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Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.

First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...

Life of Pi has taken the top prize at the Visual Effects Society Awards, tying with Brave and Game of Thrones with four awards in total.

Among its awards, Life of Pi was honored for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture, while director Ang Lee also received the Ves Visionary Award, presented by visual effects designer Dennis Muren. Actor Harrison Ford also presented veteran visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund with the Ves Lifetime Achievement Award.

Disney-Pixar's Brave scooped the animated film categories while HBO series Game of Thrones dominated the TV categories.

However, Australian effects company Fuel VFX lost out in both categories it was nominated in: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture and Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture for its work on Prometheus (both categories won by Life of Pi).

The Winners

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven...

The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for their 11th Annual Ves Awards. From film to animation to television to commercials and video games, the Ves Awards honor the outstanding visual effects artistry.

"Life of Pi's" Ang Lee will be honored with the Visionary Award. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, February 5, at the Beverly Hilton.

Here's the complete list of nominees; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Joe Letteri

Eileen Moran

Eric Saindon

Kevin L. Sherwood

Prometheus

Paul Butterworth

Charley Henley

Allen Maris

Richard Stammers

Life of Pi

Thomas Fisher

Susan Macleod

Guillaume Rocheron

Bill Westenhofer

The Avengers

Susan Pickett

Janek Sirrs

Jeff White

Guy Williams

Battleship

Grady Cofer

Pablo Helman

Jeanie King

Glen Mcintosh

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture

Rust and Bone

Béatrice Bauwens...

Fuel VFX has received two award nominations from the Visual Effects Society.

The.peer-voted accolade for the company's work on Ridley Scott.s Prometheus follows the near-collapse of the VFX house, which was saved in October 2012 when Animal Logic acquired its assets.

Fuel co-founder Paul Butterworth was nominated for .Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture. for Prometheus (alongside non-Fuel nominations Charley Henley, Allen Maris and Richard Stammers).

The Fuel team of Xavier Bourque, Sam Cole, Simone Riginell and Denis Scolan - representing the hard work of all 16 compositors who worked on the film at the company - were nominated for Prometheus (Engineers & the Orrery) in the "Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture" category.

Fuel has also provided effects on a number of Marvel films including Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Fuel continues to run from its Newtown, Sydney-based offices where Animal Logic...

The "muscle" for one of the most violent and powerful drug gangs was sentenced today to two life terms in federal prison for the killing of one man and the attempted murder of another. Juan Rivera-Velez (pictured), known as Two-Face because the left side of his head was disfigured in a flaming car accident, was convicted by a jury last November in the 1996 murder of Miguel Batista and the attempted murder of Rafael Colon-Rodriguez seven years later. Both shootings were carried out on behalf of convicted drug kingpin Raymond Morales, who controlled a multimillion-dollar cocaine ring. Morales became a cooperating witness in 2004 and was the key prosecution witness in the case.