"Button" Buttons Up VES Awards

The visual effects teams from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" nabbed four VES Awards last week, with "The Dark Knight" earning three and "Changeling" earning two.

It wasn't easy to find coverage of the VES Awards from the Visual Effects Society itself. If you go to VESAwards.com, there is no information on the winners listed (only applications and nominees). No email went out to VES members, which is strange because VES is usually pretty good about disseminating information via email. I went to visualeffectssociety.com, and on the far right side is a tiny link to a hastily prepped PDF file, which contained the names of the winners. The site contained no photographs of the event, no video, no acceptance speeches, and no links to other press coverage of the event. Disappointing, to say the least, especially for VES' biggest night of the year.

One of the many elaborate matte paintings for Clint Eastwood's "Changeling"

As for the awards themselves, I heard that it was a fun show. They gave lifetime achievement awards to the one and only Phil Tippett, as well as the monster producing partners Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

As for the awards themselves, I was, of course, rooting for my fellow ILMers for our nominations for "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones." I especially was hoping for an "Indiana Jones" win for Best Created Environment, since I contributed to the Temple Heart sequence (hopefully more on this in a future post). But "Button" and "Dark Knight" swooped up most of the awards, and for the most part, rightfully so.

An image from "The Science Behind Benjamin Button"

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you visit the well-made The Science Behind Benjamin Button, which nicely highlights some of the visual effects challenges from the film.

Here are some press clippings that I was able to muster:

• Variety: 'Button' Tops Visual Effects Awards
• VFXWorld: Backstage at the VES Awards
• FXGuide: VES Awards Report and Photo Gallery

And here are all of the winners of the live-action feature film categories. (To see all the nominees, click here.)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Eric Barba, Edson Williams, Nathan McGuinness, Lisa Beroud

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
CHANGELING
Michael Owens, Geoffrey Hancock, Jinnie Pak, Dennis Hoffman

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin's Secret
Eric Barba, Lisa Beroud, Steve Preeg, Jonathan Litt

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Button
Steve Preeg, Matthias Wittmann, Tom St. Amand, David McLean

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture
CHANGELING - 1928 Downtown L.A.
Romain Bayle, Abel Milanes, Allan Lee, Debor Dunphy

Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT - Garbage Truck Crash Models and Miniatures
Ian Hunter, Forest Fischer, Branden Seifert, Adam Gelbart

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT - IMAX Gotham City Scapes
Peter Bebb, David Vickery, Philippe Leprince, Andrew Lockley

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Comes Together
Janelle Croshaw, Paul Lambert, Sonja Burchard, Sarahjane Javelo

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT
Chris Corbould, Peter Notley, Ian Lowe