Andor Season 2 banner featuring Cassian Andor and headline about VFX and sound award nominations

Andor Quietly Dominates the Awards Conversation Again — This Time for VFX and Sound

Matt "ObiWaN" Hansen Andor, award, Disney

If you needed proof that Andor isn’t just “a great Star Wars show” but one of the most technically respected series in modern TV… award season is basically spelling it out in capital letters.

This week brought another wave of industry recognition for Andor Season 2 — and it’s coming from the people who actually build the magic: visual effects artists, sound editors, and guild-level professionals.

Not clickbait awards. The serious ones.

What happened (and why it matters now)

Andor Season 2 has picked up fresh nominations in multiple major technical award bodies — including the Visual Effects Society (VES) and Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Golden Reel Awards.

In short: the show is being singled out for the two things it arguably does better than any other live-action Star Wars project:

  • making the galaxy feel real
  • making every scene feel like it has weight, danger, and consequence

The key details (facts only)

According to Jedi News, Industrial Light & Magic received 16 nominations for the 2026 VES Awards — and three of those nominations were tied directly to Andor Season 2.

Separately, Andor also scored two MPSE Golden Reel Award nominations — an awards body that focuses specifically on the art and craft of sound editing.

And this isn’t happening in a vacuum either. There’s also recent reporting that Andor Season 2 grabbed guild recognition for directing/stunts in the wider awards ecosystem.

Why Andor keeps getting nominated (when other Star Wars projects don’t)

Here’s the part that’s easy to miss if you’re only watching Andor as “another Disney+ Star Wars show.”

Andor doesn’t rely on spectacle to distract you.

It uses spectacle to support the storytelling.

That’s why the technical categories matter so much: sound and VFX aren’t decoration in Andor. They’re part of the language.

The show’s worlds feel lived-in — not because someone said “make it gritty,” but because:

  • the lighting feels physical
  • the environments have texture
  • ships feel heavy and expensive
  • blaster fire sounds like it hurts
  • silence is used like a weapon

That kind of detail doesn’t just impress fans. It impresses guild voters.

Why this matters to Star Wars fans

A lot of Star Wars discourse lives in extremes — either everything is the end of the franchise or everything is “the best since Empire.”

Andor exists outside that noise.

It’s a reminder that Star Wars can still be:

  • prestige drama
  • political sci-fi
  • grounded rebellion storytelling
  • meaningful without leaning on Jedi mythology

And now the industry is reinforcing that point: Andor isn’t only “critically acclaimed.”

It’s craft-acclaimed — and that’s the kind of reputation Lucasfilm can build a modern era on.

Andor is becoming Star Wars’ gold standard

Awards don’t decide what you personally love.

But guild nominations do tell you what the industry thinks is elite work.

And Andor continues to rack up recognition in the exact places that matter most for its identity: world-building, sound design, and visual realism.

In a franchise that sometimes struggles to convince you the danger is real, Andor keeps getting rewarded for making Star Wars feel authentic again — not louder.

Just sharper.

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