March 15, 2022

Two alumni of Drexel Westphal’s Digital Media programs took home awards at the 20th Annual Visual Effects Society Awards Gala on March 8, 2022. The Visual Effects Society (VES) is a global professional honorary society and the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners. The VES Awards recognizes and honors the most outstanding visual effects work of the year and the artists who created them.

Amol Sathe (BS Digital Media ’06; MS ’07) was recognized with the award for Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature for Antonio’s Room in Disney’s Encanto (2021). Amol’s collaborators and co-honorees are Camille Andre, Andrew Finley, and Chris Patrick O’Connell. Amol is a Lighting Artist & Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, CA. Other animation and visual effects credits include Tangled (2010), Frozen (2013), and Moana (2016). Encanto led the VES Award wins, along with Dune (2021).

Le Joyce Tong (MS Digital Media ’10) won the award for Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature for her work on Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). She shares the award with Henrik Fält, Rattanin Sirinaruemarn, Jacob Rice. Joyce is Head of Effects at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and she served as effects lead on Raya. In addition to effects credits on Disney animated features like Zootopia and Big Hero 6, Joyce has worked in the visual effects departments for live-action features Life of Pi, The Amazing Spider-Man, and more.

Congratulations to Joyce, Amol, and all the talented effects artists who took home VES Awards this spring!