29th January 2026

AACTA Nominations 2026

Framestore celebrates two Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) nominations, with How to Train Your Dragon and Together recognised in the Best Visual Effects Or Animation category.  Dragons brought to life, epic environments and arena combat delivered the ultimate wish fulfilment and new audiences for fan favourite franchise How to Train Your Dragon.  With the beautifully gruesome and technically complex merging of souls, as two become one in director Michael Shank’s feature debut Together, with both production and post-production based in his hometown of Melbourne.  

Lara Hopkins, Head of Studio, Framestore in Melbourne, said:

“These nominations are a wonderful acknowledgment of the range and ambition of the work our teams are delivering. From the scale and exhilaration of How to Train Your Dragon to the intimate, unsettling transformation at the heart of Together, each project challenged us in very different ways, creatively and technically.

“It’s a privilege to collaborate with filmmakers who encourage bold ideas and trust us to help realise them on screen. We’re incredibly proud of the artists behind this work and thrilled to see their craft recognised by AACTA.”

 

Framestore Visual Effects Or Animation Nominees: How to Train Your Dragon

  • VFX Supervisor: 2 x AACTA Winner & 4 x AACTA Nominee Glenn Melenhorst
  • VFX Supervisor: Dom Hellier
  • CG Supervisor: 2 x AACTA Nominee Nathan Ortiz
  • Animation Supervisor: 2 x AACTA Nominee Nick Tripodi
  • VFX Producer: Teresa Mathew

Framestore’s Melbourne team led the visual effects work on How to Train Your Dragon’s training arena sequences, where young Vikings hone their dragon-fighting skills under Gobber the Belch. These action-packed montages introduce a diverse cast of Dragons and require a broad range of visual effects disciplines, combining creature work, environment creation and large-scale destruction to support the story’s escalating stakes and spectacle.

The team digitally recreated and extended the practical training arena set, originally filmed on a Belfast backlot, reimagining it as a dramatic mountaintop structure overlooking the surrounding village and ocean. Using photogrammetry and extensive photographic reference, Framestore built a richly detailed environment, from towering rock formations and vegetation to intricately crafted arena fixtures and destructible props. Animation was central to the sequences, with Melbourne’s artists carefully shaping each Dragon’s performance using real-world reference and motion capture, balancing realism, weight, humour and danger while honouring the spirit of the original film.

 

Framestore Visual Effects Or Animation Nominees: Together

  • VFX Supervisor: 2 x AACTA Winner & 4 x AACTA Nominee Josh Simmonds
  • CG Supervisor: Jeremy Pronk
  • Senior FX TD: Steve Oakley

Production VFX Supervisor: Genevieve Camilleri

Special FX Supervisor: Larry Van Duynhoven

Creating the body-horror spectacle of Together came with its own set of formidable flesh-twisting challenges.  Each shot demanded a bespoke approach, with sequences filmed using the real actors as a basis.  The team seamlessly merged live-action footage with extreme anatomical transformations - a delicate balance of realism and surreal distortion.  This meant full-lim replacements and animation that had to remind tightly anchored to the actors’ original movement.