Avatar leads VES nominations with 11 nods

Are you sitting down? THR has some shocking news:

James Cameron’s “Avatar” led the list of nominations announced Monday by the Visual Effects Society, scooping up 11. The animated “Coraline,” another movie released in 3D, followed with four nominations.

New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which worked on “Avatar,” led the company noms with nine.

For visual effects in an effects-driven motion picture feature, the nominees are “2012,” “Avatar,” “District 9,” “Star Trek” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Noms for supporting visual effects in a movie went to “Angels & Demons,” “The Box,” “Invictus,” “The Road” and “Sherlock Holmes.”

The VES awards work in 20 categories — in film, animation, TV, commercials and video games. Relax, they’re not televised. Complete list of feature film nominees, after the cut.

VES Feature Film Nominees:

Visual effects in a visual effects driven feature motion picture

“2012”
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Supporting visual effects in a feature motion picture

“Angels & Demons”
“The Box”
“Invictus”
“The Road”
“Sherlock Holmes”

Animation in an animated feature motion picture

“Nine”
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
“Up”

Best single visual effect of the year

“2012,” “Escape From L.A.”
“Avatar,” “Quarich’s Escape”
“Avatar”
“Knowing,” “Plane Crash”
“Terminator Salvation,” “VLA Escape”

Animated character in a live-action feature motion picture

“Avatar,” “Neytiri”
“District 9,” “Christopher Johnson”
“G-Force,” “Bucky”
“Watchmen,” “Doctor Manhattan”

Animated character in an animated feature motion picture

“Coraline,” “Coraline”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” “Buck”
“Monsters vs. Aliens,” “B.O.B.”
“Up,” “Carl,” “No Dad Scene”

Effects animation in an animated feature motion picture

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Monsters vs. Aliens‚Äù
“Up”

Matte paintings in a feature motion picture

“Avatar,” “Pandora”
Yvonne Muinde, lead matte painter
“Franklyn,” “Meanwhile City Scapes”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Star Trek”

Models and miniatures in a feature motion picture

“Avatar,” “Samson/Home Tree / Floating Mountains / Ampsuit”
“Coraline”
“Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian,” “National Air and Space Museum Escape”
“Terminator Salvation”

Created environment in a feature motion picture

“2012,” “Los Angeles Destruction”
“Avatar,” “Floating Mountains”
“Avatar’, “Jungle / Biolume”
“Avatar,” “Willow Glade”

Compositing in a feature motion picture

“Avatar”
“Avatar,” “End Battle”
“District 9”
“Sherlock Holmes,” “Wharf Explosion Sequence”