Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards on Saturday seem to portend 'Button' win on Sunday

Lest you believe the Independent Spirit Awards were the only show in town the night before the Oscars, think again! This evening, the Visual Effects Society hosted its seventh annual ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City and celebrated the artists who produce the visual effects -- animation, CGI, specialty shots etc. -- that enable movies, television, commercials and video games to make us believe in that which does not in reality exist. It just so happens that, on this particular evening, virtually all of those artists honored for feature films worked on either "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" or "Wall-E."

"Button," Paramount's big-budget film starring a backward-aging Brad Pitt, won four VES awards, including best visual effects in a visual effects driven movie, which has gone to the film that went on to win the best visual effects Oscars four out of a possible six years -- with last year being one of the exceptions. "Button" is nominated in that category, as well as 12 others, at the Academy Awards and was already expected to prevail over "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man."

("Iron Man" led the VES field with five nominations -- compared with four for "Button," "The Dark Knight," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Bolt" -- but went home emptyhanded. "The Dark Knight" won three categories: models and miniatures, created environment in a movie, and special effects.)

"Wall-E," the latest and arguably greatest Pixar production, won all three of the VES awards devoted to animation -- character animation, effects animation, and outstanding animation -- which were presented by a raucous Jeff Garlin, who provided the voice of Captain McCrea in the film. "Wall-E" will compete at the Oscars in six categories including best animated feature film, in which it is expected to prevail over "Kung Fu Panda" and "Bolt."

Appropriately enough, the evening's Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by "Button" director David Fincher to "Button" producers/spouses Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, who also have steered numerous other special-effects-laden films including "E.T." (1982), "Poltergeist" (1982), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (1988), "Jurassic Park" (1993), "Twister" (1996), "The Sixth Sense" (1999), "Artificial Intelligence: A.I." (2001), "Signs" (2002), "War of the Worlds" (2005), and the "Back to the Future," "Indiana Jones" and "Bourne" franchises.

During his acceptance speech, Marshall said he wanted to take a moment to thank all of those associated with bringing "Button" to the big screen, including Fincher and the visual effects team, "on the off chance we don't get to do this tomorrow." (Marshall was half-joking, but the truth is that for either him or Kennedy to be able to speak from the podium tonight, "Button" would have to pull off a shocking upset and defeat "Slumdog Millionaire" for the best picture Oscar.)

Phil Tippett, a visual effects legend best known for his work on "Star Wars" (1977) and "Jurassic Park" (1993) and for his fascination with crafting 3D dinosaurs, was honored with the George Melies Award for artistic merit and pioneering. During his acceptance speech, Tippett bristled at the term "pioneer," saying that those who worked during the earliest days of cinema -- like the original film visual effects artist, Melies -- created most of the techniques that he and others have been using ever since.

The funniest, if not most awkward, off-the-cuff remark came when a male presenter expressed his admiration for people "who can make small things seem big -- something I've been trying to do my entire adult life."

Photo: Brad Pitt during filming of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Credit: Paramount