^{Credit: Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century Studios)}

Avatar: Fire and Ash leads the 24th Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards nominations with ten bids. In Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photorealistic Feature, Avatar: Fire and Ash is nominated against F1: The Movie, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and The Lost Bus. Of the animated feature nominees, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, and Zootopia 2 tied for the most nominations with five apiece. 2009's Avatar and 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water were previously huge winners at the VES Awards. Fire and Ash is expected to be another dominating force on the way to the Oscars. 

Although How to Train Your Dragon didn't make the shortlist for Best Visual Effects consideration at the 98th Academy Awards, Avatar: Fire and Ash, F1, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and The Lost Bus all did. Also among the Oscar shortlist are The Electric State, Frankenstein, Sinners, Superman, Tron: Ares, and Wicked: For Good. While the latter four all managed to get at least one VES Awards nomination, Electric State and Frankenstein both blanked here. Fire and Ash seems preordained to win the Oscar, but The Lost Bus may've gotten the biggest boost for a nomination with four bids here. Superman also got four VES Award nominations, despite missing the top category.

Check out the full list of the Visual Effects Society Award nominations below: 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Richard Baneham

Peter Litvack

Eric Saindon

Nicky Muir

Steve Ingram

F1: The Movie

Ryan Tudhope

Nikeah Forde

Robert Harrington

Nicolas Chevallier

Keith Alfred Dawson

How To Train Your Dragon

Christian Manz

Christopher Raimo

Glen McIntosh

Glenn Melenhorst

Terry Palmer

Jurassic World: Rebirth

David Vickery

Carlos Ciudad

Steve Aplin

Charmaine Chan

Neil Corbould, VES

The Lost Bus

Charlie Noble

Gavin Round

David Zaretti

Russell Bowen

Brandon K. McLaughlin

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

After the Hunt

Fabio Cerrito

Virginia Cefaly

Marco Fiorani Parenzi

Maura Manfredi

Dongji Rescue

Tim Crosbie

Celeste Chen

Christian Sjöstedt

Lea Benjovitz

A House of Dynamite

Chris Harvey

Dione Wood

Jon Mitchell

Matthew Lane

Sinners

Michael Ralla

James Alexander

Nick Marshall

Espen Nordahl

Donnie Dean

Warfare

Simon Stanley-Clamp

Kaley Edwards

Andrew Kinnear

Samir Ansari

Ryan Conder

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

The Bad Guys 2

Pierre Perifel

Damon Ross

Matt Baer

Benjamin Willis

Elio

Claudia Chung Sanii

Mary Alice Drumm

Harley Jessup

Dave Quirus

In Your Dreams

Sacha Kapijimpanga

Carey Smith

Nicola Lavender

Steve Pilcher

KPop Demon Hunters

Joshua Beveridge

Jacky Priddle

Benjamin Hendricks

Clara Chan

Zootopia 2

Gregory Smith

Laurie Au

Marlon West

Shweta Viswanathan

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

Andor: “Who Are You?”

Mohen Leo

TJ Falls

Scott Pritchard

Olivier Beaulieu

Luke Murphy

It: Welcome to Derry: “Winter Fire”

Daryl Sawchuk

Steve Dellerson

Pier Lefebvre

Steven Tether

Darcy Callaghan

The Last of Us: “Through the Valley”

Alex Wang

Fiona Campbell Westgate

Nick Epstein

Philip Engström

Joel Whist

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age: “The Big Freeze”

Russell Dodgson

Tracey Gibbons

Francois Dumoulin

Gavin McKenzie

Stranger Things: “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”

Betsy Paterson

Tessa Roehl

Michael Maher Jr.

Martin Hill

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

Death By Lightning: “The Man from Ohio”

Rainer Gombos

Steve Kullback

Marko Ljubez

David Ramos

Man vs Baby: “Chapter One”

Rob Duncan

Ashlee Turner

Jean-Nicolas Costa

Adrian Eugene Daniel Williams

The Residence: “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Seth Hill

Tesa Kubicek

John Nelson

Gabriel Vargas

Severance: “Hello, Ms. Cobel”

Eric Leven

Sean Findley

Brian Holligan

Radost Ridlen

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: “Costa Da Morte”

Jao M’Changama

Justine Paynat-Sautivet

Sébastien Voisin

Xavier Allard

Pau Costa Moeller

OUTSTANDING VISUAL ARTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT

Battlefield 6

Chris Bayol

Sean Tomek

Skye White

Jacob Bergman

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Hideo Kojima

Yoji Shinkawa

Shota Hirasawa

Doom: The Dark Ages

Todd Boyce

Andrew Willis

Ian Malerich

Derek Best

Ghost of Yōtei

Jason Connell

Matt Vainio

Joanna Wang

Jasmin Patry

South of Midnight

Ian Mac Gregor

Yasmeen Leclerc

Petro Kosariekov

Connor Bugni

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL

Battlefield 6: “It’s Good to Be Back”

Michael Ralla

James Alexander

Brian Creasey

Luca Pelegatta

BMW: “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”

Tom Raynor

Helen Tang

Jack Harris

Alex Kulikov

Columbia Sportswear: “Engineered for Whatever”

Kamen Markov

Alexia Paterson

David Lochhead

Henrique Campanha

Coors Light: “Slow Monday”

Bruno Fukumothi

Ella Glazer

David Fleet

Martino Madeddu

Virgin Media: “Trunk Trucker”

Sebastian Caldwell

Larisa Covaciu

Ben Cronin

Alex Grey

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT

Disney Tales of Magic

Tim Lutkin

Patrick Aigouy

Adrien Mourey

Lydia Caplan

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment

Alan Woods

Maximilian McNair MacEwan

Jason Fox

Iris Chailloux

Stranger Things: Escape the Dark

Julien Héry

Antoine Sitruk

Simon Lecavalier

Martin Hesselink

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere

Ben Grossmann

Tamara Watts Kent

Dr. Irfan Essa

Matt Dougan

Glenn Derry

Zootopia: Better Zoogether!

Rich Enders

Kirk Bodyfelt

Darin Hollings

Darren Simpson

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan

Stephen Clee

Stuart Adcock

Keven Norris

Joseph Kim

Lilo & Stitch: Stitch

Matthew Shumway

Claus Pedersen

Xiying Zhai

Enrique Mateo-Sagasta

A Minecraft Movie: Queen Malgosha

Kevin Estey

Fabio Leporelli

Matteo Stirati

Nick Grace

Superman: Krypto the Superdog

Loic Mireault

Martine Chartrand

Marianne Morency

Matthias Schoenegger

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Elio: Glordon

Marco Burbano

Edgar Rodriguez

Ben Rush

Patrick Yu Wang

Elio: Ooooo the Liquid Supercomputer

Catherine Luo

Anna-Christine Lykkegaard

Ferdi Scheepers

Julian Teo

KPop Demon Hunters: Rumi

Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee

Andrea Centeno

Marc Souliere

Joshua Beveridge

Zootopia 2: Gary De’Snake

Adam Green

Jennifer Stratton

Christoffer Pedersen

Jesse Erickson

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

Chloe Ostiguy

Jonathan Bourdua

It: Welcome to Derry: “Winter Fire” Pennywise

Théo Perronard

Yan Morin-Dubuisson

Yan Detang

Jonathan Fleming-Bock

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age: Female Smilodon

Alvise Avati

Marc-André Coulombe

Youen Leclerc

Andrea De Martis

Stranger Things: “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up” Mindflayer

James Moore

Layne Howe

Shawn Warawa

Yoshihiro Harimoto

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Bridgehead Industrial City

Gianluca Pizzaia

Steve Bevins

Dziga Kaiser

Zsolt Máté

The Gorge: The Bodyweb

Daniel James Cox

Yosuke Inomata

Clint Rea

Gabriel Pires

The Lost Bus: Feather River Canyon by the Pulga Bridge

David Schulz

Mareike Loges

Björn Markgraf

Philipp Hafellner

The Lost Bus: The Wildfires of Roe Road

Jamie Haydock

Francesco Ferraresi

Sergei Konorev

Frederick Vallee

Tron: Ares: Dillinger’s Grid City

Jared Michael

Noor Valibhoy

Cody Gramstad

Stefan Litterini

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

The Bad Guys 2: Cairo City

John J. Lee

Greg Hettinger

Mikael Genachte-Le Bail

Mayumi Shimokawa

Elio: The Communiverse

Steve Arguello

Christopher M. Burrows

Andy Lin

Laura Murphy

KPop Demon Hunters: Seoul

Rafael Lescano

Gunsik Kim

Tyquane Wright

Hee-Chel Nam

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

Foundation: “A Song for the End of Everything” Clarion Station

Sylvain Lesaint

Ilyes Boutemeur

Blake Dewoody

Benjamin Rojek

The Last of Us: Post-Apocalyptic Seattle

Romain Simonnet

Abraham Ibanez

David Desplat

Minguk Lee

The Residence: “Dial M for Murder” The White House Exterior

Gabriel Vargas

Eric Schoellnast

Andrew Wilkins

Omer Gurkan

OUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Steve Deane

AJ Briones

Zachary Brake

Andrew Moffett

KPop Demon Hunters

Benjamin Hendricks

Gary H. Lee

Randolph Lizarda

Linh Mai Nguyen Chan

Tron: Ares

Jhon Alvarado

Michael Beaulieu

Jayden Beveridge

Hayley Kim

Zootopia 2

Tyler Kupferer

Daniel Rice

Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT

Avatar: Fire and Ash: The Windtraders’ Gondola

Michael Smale

Sam Sharplin

Joe W. Churchill

Jacqi Dillon

Mickey 17: The Niflheim Spaceship

Bikas Panigrahi

Nikolai Razuev

Ajinkya Nitin Phokmare

Manoj Vijay Kamble

Superman: The Fortress of Solitude

Crystal Bretz

Martin Pelissier

Klaudio Ladavac

Conner Wessinger

Wicked: For Good: Bison

Marco Chau

Giorgio Pennisi

Sowmya Ramakumar

Balazs Meszaros

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Simulating Pandora

Nicholas Illingworth

Sarah C. Farmer

James Robinson

Ryan Bowden

The Lost Bus: Escape from Hell

Billy Copley

Mathieu Chardonnet

Chetan Patkar

David Schott

Superman: Metropolis City Destruction

Rick Hankins

Marcel Kern

Eric Hollands

Masoud Aziminajjar

Together

Darcy George

Andrew Dunkerley

Ray Leung

Steve Oakley

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

The Bad Guys 2

Michael Losure

Landon Gray

Zachary Glynn

Steve Avoujageli

In Your Dreams

Stephanie McNair

Dmitiry Kolesnik

Stephen Paschke

David Sellares

KPop Demon Hunters

Filippo Maccari

Nikolaos Finizio

Daniel La Chapelle

Srdjan Milosevic

Zootopia 2

Sujil Sukumaran

Stuart Griese

Zoran Stojanoski

Paul Carman

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

Battlefield 6

Björn Åkerstedt

Anders Egleus

Kasra Kalami

Craig Moroney

The Last of Us: “Through the Valley” The Infected Horde

Duarte Victorino

Claudio Gonzalez

Andre Castelao

Igor Bondar

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age: The Big Freeze

Edward Ferrysienanda

Kevin Christensen

Guy Schuleman

Kevin Tarpinian

Stranger Things: “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up” Assault on the Mindflayer

Michael Chrobak

Brandon James Fleet

Yasunobu Arahori

Hoi Ying Fung

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Bridgehead Industrial City

Ziad Shureih

Stefano Oggeri

Jaume Creus Costabella

Hugo Debat-Burkarth

Avatar: Fire and Ash: The Wind Traders, Bridgehead, Rivers and Ocean

Alex Klaricich

Gianfranco Sgura

Brad Floyd

Ari Ross

F1: The Movie: Modern Race and POV Footage

Hugo Gauvreau

Chris Davies

Raushan Raj

Amaury Rospars

Superman: Fights and Metropolis City Destruction

Can Chang

Nicolas Caillier

Bryan Smeall

Elona Musha

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

The Residence: “Pilot”

Spencer Hecox

Gunnar Heiss

Alexander Greenberg

Eric Schoellnast

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age

Puff Pisanwalerd

Jean-Baptiste Noyau

Marion Nove-Josserand

Sue Nelson

Stranger Things: “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up” The Abyss and Vecna’s Face

Ben Roberts

Rachel E. Herbert

Don Bradford

Ken Lam

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL

BMW: “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus”

Alex Kulikov

Jack Harris

Adam Chabane

Nicola Borsari

Disney: “Best Christmas Ever”

Hudson Martins

Luke Warpus

Jinhui Wang

Alex Miller

Genesis: “No Old Ideas”

Greg McKneally

Christian Block

Alberto Pizzocchero

Alessandro Granella

Virgin Media: “Trunk Trucker”

Alex Grey

Sebastian Caldwell

Nicola Borsari

Giacomo Cavaletti

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT

Andor: “Who Are You?”

Luke Murphy

Dean Ford

Jody Eltham

Darrell Guyon

Gen V: “Bags”

Hudson Kenny

Curtis Carlson

John Koyama

Bruno Larizza

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD

Avatar: Fire and Ash: BodyOpt

Christoph Sprenger

Tobias Mack

Florian Fernandez

Niall Ryan

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Kora Fire Toolset

Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin

John Edholm

Murali Ramachari

Aleksandr Isakov

Elio: Real-Time High Fidelity Animation System Using Signed Distance Functions

Andrew Butts

Trent Crow

Anna-Christine Lykkegaard

Catherine Luo

Mickey 17: REVIZE

John Bastian

Ben Ward

Thomas Rowntree

Robert Beveridge

Win or Lose: Detached Facial Features

David Munier

Ana Gabriela Lacaze

Jonathan Page

Anna-Christine Lykkegaard

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT

Au Delà des Mots

Antoine Barbannaud

Leandro Leijnen

Timothé Vergught

Mathis De Sauvecanne

Azimuth

Thomas Teisseire

Cassandre Cinier

Martin Bluy

Mathis Giraudeau

Flying From War

Ciara Borgards

A Sparrow’s Song

Tobias Eckerlin

Vincent Maurer

Elias Weber

Lilli-Luisa Heckmann

Two Kings

Eliot Hervier Blondel

Mathieu Keraudran

Adrian Delmotte

Jonas Lopez Del Castillo

The Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards will take place on February 25, 2026.

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1 and 2. Available Now!