**FREE** PH Awards: ANDOR: S2 VFX
Date: 08/26/2025 at 8:00PM ET / 5:00PM PT ‐ Encore
Date: 08/26/2025 at 11:00PM ET / 8:00PM PT ‐ Encore 2
Description:
Sponsored by Disney+
Lucasfilm’s Emmy®-nominated thriller “Andor,” returns for its long-awaited conclusion on April 22. The second season takes place as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance. Everyone will be tested and, as the stakes rise, the betrayals, sacrifices and conflicting agendas will become profound. Rife with political intrigue and danger, the series is a prequel to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which portrayed a heroic band of rebels who steal the plans to the Empire’s weapon of mass destruction—The Death Star—setting the stage for the events of the original 1977 film. “Andor” sets the clock back five years from the events of “Rogue One” to tell the story of the film’s hero, Cassian Andor, and his transformation from disinterested, cynical nobody into a rebel hero on his way to an epic destiny. (Description courtesy of Disney+)
Guest:
Guest Bio:
Joseph Kasparian - Joseph’s journey is punctuated by numerous notable achievements, including his role in shaping the visual landscape of many iconic projects for the past 28 years such as Sin City, 300, Warcraft, Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. His tenure at Hybride, and his role as Creative Vice-President has been marked by an unwavering commitment to innovation and an unparalleled dedication to his craft, positioning him as a reference for positivity and inspiration within the industry. He has collaborated on every Star Wars movie and series since 2015. His contributions to the groundbreaking series The Mandalorian Season 02 earned him an Emmy in 2021 followed by an Emmy nomination for Andor Season 01.
Luke Murphy - With over three decades of experience in the UK film industry, Luke Murphy is a highly respected Special Effects Supervisor. Known for his leadership on large-scale, effects-heavy productions across film and television, Luke has established a reputation for delivering high-quality physical and pyrotechnic effects with creativity, precision, and absolute safety.
Luke’s most recent credits as SFX Supervisor include the TV series Andor Season 2, for which he has been Emmy nominated, Neuromancer, two seasons of Joe Russo’s Citadel and feature films including Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Jamie Payne’s Luther and Doug Liman’s Lockdown.
Luke has a long history with Star Wars, having worked as the SFX Supervisor - Additional photography both on Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One.
As an SFX Floor Supervisor, Luke’s credits include Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s The Huntsman, Chris McQuarrie’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Guy Ritchie’s Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Luke started his career in special effects working on a number of James Bond films such as Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Skyfall and No Time to Die in addition to six of the Harry Potter films, as well as The Da Vinci Code, Snow White and the Huntsman and The Dark Knight Rises.
Paolo D’Arco is a Visual Effects Supervisor with over 13 years of experience in the film and television industry.
He has contributed to major productions including Jurassic World: Rebirth, Andor, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Chernobyl, The Alienist, Thor: Ragnarok, and many others.
Known for his attention to detail and ability to maintain control under high-pressure, fast-paced environments, Paolo has become a trusted name in the world of visual effects.
Originally from Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, Paolo began his artistic journey in nearby Sorrento. He holds a degree in Visual and Performing Arts and an MA in New Art Technologies from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples.
After completing his studies in CGI, he relocated to London to specialise in compositing, further refining his craft.
Combining a strong foundation in traditional arts with expertise in both 2D and 3D disciplines, Paolo brings a comprehensive and insightful approach to every production he joins.
His artistic versatility and years of hands-on experience enable him to bridge creative vision with technical execution delivering high-end visuals that elevate storytelling.
Jean-Clément Soret is among the most renowned senior colourists in the world. Formerly MPC’s Global Creative Director of Colour Grading, now represented by colour grading specialist Company 3. He has brought his mastery of the medium to major features, TV series and commercial campaigns internationally. He has worked on Oscar-nominated and winning projects, he is a recipient of two Baftas for best colour grading on TV series, of a British Arrows Craft Fellowship Award and no less than seven Best Colourist award at the British Arrow Craft Awards. Most recently nominated for the second time at the Emmy’s for his work on Andor. His IMDB page is one the most envious that you could hope for, his iconic commercial work has made him the colourist of choice of many among the advertising community, he is the colourist behind many Christmas retail campaigns as well as Cannes Grand Prix winners.
He began his career in the early days of the telecine revolution in his native France, where he learned an enormous amount about film stocks and processing while working with traditional film timers. He migrated to commercials and music videos, where he learned to work alongside filmmakers and photographers experimenting with ground-breaking film techniques and soon became a highly in-
demand digital colourist. He was noticed by the principals at MPC, who brought him to that company in 1997 where he created unique and dazzling work putting a strong mark on the London scene until deciding to bring his vast experience and significant talent to Company 3 in 2021.
British-born Neal Scanlan began his career at the age of nineteen as a Stop Motion Designer for Cosgrove Hall, on their production of 'Wind in the Willows' (1981). Three years later he moved to London and began working in animatronics on Walt Disney's
'Return to Oz' (1984). Forming a working relationship with designer Lyle Conway, he freelanced as the Chief Mechanical Designer on films such as Dennis Potter's 'Dream Child' (1984), Jim Henson's 'Labyrinth' (1985) and the Visual Effects Academy Award nominated film version of 'Little Shop of Horrors’ (1986).
Neal became one of the founder members of the Jim Henson Creature Shop with whom he enjoyed a successful eight year relationship, first as an Animatronics Supervisor, then as Creative Supervisor. Some of the projects that Neal was directly involved with
include, 'The Storyteller' (1987), 'Witches' (1988), 'Greek Myths' (1989) 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 & 2' (1988 & 90) and 'Dinosaurs' (1991).
The success of these projects resulted in Neal and his 'Henson Creature Shop' team producing the animatronic effects for Walt Disney's '101 Dalmatians' (1995), the Special Make-Up Effects for Anthony Minghella's Academy Award Winner, 'The English Patient'
(1994) and numerous television commercials.
With the success of Kennedy Miller’s ‘Babe’ for which Neal won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and a BAFTA nomination, Neal left the Jim Henson Organisation to form the Neal Scanlan Studio in 1996. The first major project was Babe: Pig in the City
(1998), which was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Visual Effects. The studio went on to build a reputation for design and innovation and enjoyed 10 very successful years working on amazing feature films, tv shows and commercials, including Tim Burton’s
‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ (2005) and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ (2007), Steven Spielberg’s ‘Munich’ (2005) and Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’ (2012).
In 2011 Neal closed the Studio in order to pursue a wider range of interests outside of the film industry, but this all changed when Neal was asked to head up the Creature and Make Up FX Department for the new series of the Star Wars films.
The first in the new trilogy, The Force Awakens, was released in 2015 to record breaking success, winning Neal another BAFTA for Visual Effects along with an Academy nomination. Neal went on to complete the Skywalker Saga, as well as spin off films Rogue One & Solo, earning him another 6 nominations from the Academy and BAFTAs along the way. Between the Star Wars films, Neal worked on ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ (2018). With the upsurge of TV Productions, Neal has more recently been working on the Disney+ shows: Andor, Willow and The Acolyte.
Neal was also consulted during pre-production of season one of Tim Burton’s ‘Wednesday’ for the character Thing and the design of the Enid and Tyler transformations. Having finished working with Tim Burton again on ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,’ Neal has recently wrapped his latest project, bringing to life the alien character Rocky for the upcoming film adaptation of ‘Project Hail Mary,’ directed by PhilNeal Scanlan Lord and Chris Miller, and is currently in pre-production for Greta Gerwig’s next feature film based on the ‘Narnia’ series.
Neal’s work has been acknowledged with Academy, BAFTA and Saturn wins, as well as numerous nominations. For further information, please visit https://www.nealscanlan.com/
Scott Pritchard is an Emmy-nominated visual effects supervisor with over 20 years of experience on effects-driven projects. He recently completed season two of Tony Gilroyʼs Andor for Disney+. For his contribution to season one of Andor, he received an Emmy and VES nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects. Pritchard was responsible for leading a team of over 200 artists across ILMʼs London and Vancouver studios, working on over 850 shots covering seven separate planet environments. He also oversaw the creation of large-scale environments for ILMʼs StageCraft LED screens, ultimately resulting in in-camera finals for over 80% of the shots. The series went on to receive a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects.
Prior, his contribution to Netflixʼs The Pale Blue Eye included collaborating with the head of department visual effects supervisor on best approaches for shooting photogrammetry and drone plates of the real location, as well as overseeing 32 shots which featured a
variety of environment extensions and full CG environments, within a total turnaround of just over four months.
He also served as Visual Effects Supervisor on Brave New World, which he is a recipient of the Royal Television Societyʼs Craft & Design Award for his contributions to the series. He has also received a VES Award for Outstanding Compositing on Christopher Nolanʼs Inception, which went on to receive an Academy and BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
TJ Falls is Vice President of Visual Effects at Lucasfilm. Having previously served as the primary VFX Producer on a number of Lucasfilm projects and a VFX Executive on others, he now oversees visual effects production for all of Lucasfilm’s slate of feature films and live action series, while still maintaining a hands-on role producing specific projects.
Working from Lucasfilm’s London studio, TJ produces large-scale and complex shows with a heavy reliance on visual effects. He enjoys the process of finding creative solutions to storytelling challenges and making the seemingly impossible a reality through innovation, collaboration, and strategy.
Since joining Lucasfilm in 2016, TJ has been part of the producing team for visual effects on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — films that garnered multiple Academy Award and BAFTA nominations and awards for Best Visual Effects.
Most recently, TJ was the Lucasfilm VFX Executive on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Acolyte, as well as the VFX Executive Producer on the Disney+ series, Willow. TJ is simultaneously serving as the Head of Department Visual Effects Producer for Season 2 of Andor, a role for which he was recognized with a BAFTA nomination in the show’s first season. Originally hailing from Los Angeles, TJ studied at UCLA and subsequently spent more than 10 years in the entertainment industry in LA, with time spent in-house at Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot, and on numerous high profile and large-scale feature films. He moved to London to work with Lucasfilm and ILM after partnering with the companies on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and has been on the journey with them ever since.
Mohen Leo is an Academy and BAFTA Award-nominated Visual Effects Supervisor. In 2022, Mohen was the Head of Department Visual Effects Supervisor on Tony Gilroyʼs Andor for Disney+. His contributions to season one earned him a BAFTA TV Award
nomination, a Primetime Emmy nomination, and an HPA Award for Outstanding Visual Effects. Mohenʼs success on the series led him to his current role overseeing season two of Andor in the same capacity.
Prior, Mohen was the Director of Content at ILM Immersive, where he also functioned as a Narrative Designer on Vader Immortal, an interactive VR story that later earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media and the 2020 Game Developers Choice Award for Best VR/AR Game.
During his 25-year career, he also served as ILM Singaporeʼs Studio Supervisor and Director of Global Strategy from 2009 to 2014, overseeing the expansion of ILMʼs first studio outside the United States.
Sue Rowe is a seasoned visual effects supervisor with over 25 years of industry experience, having contributed to films including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the Oscar-winning The Golden Compass. Known for her
unique blend of traditional artistic skill and technical expertise, Sue excels across all stages of VFX production—from storyboards and previs to on-set supervision and final pixel delivery. She has served as client-side VFX supervisor on titles such as John Carter and The Maze Runner, and as on-set supervisor for productions like The Adam Project and Shadow and Bone. An Emmy-nominated professional for her work on HBO’s Into the Storm and Andor Season 2, Sue is a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.