Dexter Studios Wins Best Special, Visual or Makeup Effects in the SOFC for Film ‘Colony’ at Sitges Film Festival in Spain: “First European Film Festival Award Triumph”
▲ Award Image for Dexter Studios’ ‘Colony’ (Photo provided by the 59th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival)
Dexter Studios has reaffirmed its international VFX production capabilities by winning an award at the world’s largest genre film festival.
Comprehensive content studio Dexter Studios (206560, hereinafter “Dexter”) announced that it won the “Best Special, Visual or Makeup Effects in the SOFC” in the official competition section for the film ‘Colony’ at the 59th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival (hereinafter “Sitges Film Festival”) held in Sitges, Spain. This marks Dexter’s first award win at a European film festival.
The Sitges Film Festival is considered one of the world’s top three fantastic film festivals, alongside Belgium’s Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and Portugal’s Fantasporto International Film Festival. As the premier and largest genre film festival globally, it focuses on the aesthetics and experimental nature of fantasy, horror, and thriller films.
The “Best Special, Visual or Makeup Effects in the SOFC” won by Dexter is an integrated award presented to the best work across the visual effects (VFX), special effects, and makeup sectors. Dexter earned critical acclaim by rendering the film’s main monkey creatures with high realism while adding sophisticated VFX to the physical appearances of the infected and the viscous substances blanketing the scenes, maximizing fine detail.
‘Colony’ is a project that encapsulates Dexter’s accumulated VFX expertise gained from large-scale action and creature projects, including creature design, large-environment rendering, and crowd simulations. Previously, Dexter won the Grand Prize in the Technical Category for ‘Colony’ at the Daejeon Special FX Film Festival’s “DFX OTT Awards,” marking four consecutive years of awards at the event. Director Sang-ho Yeon, who directed ‘Colony’, previously remarked at the DFX OTT Awards, “‘Colony’ was crafted through extensive deliberation to convey the work’s unique universe and imagination with striking realism, and special effects technology played a vital role in completing the film’s world.”
VFX Supervisor Jeong-ho Hong, who led the VFX for ‘Colony’, expressed his thoughts: “It is an honor to win at the Sitges Film Festival—a world-renowned award ceremony representing genre cinema—through ‘Colony’, a K-zombie film that highlights Director Sang-ho Yeon’s original vision. Having achieved Dexter’s first award at a European film festival, we will continue to work alongside visionaries like Director Sang-ho Yeon to deliver world-class, high-precision visual execution.”
Leveraging its rich experience in implementing diverse creatures and otherworldly entities, Dexter has consistently earned technical acclaim at major domestic and international award ceremonies, including the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. Dexter has reaffirmed its unrivaled position as a K-VFX leader, sweeping technical, visual effects, and artistic achievement awards across more than 30 award ceremonies—including the Blue Dragon Film Awards, Grand Bell Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards, as well as Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards, and China’s Changchun Film Festival.
