The Visual Effects Society revealed a slew of news Wednesday, setting a date and venue for its 2027 VES Awards along with some new categories and rules.

The 25th annual VES Awards is set for Wednesday, February 17, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Nominations in two dozen categories will be unveiled on Tuesday, January 19.

The group also said Wednesday that it has made a number of changes to its categories for the silver anniversary awards show. A new Outstanding Visual Effects in a Short Project prize covers both photoreal and animated projects – including narrative short films, documentary shorts, music videos, native social media content and experimental films – up to 45 minutes in length.

VES also split its former Outstanding CG Cinematography race into separate categories for Outstanding CG Cinematography in a Photoreal Project and Outstanding CG Cinematography in an Animated Project. This shift, it said, honors the unique creative disciplines of each format and ensures that lighting, layout, previs and digital camera teams are evaluated alongside directly comparable work.

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The VES Awards’ animated categories also have been updated this year to be more inclusive of episodic projects, with category titles changing from Animated Feature to Animated Project. This will allow space for toon series to compete alongside other animation projects; they had been either ineligible or forced to compete against photoreal projects. Also, the Simulation categories have been renamed to Procedural Effects, now recognizing visual effects artistry achieved through a wider range of system-driven processes.

“Visual effects artists are creating extraordinary work across more formats, platforms and production methods than ever before,” shared Lopsie Schwartz, Chair of the VES Awards Committee. “It is important that our categories continue to evolve alongside the work itself. These changes recognize outstanding visual effects across a broader range of formats and production methods while preserving the meaningful, competitive distinction of a VES Award.”

To be eligible for the 25th VES Awards, projects must have been released during calendar 2026. Submissions will open September 15 and run through October 31.

Back in February, the 24th VES Awards was dominated by James Cameron’s billion-dollar threequel Avatar: Fire and Ash, which took seven trophies on 10 nominations en route to winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The Visual Effects Society and Movie Academy haven’t followed the same script much during the past decade-plus, with only six of winners of the top VES prize going on to score the FX Oscar since 2013.

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