The Midnight Sky (Netflix) walked away with the marquee Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature honor at the VES Awards during a virtual ceremony on Tuesday (4/6) evening. The George Clooney-directed film also topped the category for best model in a photoreal or animated project for the creation of the Aether spaceship.

Meanwhile Soul (Disney-Pixar) won all five categories in which it was nominated, including earning distinction for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature. Soul also won for best animated character in an animated feature (for the character Terry), best created environment in an animated feature (for You Seminar), best virtual cinematography in a CG project, and best effects simulations in an animated feature.

On the TV/streaming side, The Mandalorian (Disney+) took three VES Awards--for best visual effects in a photoreal episode, animated character in an episode or real-time project (The Child in “The Jedi” episode), and created environment in an episode, commercial or real-world project category (Morak Jungle in “The Believer” episode).

In the supporting visual effects categories, the winners were Mank (Netflix) in the feature competition and the “Gold Stick” episode of The Crown (Netflix) on the photoreal TV/streaming score.

On the ad front, Walmart’s “Famous Visitors” won for best VFX in a commercial, Arm & Hammer’s “Once Upon a Time” for best animated character (Tuxedo Tom), and Burberry’s “Festive” for best spot compositing.

Special VES honors went to Peter Jackson and Robert Legato, ASC.  Cate Blanchett presented filmmaker Jackson with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award. And Sacha Baron Cohen presented the VES Award for Creative Excellence to visual effects supervisor Robert Legato, ASC. 

Hosting the VES Awards for the 10th straight year was comedian/actor Patton Oswalt.

Here’s a category-by-category rundown of the evening’s VES winners:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature 
THE MIDNIGHT SKY 
Matt Kasmir
Greg Baxter
Chris Lawrence
Max Solomon
David Watkins

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
MANK
Wei Zheng
Peter Mavromates
Simon Carr
James Pastorius

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
SOUL
Pete Docter
Dana Murray
Michael Fong
Bill Watral

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
THE MANDALORIAN, The Marshal
Joe Bauer
Abbigail Keller
Hal Hickel
Richard Bluff
Roy Cancino

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
THE CROWN; Gold Stick
Ben Turner
Reece Ewing
Andrew Scrase
Jonathan Wood

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project
GHOST OF TSUSHIMA
Jason Connell
Matt Vainio
Jasmin Patry
Joanna Wang

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
WALMART; "Famous Visitors"
Chris “Badger” Knight
Lori Talley
Yarin Mares
Matt Fuller

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
THE BOURNE STUNTACULAR
Salvador Zalvidea
Tracey Gibbons
George Allan
Matthías Bjarnason
Scott Smith

Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN; Ivan
Valentina Rosselli
Thomas Huizer
Andrea De Martis
William Bell

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
SOUL; Terry
Jonathan Hoffman
Jonathan Page
Peter Tieryas
Ron Zorman

Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project
THE MANDALORIAN; The Jedi; The Child 
John Rosengrant
Peter Clarke
Scott Patton
Hal Hickel

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial
ARM & HAMMER; "Once Upon a Time"; Tuxedo Tom
Shiny Rajan
Silvia Bartoli
Matias Heker
Tiago Dias Mota

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
MULAN; Imperial City
Jeremy Fort
Matt Fitzgerald
Ben Walker
Adrian Vercoe

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
SOUL; You Seminar
Hosuk Chang
Sungyeon Joh
Peter Roe
Frank Tai

Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
THE MANDALORIAN; The Believer; Morak Jungle
Enrico Damm
Johanes Kurnia
Phi Tran
Tong Tran

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project
SOUL
Matt Aspbury
Ian Megibben

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
THE MIDNIGHT SKY; Aether
Michael Balthazart
Jonathan Opgenhaffen
John-Peter Li
Simon Aluze

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
PROJECT POWER
Yin Lai Jimmy Leung
Jonathan Edward Lyddon-Towl
Pierpaolo Navarini
Michelle Lee

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
SOUL
Alexis Angelidis
Keith Daniel Klohn
Aimei Kutt
Melissa Tseng

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Strange Case; Chrysalis
Federica Foresti
Johan Gabrielsson
Hugo Medda
Andreas Krieg

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature
PROJECT POWER
Russell Horth
Matthew Patience
Julien Rousseau

Outstanding Compositing in an Episode
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY; Strange Case; Chrysalis
Viktor Andersson
Linus Lindblom
Mattias Sandelius
Crawford Reilly

Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial
BURBERRY; "Festive"
Alex Lovejoy
Mithun Alex
David Filipe
Amresh Kumar

Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project
FEAR THE WALKING DEAD; Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg
Frank Iudica
Scott Roark
Daniel J. Yates

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
MIGRANTS
Antoine Dupriez
Hugo Caby
Lucas Lermytte
Zoé Devise