'The Hobbit', 'Avengers', 'Life Of Pi', 'ParaNorman' Lead Nominations For VES Awards

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