SAN ANDREAS SURPRISES IN VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY NOMINATIONS

I'm all for surprises, but this is a particularly questionable one: Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World make way for underdog San Andreas in the Visual Effects Society's top nominations category. The VES has 12 categories to cover the best effects work of the year, including animated features, so there's a wide range of titles up for awards, including both Avengers and Jurassic World, though not a mention of Oscar shortlisted Ex Machina. Award winners will be revealed on the 2nd of February. Have a look:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Luke O’Byrne and Patrick Tubach (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Brian Cox, Bryan Grill, Nordin Rahhali, Randall Starr and Colin Strause (San Andreas)

Barrie Hemsley, Chris Lawrence, Matt Sloan, Richard Stammers and Steven Warner (The Martian)

Martin Hill, Kevin McIlwain, Karen Murphy, Daniel Sudick and Mike Wassel (Furious 7)

Andrew Jackson, Dan Oliver, Holly Radcliffe, Andy Williams and Tom Wood (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Ivy Agregan, Nicolas Chevallier, Richard McBride, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer (The Revenant)

Kevin Baillie, Camille Cellucci, Sébastien Moreau and Viktor Muller (The Walk)

Matthias Bjarnason, Dadi Einarsson, Roma O’Connor, Glen Pratt and Richard van den Berghe (Everest)

Bryan Hirota, Mark Holt, Jody Johnson, Leslie Lerman and Sean Stranks (In the Heart of the Sea)

Sven Martin, Jennifer Meislohn, Gerd Nefzer, Charlie Noble and Sean Stranks (Bridge of Spies)

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Pétur Arnórsson, Matthias Bjarnason, Olfaur Haraldsson and Kjartan Hardarson – ‘Mt. Everest’ (Everest)

Myriam Catrin, Daniel Gonzalez, Robert Marinic and Howie Weed – ‘Hulkbuster’ (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Matthew Denton, Landis Fields, Cyrus Jam and Joshua Lee – ‘BB-8’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Aaron Grey, Steve Jubinville, Martin Murphy and Kevin Reuter – ‘Indominus Rex’ (Jurassic World)

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

Christopher Anciaume, Vincent Aupetit, Margaux Durand-Rival and Robert Elswit – ‘Underwater Torus chamber’ (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation)

Rebecca Baehler, James Baker, Alex Kahn and Thomas Luff – ‘Macro Action’ (Ant-Man)

Colin Benoit, Paul Kavanagh, Greg Salter and Yukuhiro Susumu – ‘Falcon chase / graveyard’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Suzanne Cipolletti, Shawn Hull, Laurent Taillefer and Dariusz Wolski – ‘Towers walk’ (The Walk)

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

Lindsay Adams, Chris Davies, Phil Outen and Matthew Wynne (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Sandro Blattner, Nicholas Kim, Mario Rokicki and Hamish Schumacher – ‘Los Angeles destruction’ (San Andreas)

Jay Cooper, Jean Lapointe, Marian Mavrovic and Alex Prichard (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Peter Demarest, Conny Fauser, François Lambert and Jean Lapointe (Tomorrowland)

T. C. Harrison, Charles Lai, Donny Rausch and Alan Travis – ‘Bear attack’ (The Revenant)

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Michael Billette, Martyn Culpitt, Shimizu Yuta and Joao Sita – ‘Jungle chase’ (Jurassic World)

Yannick Dusseault, Quentin Marmier, Justin van der Lek and Mike Wood – ‘Falcon chase / graveyard’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Brian Flora, Jim Gibbs, Pavel Kolar and Laurent Taillefer – ‘World Trade Center’ (The Walk)

Alexis Hall, Heath Kraynak, Taylor Shaw and Florian Witzel – ‘The Microverse’ (Ant-Man)

Greg Kegel, Thang Le, Quentin Marmier and Barry Williams – ‘Tomorrowland centre’ (Tomorrowland)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

Hemagiri Arumugam, Michael Hall, Stephen Marshall and Magnus Wrenninge (The Good Dinosaur)

Amit Baadkar, Dave Hale, Paul Mendoza and Vincent Serritella (Inside Out)

Chris Chapman, Ilan Gabai, Alen Lai and Douglas Seiden (The Peanuts Movie)

Chris de St. Jeor, Greg Gladstone, Michael Losure and Alex Timchenko (Home)

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

Joel Bodin, Ian Comley, Stephen Cullingford and Arslan Elver – ‘Maz’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Robert Bourgeault, Earl Fast, Chris Harvey and Mark Wendell – ‘Chappie’ (Chappie)

Sean Comer, Lana Lan, Jakub Pistecky and John Walker – ‘Hulk’ (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Karin Cooper, Leandro Estebecorena, Gaelle Morand and Matt Shumway – ‘The bear’ (The Revenant)

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

Sanjay Bakshi, Denise Ream, Jon Reisch and Michael Venturini (The Good Dinosaur)

Nick Bruno, Scott Carroll, Steve Martino and Michael J. Travers (The Peanuts Movie)

Michael Fong, Paul Mendoza, Victor Navone and Jonas Rivera (Inside Out)

Alan Hawkins, Karl Herbst, Skye Lyons and Genndy Tarkatovsky (Hotel Transylvania 2)

John Joyce, Joe Passarelli, Derek Smith and Rosa Tran (Anomalisa)

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

Amy L. Allen, Eric Andraos, Steve Karski and José Luis Ramos – ‘Imagination land’ (Inside Out)

Andy Brown, Charles Copping, Alfred Llupiá and Matt Perry – ‘Under the arches’ (Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Angel Camacho-Torres, Cleveland Hibbert, Ken Lee and Jon Townley – ‘Charlie Brown’s neighbourhood’ (The Peanuts Movie)

Matt Kuruc, Tom Miller, David Munier and Matthew Webb – ‘The farm’ (The Good Dinosaur)

Outstanding Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Florent Andorra, Michael Balog, Georg Kaltenbrunner and Jim van Allen – ‘Hulk vs. Hulkbuster’ (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Dan Bethell, Clinton Downs and Chris Young – ‘Toxic Storm’ (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Dan Bornstein, John Doublestein, Rick Hankins and Gary Wu – ‘Starkiller base’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Yves d’Incau, Marcel Kern, Lukas Lepicovsky and Joe Scarr – ‘Hoover Dam / San Francisco tsunami’ (San Andreas)

Niall Flinn, Victor Grant, Marc Horsfield and Remy Torre – ‘Los Angeles destruction’ (San Andreas)

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature

Alexis Angelidis, Tanja Krampfert, Shawn Krause and Jacob Merrell – ‘Joy’ (Inside Out)

Joseph Antonuccio, Ignacio Barrios, Sabine Heller and Jeff Gabor – ‘Snoopy’ (The Peanuts Movie)

Jacob Brooks, Lou Hamou-Lhadj, Mark C. Harris and Ana Gabriela Lacaze – ‘Spot’ (The Good Dinosaur)

Matthew Doble, Stephen Gressak, Nikki Tomiano and Steve Vanseth – ‘Charlie Brown’ (The Peanuts Movie)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Vincent Desgrippes, Jessie Hereng, Guillaume Menard and Tangi Vaillant (Korser)

Francesco Faranna and Andreas Feix (Citipati)

Fabian Fricke, Yafes Sahin, Vincent Ullmann and Julian Weiss (Jagon)

Marco Hakenjos, Manuel Seifert, Timm Wagener and Christian Zehetmeier (Skål)