The Visual Effects Society, the industry’s global professional honorary society, has announced the honourees for its upcoming VES Honors Celebration, taking place on 7 November at Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new facility in Los Angeles.
Selected by the VES Board of Directors from member-submitted candidates, these distinguished honorees have “profoundly impacted visual effects, shaped its legacy, and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners”, the organisation said.
This year’s event will welcome two new honorary VES members: Jon Favreau and Tim Sweeney.
Favreau is well-known for directing Iron Man, The Jungle Book, and television series including The Mandalorian, while Sweeney is the founder and CEO of Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine software helped to usher in a new era of real-time rendering and advancing virtual production capabilities in the VFX industry.
“The annual VES Honors Celebration serves to acknowledge the incredible contributors to our industry,” said VES Board chair, Kim Davidson.
“Each individual is selected for advancing the craft of VFX and the sector overall. We’re excited to host this unique and intimate forum and give this year’s recipients their well-deserved recognition.”
This year, Bob Coleman VES will receive the VES Founders Award for sustained contributions to the art, science and business of VFX and distinguished service to the society.
Dennis Hoffman will receive an honorary VES lifetime membership for his dedication to the society, the industry, and for “furthering the interests and values of VFX artists worldwide”.
This year’s VES fellows, recognised for “outstanding contributions to VFX and dedicated service over 10 of the last 20 years”, include Colin Campbell, Darin Grant and Gayle Munro.
Additionally, Glenn Campbell (1956-2024), Mabel Normand (1893-1930) and Eiji Tsuburaya (1901-1970) will join the VES Hall of Fame for their “pioneering contributions that advanced the art, science and technology of VFX”.
The VES will also honour the following section leaders for their exceptional dedication, having served three consecutive terms on their section Board of Managers and several years as a section chair or co-chair: Rachel Copp (New Zealand), Eric Greenlief (Washington State), Anthony Tan (Montreal), Agon Ushaku (Germany) and Philipp Wolf (Montreal).
