frontrunner “The Lion King” and Robert Rodriguez’s surprising “Alita: Battle Angel” (acquired from Fox). Joining them for the top photo-real prize were the Disney-led “Avengers: Endgame” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” along with Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man”. The Ves Awards will be held January 29th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Competing for supporting VFX were Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman”, Sam Mendes’ “1917,” (which stitched together the World War I thriller as one continuous shot and offered various enhancements), James Mangold’s “Ford v Ferrari,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” and “The Aeronauts.”

In animation, Disney also fared well, with Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” (which grabbed five nominations) and “Frozen 2.” They were joined by Golden Globe nominee “Missing Link” from Laika, surprise nominee “Klaus” (the innovative 2D feature from Netflix and Spanish director Sergio Pablos), and,...

The Visual Effects Society has unveiled nominations for its 18th annual Ves Awards, which honor VFX work in film, animation, TV, commercials and video games. Winners will be revealed at a ceremony January 29 at the Beverly Hilton.

Disney’s CG redo of the The Lion King and 20th Century Fox’s Alita: Battle Angel lead all film nominees with five apiece, joining the top animated nominee Toy Story 4. In TV, Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian and the final season of HBO’s epic Game of Thrones lead the field with six nominations each.

Along with naming winners in 25 categories, the group’s ceremony later this month includes honoring Martin Scorsese with the Ves Lifetime Achievement Award. The Ves Visionary Award will be given to Roland Emmerich, and the Ves Award for Creative Excellence will be presented to VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal.

Here’s the list of noms:...

The Visual Effects Society announced nominees for the organization’s 17th annual awards on Tuesday.

Leading the way in the film and TV fields, respectively, were Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and Netflix’s “Lost in Space.” Each picked up six nominations. Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” received the most nominations among animated feature contenders with five.

“Ready Player One” also landed five nominations, while “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” and “Welcome to Marwen” each earned three. “Christopher Robin” and “First Man” picked up a pair apiece, while “Ant Man and the Wasp” landed one. Those films joined “Avengers: Infinity War” on the Academy’s list of 10 semifinalists for the category, each of which displayed their wares at the organization’s annual Visual Effects Bake-Off on Jan. 5.

Notably, Marvel’s “Black Panther” and Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns” — the final two films on the Academy’s bake-off...

The Visual Effects Society has revealed nominations for the 17th annual Ves Awards, which will recognize the best VFX artistry and innovation in film, animation, TV, commercials and video games.

Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity Wars and Netflix’s Lost In Space lead the film and TV categories this year with six nominations, respectively. Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2 tops the animation field with five noms.

Winners will be announced during a ceremony February 5 at the Beverly Hilton hosted by Patton Oswalt. Also at the gala, the annual Ves Visionary Award will be presented to Westworld‘s Jonathan Nolan, while the Ves Award for Creative Excellence will be presented to Game of Thrones masterminds David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Here are the nominees announced Tuesday in 24 categories:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Avengers: Infinity War

Daniel DeLeeuw

Jen Underdahl

Kelly Port

Matt Aitken

Daniel Sudick

Christopher Robin

Chris Lawrence...

While “Avengers: Infinity War” topped the 17th annual Ves Awards (to be held February 5th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel) with six nominations, “Black Panther,” Marvel’s other Oscar frontrunner, was shut out. And Damien Chazelle’s acclaimed “First Man,” another frontrunner, was included in the supporting category as a result of its invisible VFX. Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns,” meanwhile, was also snubbed.

However, joining “Infinity War” in the top VFX category were a surprising list: “Ready Player One” (with five nominations), “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Christopher Robin” and “Welcome to Marwen.” Joining “First Man” for supporting VFX were “12 Strong,” Bird Box,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “Outlaw King”.

In animation, Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” was the big winner with five nominations, followed by Sony’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet” with four. They were joined by Illumination’s “The Grinch” and Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.

Dennis Weaver, the laconic actor who became a TV star first as the sidekick Chester in Gunsmoke and then as the leading man of 70s series McCloud, died of complications from cancer on Friday at his home in Colorado; he was 81. A struggling actor in the early 50s who appeared onstage in A Streetcar Named Desire and Come Back, Little Sheba, Weaver got his big break in the nascent medium of television by auditioning in 1955 for the small part of Chester in the new CBS series Gunsmoke. Giving his character a unique, humorous accent and a limp (neither of which were specified in the original script), Weaver easily won the part, and fame as well as an Emmy award (in 1959) followed during his nine-year run on the show. After leaving Gunsmoke, a number of TV series appearances followed, including the boy-and-his-bear show Gentle Ben (1967-69) and the cult classic Duel (1971), directed by a then little-known filmmaker named Steven Spielberg. The thriller, about a man terrorized by the unseen driver of a large truck, put the fledgling Spielberg on the map and showcased Weaver in one of his best performances (the movie was theatrically released in 1983). Weaver's most notable role in the 70s, however, was as rural country Sheriff Sam McCloud in the detective series McCloud, which ran from 1970-77. Playing a New Mexico detective clashing with the New York police department, Weaver solved crimes weekly with his laid-back style, and received two Emmy nominations during the show's run. After McCloud, Weaver worked continuously on television, with notable roles in the 70s miniseries Centennial and Pearl, the acclaimed TV movie Amber Waves (opposite Kurt Russell and a young Mare Winningham), and Lonesome Dove: The Series, where he played Buffalo Bill Cody; Weaver's most recent appearance was in ABC Family series Wildfire. President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1973-75, Weaver was also a committed environmentalist, and spoke on behalf of the cause to both the United Nations and Congress; he and his wife, Gerry, also built their home in Colorado out of recycled materials. In addition to his wife, Weaver is survived by two sons, actor Robby Weaver and actor-producer Rick Weaver. --Prepared by IMDb staff...