VES Awards (and other awards ceremonies)
- Spencer Blanchard
- Apr 14, 2025
- 3 min read
If you saw the video in my last blog post, you know that finishing the short film "Student Accomplice" was less about trying to make technological advancements, and more about just getting it done. When we hit our deadline, all we could think about was the fact that we finished on time. We didn't anticipate how well this film would be received by festivals.
VES Nomination
If you're not familiar with it, the Visual Effects Society (VES) is a worldwide organization that represents the vfx artist of the world. Each year, VES holds an annual awards ceremony, similar to the Oscars, to recognize the best visual effects of the year.
This year, VES nominees included Star Wars, Marvel, Fallout, Lord of the Rings, Dune, and somehow.... Student Accomplice.
This nomination is a big deal.
Student Accomplice is the first film in BYU history to be nominated for a VES award.
This isn't the student version of an awards ceremony, this is THE VES awards (Though yes, we were nominated for the student category).
I don't own a black suit, so I borrowed the coat and tie from one classmate and the pants from a different one.
We sat at the very back of the venue with the team of another nominated group from the same category. Neither of us won, which VES let us know beforehand so we didn't feel obligated to attend. But why wouldn't we attend something like this?
I met the director of Ultraman Rising, and he gave us some words of wisdom: "My advice for you-- expect to never be at the VES awards again. This is a once in a lifetime thing."
Other Notable Awards:
The Rookies
Student Accomplice was crowned the Film of the year in the 3D Animation category. No physical awards ceremony takes place for this
College Television Awards (Emmys)
The Television Academy named Student Accomplice the winner of the Student Emmy Award. This marks the third BYU animated film I’ve worked on to win in the Animation Series category.
Student Academy Awards (Oscars)
We managed to break BYU's Oscar dry spell by winning bronze for a Student Academy Award. I was living in LA at the time for an internship, but unfortunately the Academy decided to host the ceremony in London this year, as the submissions can be from any country now. This also made it a sweeter victory, as we were recognized along the schools from France and other prestigious schools.
Final Thoughts
This week I've been thinking about the song Get Lucky by Daft Punk, specifically the lyric "We've come too far to give up who we are." The industry is not in a good spot right now. VFX artists with 20+ years are having trouble finding work, and it makes it seem like there's no spot for me.
As I write this, I am in my last week as an undergraduate. I will graduate later this month. Despite the awards for this Student Film and others from past years, I have been unable to secure full-time employment. This has honestly been discouraging and scary. It will likely be some time before I find a job where I can fully utilize my degree, maybe years.
...But I've come too far to give up. If I give up, it means I will have peaked in college, and I do not like that idea. I will keep trying. I'll break into the industry one day. After all, "We've come too far to give up who we are."
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