By ROSS AUERBACH
By ROSS AUERBACH
VES celebrated a distinguished group of VFX artists and industry leaders this past November at the 2025 VES Honors Celebration. The festive evening, hosted at Sony Pictures Imageworks, brought VES members together to acknowledge the incredible contributions made by each of this year’s Honorees.
The Visual Effects Society proudly welcomed two new Honorary VES Members: Jon Favreau, the award-winning filmmaker behind Iron Man (2008), The Lion King (2019) and television series including The Mandalorian (2019-2023), and Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, and creator of Unreal Engine.
“There is nothing more fun than programming tools that enable creatives to express their vision,” Sweeney said when accepting his VES Honorary Membership.
Favreau connected with ceremony attendees. “Cinema comes from the tradition of marrying storytelling with technology, and the people in this room are torchbearers for this tradition,” Favreau said.
This year, the VES Founders Award was presented to Bob Coleman, VES, for his sustained contributions to the art, science and business of VFX, and his distinguished service to the Society. Dennis Hoffman received VES Lifetime Membership for his work with the Society, the industry, and for furthering the values and interests of VFX artists around the world.
“We belong to an exceptional global industry, offering enormous opportunities to the best and brightest in our ranks around the world. Never underestimate the talent and experience that got you here and how it can be applied in unimagined endeavors,” advised VES Founders Award recipient Bob Coleman, VES.
The 2025 VES Fellows – Colin Campbell, VES, Darin Grant, VES and Gayle Munro, VES – were recognized for their outstanding contributions to VFX and dedicated service over 10 of the last 20 years.
The 2025 class of VES Hall of Fame inductees are Emmy Award winner and prolific visual effects artist Glenn Campbell (1956-2024); trailblazing silent film director and actress Mabel Normand (1893-1930); and co-creator of Godzilla and Ultraman, the “Father of Tokusatsu,” Eiji Tsuburaya (1901-1970).
For their exceptional dedication to the Society and long-term service as leaders of their Section Board of Managers, VES honored Rachel Copp (New Zealand), Eric Greenlief (Washington), Anthony Tan (Montreal), Agon Ushaku (Germany) and Philipp Wolf (Montreal).
Celebration attendees were eyewitness to an epic battle fought between Tsuburaya Productions’ hero Ultraman and the villainous Alien Baltan.
