Visual Effects Society Sets Its 2026 VES Honors Recipients

VES Founders Award
Awarded to immoderate individual personnel of nan VES who has importantly contributed to nan organization’s success.
 
Susan Zwerman stands astatine nan forefront of innovative filmmaking, pinch an unwavering committedness to excellence and specialized expertise successful ocular effects and virtual production. Her unsocial blend of talents not only showcases a profound knowing of nan method facets of movie accumulation but besides reflects a visionary attack to nan cinematic arts. She is simply a personnel of nan Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, nan Directors Guild of America, nan Producers Guild of America, and nan Visual Effects Society. She is simply a proud recipient of nan Frank Capra Achievement Award, nan VES Fellows Award, and a Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video for Weird Al’s “I’m Fat.” She besides taught ocular effects astatine nan USC School of Cinematic Arts. As a Freelance Budgeting Consultant astatine Sony Innovation Studios, she championed virtual accumulation budgeting and plus management, importantly impacting trial projects for movie and television. In her tenure arsenic a Studio Executive Producer astatine Exceptional Minds, she founded a VFX and 2D Animation workplace tailored for artists connected nan autism spectrum, overseeing nan studio’s ascent and engagement successful awesome characteristic films and tv shows including titles like Black Widow, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Avengers: Endgame. During her agelong tenure pinch nan VES, Zwerman has co-authored 5 books connected ocular effects and virtual accumulation including astir recently The VES Handbook of Visual Effects, Fourth Edition. She served 18 full years connected nan world Board of Directors and additionally served connected nan VES Education Committee and nan VES Technology Committee. In 2019, she was named a VES Fellow.
 
VES Lifetime Member
Awarded for meritorious work to nan VES, nan industry, and for furthering nan interests and values of ocular effects artists astir nan world.
 
Jeff Kleiser is a Visual Effects Supervisor and CEO/Co-Founder of Synthespian Studios. His pioneering activity successful machine animation has spanned nan history of nan mean and galore of his projects person progressive nan creation of machine generated humans and creatures successful a wide assortment of formats. His characteristic movie credits include TRON,Stargate, Fantastic Four, Robocop, and aggregate films crossed the X-Men franchise, and his location-based projects see creating stereoscopic superheroes for the Spider-Man Ride, stereoscopic 70mm movie for Santa Lights Up New York astatine Radio City Music Hall, and nan stereoscopic virtual reality series Defrost: The Virtual Series. Kleiser has presented papers astatine world events including nan London Effects and Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH, INA Imagina, NAB, Opera Totale, and nan Virtual Humans Conference. He has served arsenic an manufacture master successful interviews pinch nan Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and ABC Evening News. He besides served connected nan world Board of Directors of nan Visual Effects Society, nan Board of Trustees of nan Norman Rockwell Museum, and nan Board of Advisors to nan Center for Integrated Media astatine nan California Institute of nan Arts. In addition, he is simply a personnel of nan CG Society Advisory Board, a Fellow of nan Grid Institute, and a personnel of nan Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
 
Honorary VES Members
Awarded for exemplary contributions to nan intermezo manufacture astatine large, and for furthering nan interests and values of ocular effects practitioners astir nan world.
 
Sir William Sargent co-founded Framestore successful 1986 and led its emergence complete 40 years arsenic CEO and now Chairman. Equally astatine location successful Hollywood and government, Sargent was Permanent Secretary, Regulatory Reform, astatine nan Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, Board Director of HM Treasury, politician astatine nan Southbank Centre, connected UKRI’s Innovate Council, and is simply a personnel of Trinity College Dublin’s Provost Council and nan Mayor of London’s Business Council. He is simply a chap of nan Royal Society for nan Arts, a personnel of BAFTA, and a personnel of nan Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He received a CBE (Commander of nan Most Excellent Order of nan British Empire) successful 2004, and was knighted by nan Queen successful 2008.
 
S​cott Stokdyk is an Academy Award victor and three-time Oscar nominee for Visual Effects. He has besides been nominated for aggregate British Academy (BAFTA) Awards and Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards. Most recently, Stokdyk served arsenic nan accumulation VFX Supervisor for Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four: First Steps. His extended profession arsenic a VFX Supervisor besides includes awesome characteristic films specified as Finch and Valerian and nan City of a Thousand Planets, alongside consulting roles connected galore high-profile projects. Stokdyk collaborated pinch head Sam Raimi connected nan original Spider-Man trilogy, winning nan Academy Award for Best Achievement successful Visual Effects for Spider-Man 2. His different notable supervising credits see Disney’s G-Force and Oz nan Great and Powerful. Earlier successful his career, Stokdyk worked arsenic a Digital Effects Supervisor on Hollow Man and arsenic a CG Supervisor connected both Godzilla and Stuart Little. He began his travel successful nan manufacture arsenic a integer creator connected groundbreaking films including Contact, Starship Troopers, Titanic, The Fifth Element, and Universal Studios’ Terminator 2: 3D attraction.
 
VES 2026 Fellows
This title signifies that nan individual is recognized for earning an outstanding estimation done sustained contributions to nan art, science, aliases business of ocular effects, arsenic good arsenic done meritorious work to nan VES and nan intermezo manufacture astatine large, for a play of not little than 10 years, wrong nan past 20 years.
 
Neishaw Ali is nan founding Partner, CEO, and Executive Producer of SPINVFX, and a salient fig successful nan movie and tv manufacture for 30 years. Her innovative attack led to nan creation of BRIO, a unreality and licensed subscription-based AR, VR, and 3D level acquired by Adobe successful 2022. In nickname of her impact, The Hollywood Reporter named her 1 of nan ‘Most Powerful Women successful Canadian Entertainment’ for 3 consecutive years (2024–2026). Under Ali’s leadership, SPINVFX has produced activity connected much than 150 characteristic films and 40 tv series. Her tv profession includes nan Emmy Award-winning Game of Thrones, nan Emmy-nominated The Umbrella Academy, The Boys, Beast Games, and The Miniature Wife. Her movie credits see nan Academy Award-winning Spotlight, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Big George Foreman, Dora and nan Search For Sol Dorado, and The Devil’s Mouth (releasing successful July 2026). Ali is profoundly committed to advancing nan movie and tv manufacture arsenic Chair of nan Canadian Film Centre (CFC), while besides serving connected its Programming and Innovation Committee, Fundraising+ Committee, and Diversity and Governance Committee. She antecedently co-chaired nan Toronto Film, Television & Digital Media Panel and presently serves connected nan Board of nan Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and nan Academy Futures Committee. Internationally, she serves nan Visual Effects Society arsenic a founding personnel and Chair of nan VES Women Who Lead Committee, dedicated to ensuring women successful VFX person nan support, mentorship, visibility, and resources to advance. She besides serves connected nan VES Education and Outreach Committee, wherever she launched a peer-to-peer mentoring programme successful 2021 that has impacted much than 450 ocular effects artists to date.
 
Rita Cahill is an world business and marketing/PR advisor who has worked pinch a number of US, Canadian, UK, EU and Asian companies for ocular effects and animation. Current and erstwhile clients see companies successful nan characteristic film, television, VR and crippled industries, arsenic good arsenic authorities and acquisition entities. She is besides a partner successful MakeBelieve Entertainment, a movie improvement company, and serves arsenic Executive Producer connected respective animation and live-action projects. Previously, Cahill was nan VP Marketing for Cinesite wherever she oversaw nan trading of 4 divisions of nan pioneering integer studio’s services. Prior to Cinesite, Cahill was a founding Board personnel of nan Mill Valley Film Festival/California Film Institute and remains connected nan Institute’s Emeritus Board of Directors. Cahill was besides nan Founding Consultant connected nan statement and constitution of nan Singapore International Film Festival. Cahill is simply a longtime personnel of nan VES (since 2002) and has served 10 years connected nan world Board of Directors (2015-2020 and 2022-2025), and arsenic Secretary of nan Board for each those years. She besides served arsenic a Committee personnel of nan first VES Summit successful 2009 and past went onto being nan Chair aliases Co-Chair of nan VES Summit for 8 years (2010-2017) until it shape-shifted into nan Honors event. She has besides served connected various different Board Committees and successful 2013 she represented nan VES astatine Tokyo’s DigiCon6 arena which was portion of Japan’s InterBEE master waste and acquisition show. In 2021, Cahill was honored pinch a VES Lifetime Membership and nan VES Founders Award.
 
Barbara Ford Grant is an artist, engineer, and executive whose profession spans nan improvement of modern ocular effects, from nan inception of integer animation to nan emergence of virtual accumulation and AI-assisted pipelines. With complete 30 years of acquisition bridging imaginative artistry and precocious technology, she has engineered highly scalable imaginative devices and infrastructure for movie and bid productions, streaming giants, and location-based entertainment. Currently, she advises awesome studios, including Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios, connected AI accumulation strategy while processing proprietary devices and original IP done BFG Productions, which she founded successful 2024 to nutrient nan short film Unhoused. In 2018, Grant pivoted from her position starring multi-divisional imaginative and method accumulation operations astatine HBO to prosecute entrepreneurial ventures that allowed her to specify caller methods of storytelling. She subsequently served arsenic Chief Technology Officer astatine Meow Wolf, architecting mixed-reality platforms and acquisition creation systems for landmark immersive installations Convergence Station and The Real Unreal, which collectively pull millions of visitors. Later, arsenic President of Prysm Stages astatine NEP, she launched and oversaw nan Lumière Award-winning LED measurement shape astatine Trilith Studios successful Atlanta, utilized for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis and James Gunn’s Superman. Grant’s earlier profession established her halfway expertise successful creative-technology integration. At Digital Domain, she precocious integer quality animation and rendering for blockbuster films, including Maleficent. During her tenure astatine Sony Pictures Imageworks, she oversaw nan improvement and deployment of Academy Award-winning technologies, including Katana, Arnold, and OSL, utilized on Alice successful Wonderland and Cloudy pinch a Chance of Meatballs. At DreamWorks Animation, wherever she began arsenic a traditionally trained creator and self-taught colour subject engineer, she pioneered nan colour pipeline, integer dailies infrastructure, and co-designed nan 3D projection strategy for Shrek 4D at Universal Studios locations worldwide. Notably, Grant was nan first female Chair of nan Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. She is simply a personnel of some nan Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and nan Television Academy, serves connected nan VES Technology Committee, and sits connected nan editorial advisory committee of VFX Voice magazine.
 
Susan Thurmond O’Neal has been a dedicated unpaid pinch nan Visual Effects Society for much than 2 decades and has served connected nan world Board of Directors since 2010, including aggregate position connected nan Executive Committee. She has besides chaired nan Membership Committee for much than a decade, helping guideline nan Society’s world rank process and uphold its master standards. Earlier successful her VES service, she served connected nan Education Committee for 5 years. In nickname of her longstanding committedness to nan Society, O’Neal was fixed nan VES Founders Award successful 2019. She has besides contributed to respective editions of nan Society’s flagship publications, serving arsenic 1 of nan co-editors of both The VES Handbook of Visual Effects, Fourth Edition, and nan forthcoming 2nd version of The VES Handbook of Virtual Production. Through these publications, she has helped sphere and stock nan ocular effects industry’s corporate knowledge for early generations. A predominant moderator and speaker connected emerging technologies, profession development, and nan early of ocular effects, O’Neal is passionate astir mentoring, connecting people, sharing knowledge, and strengthening nan ocular effects community. She began her ocular effects profession astatine Digital Domain successful 1993, contributing to T2:3D – Battle Across Time and Titanic before moving connected to various Los Angeles-based studios producing ocular effects for commercials, euphony videos, and characteristic films. She held accumulation operations and activity roles astatine respective studios including The Mill, Radium FX, and CREO Collective, served successful relationship guidance astatine SideFX, and coming is an independent imaginative recruiter partnering pinch studios, agencies, and exertion companies crossed ocular effects, animation, virtual production, and emerging technologies done her longtime collaboration pinch BLT Recruiting.
 
VES 2026 Hall of Fame Inductees
This favoritism is bestowed upon a prime group of professionals and pioneers who person played a important domiciled successful advancing nan section of ocular effects by invention, science, contribution, aliases avocation of nan art, science, technology, and/or communications.
 
Jon Landau (1960-2024) was an acclaimed American movie producer, champion known for his collaborations pinch filmmaker James Cameron. He co-produced Cameron’s Titanic – for which he won nan Academy Award for Best Picture – arsenic good arsenic Cameron’s Avatar film bid done 2025’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. Titanic, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Avatar: Fire and Ash are 4 of nan highest-grossing films of each time. Landau’s different notable credits include Solarisand Alita: Battle Angel, some of which he produced alongside Cameron, arsenic good as Honey, I Shrunk nan Kids and Dick Tracy. Born successful New York, Landau graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and roseate to go nan executive vice president of characteristic movie accumulation astatine Twentieth Century Fox, earlier joining Cameron’s institution Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc.
 
Gerry Anderson (1929-2012) was a British pioneer successful nan section of puppetry who changed nan trajectory of sci-fi storytelling pinch his innovative “supermarionation” technique. He created his first puppet show, The Adventures of Twizzle, successful 1957, and successful nan 1960s went connected to create and motorboat galore deed shows including Supercar, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Captain Scarlet, each nether Anderson’s AP Films banner. The 1960 series Supercar marked nan debut of supermarionation, an physics strategy that makes marionettes much lifelike and convincing connected screen. Anderson’s expertise successful blending typical effects pinch unrecorded action continued passim his career, including activity connected nan 1969 film Doppelgänger, which was nominated for an Academy Award for typical effects. Other notable projects see nan unrecorded action tv series UFO and Space: 1999 and typical tv program The Day After Tomorrow. His bequest arsenic a pioneer successful sci-fi tv continues to animate caller generations done his imaginative worlds and unforgettable characters. 
 
Ishiro Honda (1911-1993) was an iconic Japanese filmmaker and 1 of nan pioneers of modern disaster films, successful peculiar arsenic a co-creator of the kaiju genre pinch typical effects creator Eiji Tsuburaya. His first characteristic movie was The Blue Pearl (1952), a captious occurrence successful Japan and nan first Japanese movie to utilize underwater sequences. He followed that pinch directing and co-writing 1954’s blockbuster Godzilla, which has since spawned 1 of nan longest-running movie franchises successful history, and is wide considered 1 of nan champion monster movies of each time. Honda would spell connected to nonstop a full of 8 films successful the Godzilla franchise complete nan adjacent 20 years, including Mothra (1961), King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), and Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964). Over nan people of his career, Honda worked extensively wrong Japan’s legendary Toho Studios, yet directing complete 40 characteristic films positive galore shorts, documentary projects, and tv projects. At Toho, he besides met filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who would spell connected to go a friend and collaborator complete galore years. Honda served arsenic nan adjunct head for Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949), and would later activity connected Kurosawa’s past 5 films from nan precocious 1970s to early 1990s.
 
Tomoyuki Tanaka (1910-1997) was a prolific Japanese movie shaper pinch complete 200 credits to his name, astir notably successful nan long-running Godzilla franchise starting pinch nan original 1954 movie directed by Ishirō Honda. Tanaka besides produced respective films by Akira Kurosawa successful nan 1960s including The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low, and Red Beard. Tanaka would later reunite pinch Kurosawa to produce Kagemusha (1980), which was nominated for nan Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won nan Palme d’Or astatine Cannes. Most of Tanaka’s career, spanning six decades, was spent moving astatine Japan’s renowned Toho Studios, and he yet worked his measurement up to go Chairman and CEO of nan institution successful 1989.