Avengers, The Hobbit Dominant in Visual Effects Society Nominations

The Visual Effects Society tends to break with other major Hollywood awards shows pretty often, as lots of movies get nominated which aren't technically all that great, but which had beautiful special effects. Such is the case with Battleship, which took a nomination earlier today for the VES's top award. The reasons for this are pretty obvious: the VES aren't celebrating accomplishments in writing a screenplay or acting; they want to celebrate the best visual effects that blow moviegoers away. That said, the other nominees in that category include a couple of movies that have been topping most critics' year's-best lists: Marvel's The Avengers and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Life of Pi and Prometheus rounded out the category, with things like Argo, Game of Thrones and Mockingbird Lane taking nominations in other categories. You can check out the full release below for more details.

Los Angeles – The Visual Effects Society (VES) is pleased to announce the nominees for the 11th Annual VES Awards, which recognize outstanding visual effects artistry in 24 categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Nominees were selected Saturday, January 5 by VES members at SPY/ a FotoKem Company in the Bay Area and at FotoKem in Burbank in California; and at Blue Sky Studios in New York, Weta Digital in New Zealand, Fuel VFX in Sydney, Molinare in the UK and Image Engine in Vancouver. Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society, comments, "Visual effects have helped define the experience of going to the cinema. Every year, visual effects artists put their technical skill, ingenuity and passion to work in the creation of images that astound and move us. We congratulate all of our nominees on their amazing accomplishments in – and contributions to – the worlds of film, animation, television, special venue and games." As previously announced, acclaimed director Ang Lee will be honored with the VES Visionary Award. Richard Edlund ASC, VES will be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award. The 11th Annual VES Awards will take place on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The nominees for the 11th Annual VES Awards are as follows: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Joe Letteri Eileen Moran Eric Saindon Kevin L. Sherwood Prometheus Paul Butterworth Charley Henley Allen Maris Richard Stammers Life of Pi Thomas Fisher Susan Macleod Guillaume Rocheron Bill Westenhofer The Avengers Susan Pickett Janek Sirrs Jeff White Guy Williams Battleship Grady Cofer Pablo Helman Jeanie King Glen Mcintosh Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture Rust and Bones Béatrice Bauwens Cédric Fayolle Nicolas Rey Stéphane Thibert The Impossible Felix Bergés Sandra Hermida Pau Costa Moeller Argo Matt Dessero Leslie Hough Gregory Mcmurry Tom Smith Flight Kevin Baillie Michael Lantieri Chris Stoski Ryan Tudhope Zero Dark Thirty Geoff Anderson Chris Harvey Jeremy Hattingh Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program Game of Thrones: Volar Morghulis Rainer Gombos Steve Kullback Sven Martin Juri Stanossek Once Upon A Time: The Stranger Dale Fay Laura Jones Nathan Matsuda Andrew Orloff Falling Skies: Worlds Apart James Hattin Suzanne Maclennan Curt Miller Andrew Orloff Curiosity Nathan Larouche Lon Molnar Geoff Scott Bojan Zoric Munsters: Mockingbird Lane Leslie Ekker Jonah Hall Livia Hanich Jason Zimmerman Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game Call of Duty: Black Ops II Jason Blundell Barry Whitney Colin Whitney Halo 4 Mike Cronin Brien Goodrich Kiki Wolfkill Jon Wood Dirt Showdown Peter Asberg Peter Clark Nathan Fisher Julie Mcgurren Forza Horizon Michel Bastien Terrance Newell Gareth Richards Andrew Sage Dishonored Viktor Antonov Sebastien Mitton Jean-Luc Monnet Julien Roby Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Brave Mark Andrews Steve May Katherine Sarafian Bill Wise ParaNorman Chris Butler Sam Fell Travis Knight Brad Schiff Rise of the Guardians Nancy Bernstein David Prescott Peter Ramsey Christina Steinberg Wreck-It Ralph Sean Jenkins Scott Kersavage Rich Moore Clark Spencer Hotel Transylvania Lydia Bottegoni James Crossley Mike Ford Daniel Kramer Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program Hemingway & Gellhorn Nathan Abbot Kip Larsen Chris Morley Christopher Paizis Boardwalk Empire: Episode 308 John Bair Parker Chehak Paul Graff Lesley Robson-Foster Men Who Built America: Episode 2 Glenn Allen Matthew Conner Eran Dinur David Reynolds Hell On Wheels: Blood Moon Matt Von Brock Jason Fotter Tim Jacobsen Bill Kent Hawaii Five-O: La O Na Makuahine Gevork Babityan Jon Howard Armen Kevorkian Ricardo Ramirez Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial Pepsi: Crowd Surfing Martin Aufinger Russell Dodgson Abby Orchard Chris Redding Nike: Biomorph Rafael Colon Aladino Debert David Liu Nicola Wiseman Lady Gaga: Fame Kait Boehm Juan Gomez Kurt Lawson Greg Teegarden Norfolk Southern: City of Possibilities Chris Bernier Kyle Cody Jeff Lopez Boo Wong Call of Duty: Surprise Steve Beck Chris Knight Robert Sethi Christina Thompson Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: Goblin King Jung Min Chan James Jacobs David Clayton Guillaume Francois The Hobbit: Gollum Gino Acevedo Alessandro Bonora Jeff Capogreco Kevin Estey The Avengers: The Hulk Marc Chu John Doublestein Cyrus Jam Jason Smith Life of Pi: Richard Parker Erik De Boer Sean Comer Betsy Asher Hall Kai-Hua Lan Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Brave: Argument Travis Hathaway Olivier Soares Peter Sumanaseni Brian Tindall Hotel Transylvania: Dracula Bill Haller Tim Pixton Jorge Vigara Wreck-It Ralph: Vanellope John Kahwaty Suzan Kim Michelle Robinson Tony Smeed The Pirates: Band of Misfits Will Becher Jay Grace Loyd Price Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Ted: Jimmy Kimmel Live! James W. Brown Brad Fox Ross Nakamura Jeff Woo Sinbad: Episode 1 Andy Guest James Moxon James Reid Greg Spencer Hallmark: Motherbird Vince Baertsoen Kevin Ives Laurent Makowski Joshua Merck Game of Thrones: Training the Dragons Irfan Celik Florian Friedmann Ingo Schachner Chris Stenner Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: Goblin Caverns Ryan Arcus Simon Jung Alastair Maher Anthony M. Patti Prometheus: LV-233 Julien Bolbach Marco Genovesi Martin Riedel Marco Rolandi The Avengers: Midtown Manhattan Richard Bluff Giles Hancock David Meny Andy Proctor Life of Pi: Open Ocean Jason Bayever Sho Hasegawa Jimmy Jewell Walt Jones Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Brave: The Forest Tim Best Steve Pilcher Inigo Quilez Andy Whittock ParaNorman: Graveyard Phil Brotherton Robert Desue Oliver Jones Nick Mariana ParaNorman: Main Street Alice Bird Matt Delue Caitlin Pashalek Rise of the Guardians: The North Pole Eric Bouffard Sonja Burchard Andy Harbeck Peter Maynez Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Matt Aitken Victor Huang Christian Rivers R. Christopher White The Avengers: Downtown Manhattan Colin Benoit Jeremy Goldman Tory Mercer Anthony Rispoli Total Recall: Hover Car Chase Daniel Baldwin Mattias Forsstrom Sam Schwier Joshua Wassung The Amazing Spider-Man Rob Engle David Schaub Cosku Turhan Max Tyrie Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture The Avengers: Helicarrier Rene Garcia Bruce Holcomb Polly Ing Aaron Wilson The Impossible: Orchid Hotel Markus Donhauser Patrick Lehn Angel Martinez Juergen Pirman Men in Black 3: Cape Canaveral / Apollo Launch Craig Feifarek Hee-Chel Nam Erik Neill Taehyun Park The Dark Knight Rises: Airplane Heist Scott Beverly Alan Faucher Ian Hunter Steve Newburn Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Brave Chris Chapman Dave Hale Michael K. O'Brien Bill Watral ParaNorman: Practical Volumetrics Aidan Fraser Joe Gorski Eric Kuehne Andrew Nawrot ParaNorman: Angry Aggie Ink-Blot Electricity Michael Cordova Grant Laker Susanna Luck Peter Vickery Rise of the Guardians: Last Stand Andy Hayes Carl Hooper Andrew Wheeler Stephen Wood Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Sinbad James Moxon Lyndall Spagnoletti Greg Spencer Simon Wicker Pyke Rene Borst Thilo Ewers Adam Figielski Jonas Stuckenbrock Call of Duty: Eclipse – Surprise Chris Bayol Steve Beck Chris Knight Robert Sethi 5 Gum RPM: Choose Your Energy Kaan Atilla Kevin Gillen Isaac Irvin Brandon Lester Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Toyota: Real Deal Adam Berg Niles Heckman Ronald Herbst Vernon Wilbert Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Steven Chen Phil Dakin Paul Stodolny Call of Duty: Eclipse – Surprise Chris Bayol Steve Beck Chris Knight Robert Sethi ZombiU Dominique Boidin Léon Bérelle Rémi Kozyra Maxime Luère Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Areito Echevarria Chet Leavai Garry Runke Francois Sugny Life of Pi: Storm of God Harry Mukhopadhyay David Stopford Mark Williams Derek Wolfe Battleship Florent Andorra Willi Geiger Rick Hankins Florian Witzel Life of Pi: Ocean Jason Bayever David Horsley Scott Townsend Miles Vignol Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Nike: Biomorph Aladino Debert Eric Ebling Ken Mitchel Jones Jason Mortimer Last Resort: Captain Matt Von Brock Bruce Coy Junaid Farooq Aldo Ruggiero Guinness: Cloud Tom Bussell Neil Davies Nissan Altima: Wouldn't it be Cool Tim Borgmann David Forcada Aron Hjartarson Shayne Ryan Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Jean-Luc Azzis Steven Mcgillen Christoph Salzmann Charles Tait Life of Pi: Storm of God Ryan Clarke Jose Fernandez Sean Oharas Hamish Schumacher The Avengers: Hulk Punch Chris Balog Peter Demarest Nelson Sepulveda Alan Travis Prometheus: Engineers & the Orrery Xavier Bourque Sam Cole Simone Riginelli Denis Scolan Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program Hemingway & Gellhorn Nathan Abbot Shelley Campbell Chris Morley Christopher Paizis Last Resort: Captain Matt Von Brock Jason Fotter Aldo Ruggiero Brian Williams White Walker Army Falk Boje Esther Engel Alexey Kuchinsky Klaus Wuchta Hell On Wheels: Blood Moon Antonio Chang Jason Fotter Eric Hayden Josh Miyaji Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial Chevy 2012 Silverado Dominik Bauch Nicholas Kim Benjamin Walsh Norfolk Southern: City of Possibilities Tom Bardwell Chris Bernier Kyle Cody Jeff Lopez Call of Duty: Eclipse – Surprise Chris Bayol Steve Beck Chris Knight Robert Sethi Nike: Game On, World Daniel Marsh Paul O'Shea Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem Heather Drummons Joel Friesch Troy Griffin Chris Hummel SeaWorld: Turtle Trek 3D / 360 Timur "Taron" Baysal Jae Choel Hong Cecil Magpuri Michael Roderick Earthquake: Evidence of a Restless Planet Matthew Blackwell Tom Kennedy Jeroen Lapré Mike Schmitt The Ball Unleashed Gianni Aliotti Lisa Zusmer Delprete Marc Dominic Rienzo Eric Sanford Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project Voile Noir Michael Balthazart Raphaël Gaudin Clément Granjon De Lepinay Quentin Sauvinet Globosome Sascha Geddert Johannes Peter Patrick Schuler Philipp Wolf Rollin' Safari Kyra Buschor Anna Habermehl Constantin Päplow Natalis Daniel Brkovic David Kirchner Jan-Marcel Kuehn