Wētā FX Win BAFTA Film Award For Avatar: Fire And Ash

Wētā FX won a BAFTA Film Award for their work on Avatar: Fire and Ash at the ceremony in London this morning (NZDT).

The New Zealand VFX house was represented by Wellington’s Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett, who received the Best Special Visual Effects award alongside Richard Baneham from James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.

This is Letteri’s sixth BAFTA win and Saindon and Barrett’s second, with all three having received the award for Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, and Letteri for Avatar in 2009.

Wētā FX were responsible for 94% of the visual effects shots in Avatar: Fire and Ash, with over 1,200 crew contributing to a total of 3,132 shots.

The trio say, “We are truly honoured to receive the Best Special Visual Effects Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for our work on Avatar: Fire and Ash. This recognition is a testament to the extraordinary dedication, artistry, and innovation of our entire visual effects team and the many collaborators who helped bring this world to life.”

“We extend our sincere thanks to Lightstorm Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company for their unwavering support, creative trust, and commitment to ambitious filmmaking. Their partnership empowers us to continually push the boundaries of visual storytelling,” say Letteri, Saindon, and Barrett.

“We also want to acknowledge the incredible New Zealand film community, whose talent, craftsmanship, and collaborative spirit make it possible to achieve work at this level on the world stage. Being part of such a passionate and innovative creative environment is a privilege we never take for granted,” they add.

Looking ahead, Wētā FX is nominated for 16 awards in 11 categories at the Visual Effects Society Awards, which are being held in Los Angeles on Thursday 26 February (NZDT).

Wētā FX is also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Avatar: Fire and Ash, with the ceremony being held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday 16 March 2026 (NZDT).

Notes:

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Wētā FX nominees:

• Joe Letteri, Senior VFX Supervisor
• Eric Saindon, Senior VFX Supervisor, Wētā FX
• Daniel Barrett, Senior Animation Supervisor, Wētā FX

Quick facts:

• Wētā FX has worked with director James Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment on Avatar projects for the last 20 years, establishing a creative shorthand and shared vocabulary that has enabled innovation and efficiencies to produce the highest quality of storytelling and visual spectacle.
• Avatar: Fire and Ash and Avatar: The Way of Water were filmed concurrently, meaning the third instalment builds on the technical advancements made in the second film, while levelling up with a significant increase in scale, complexity, and compute compared to Avatar: The Way of Water.
• Working in eight teams, two Senior VFX Supervisors, four VFX Supervisors, six VFX Sequence Supervisors, two Animation Supervisors, and more than 1,200 Wētā FX crew contributed to the film – a typical Wētā FX project would have one or two VFX and Animation Supervisors.
• Only seven shots, totalling around 11 seconds of the film, do not contain visual effects.

About Wētā FX

Wētā FX is the standard-bearer for creative innovation in visual effects and animation, attracting talent, partners, and clients who seek a collaborator that embraces and nurtures their artistic vision.

Their renowned proprietary pipeline provides artists with the tools and infrastructure they need to create their best work. Headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, with creative hubs in Vancouver and Melbourne, Wētā FX is home to some of the most ambitious artists, engineers, and executives you’re likely to meet.

Across three decades, their trailblazing work has so far earned seven visual effects Academy Awards®, 16 Academy Sci-Tech Awards and seven visual effects BAFTA Awards, in addition to 61 Visual Effects Society Awards awarded to them by their peers. Wētā FX is known for performance-driven animated creatures and characters such as Gollum, Kong, Neytiri, Caesar, and Pogo as well as for the universes they inhabit, including Middle-earth, Pandora and countless others. www.wetafx.co.nz

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