MPC Film Wins Best Special Visual Effects BAFTA for Disney's The Jungle Book

MPC’s work on Disney’s The Jungle Book won the BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects at the EE British Academy Film Awards.

MPC’s VFX Supervisor Adam Valdez was there to accept the award on behalf of the VFX studio’s team of more than 800 artists, production crew and technologists based in London’s Soho and Bangalore, India. MPC’s team worked closely with director Jon Favreau and production supervisor Rob Legato, crafting the movie’s CG environments and photoreal animals for over a year.

As lead VFX studio, MPC artists built a complex photo-real world creating The Jungle Book’s stunning CG environments and bringing the film’s iconic animal characters to life. 54 species of animals and 224 unique animals were created and new computer programs were made to better simulate muscles, skin and fur. Technicolor, MPC’s parent company, did the colour grade and finishing on the film. The newest filmmaking technologies were used to create a seamless experience for audiences, without a hint the film was shot entirely in Los Angeles on sound stages.

Valdez said on the night: “I’m thrilled to accept this BAFTA on behalf of MPC’s team of more than 800 talented artists across the globe. It was a privilege for us to have the opportunity to collaborate with our amazing director Jon Favreau and the guys at Disney.”

MD of MPC Film, Christian Roberton said: “We are very excited to have won the BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects. This award represents an incredible achievement for more than 800 artists lead by MPC VFX Supervisor Adam Valdez and our London based team. It is a true testament of the passion and talent of MPC's artists and production crew."

The BAFTA win comes after what has been an extremely successful awards season for MPC. The Jungle Book received an Oscar nomination for visual effects and earlier in the year MPC’s team won the Critics Choice Award for Outstanding Visual Effects, HPA Award for Visual Effects, Annie Award for Character Animation in a Live Action Production and 2 VES Awards for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Film and Outstanding FX and Simulation in a Feature Motion Picture.

MPC has won BAFTA’s for their visual effects work on Life Of Pi and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as well as 7 previous nominations, an Academy Award for Life of Pi and 8 prior nominations.

2017 is set to be another exciting year for MPC, with the team delivering VFX for a number of highly anticipated movies including The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien Covenant, Ghost in the Shell, The Dark Tower and Blade Runner 2049.