Visual Effects Shortlist

Ten films have survived to contend for the 2014 Best Visual Effect Oscar.  A lot of big-budget moneymakers (but of course) and usual plays like the Marvel flicks, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar and The Hobbit (no Hobbit or Lord of the Ring film has missed in this category.)  Snubs, surprising and otherwise include Edge of Tomorrow, Lucy, Noah, Exodus: Gods and Kings and Under the Skin-- okay the last one wasn't a really a surprise, but c'mon!!!!

Look for a major race between Apes and Interstellar.

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Godzilla
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Interstellar
• Maleficent
• Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
• Transformers: Age of Extinction
• X-Men: Days of Future Past

Visual Effects Society

When it comes to Visual Effects for the 2013 calendar year, there's Gravity and then there's everything else and this year it will just have to be a honor to be nominated for everything other than the grand space opera.  To the surprise of no one, Gravity led the field with six wins from the Visual Effects Society onward to it's forthcoming inevitable Oscar win.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A VISUAL EFFECTS-DRIVEN MOTION PICTURE
Gravity

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS
The Lone Ranger

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER   
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- Smaug

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT
Gravity- Exterior

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT (Animated Feature)
Frozen- Elsa's Ice Palace

OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Gravity

OUTSTANDING MODELS
Gravity- ISS Exterior

OUTSTANDING FX AND SIMULATION ANIMATION
Gravity- Parachute and ISS Destruction

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING
Gravity

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING (Animated Feature)
Frozen- Elsa's Blizzard  

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: John Dykstra
VISIONARY AWARD: Alfonso Cuarón

Visual Effects Society Nominations-- Or "Gravity" and Everything Else

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS IN A VISUAL EFFECT-DRIVEN FEATURE
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek Into Darkness

BEST SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS
The Great Gatsby
The Lone Ranger
Rush
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ANIMATION IN A ANIMATED FEATURE
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University

BEST ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A LIVE ACTION FEATURE
Gravity- Ryan
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- Smaug
Oz: The Great & Powerful- China Girl
Pacific Rim- Kaiju- Leatherback   

Visual Effects Bake-Off

These ten films are the semi-finalists for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.  And the Oscar goes to... Gravity.

• Elysium
• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• The Lone Ranger
• Oblivion
• Pacific Rim
• Star Trek: Into Darkness
• Thor: The Dark World
• World War Z

VES Awards

The Visual Effects Society favored Life of Pi and Brave.  The Visual Effects Academy Award looks like a virtual lock for Ang Lee's oceanic adventure.

VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN EFFECTS DRIVE FILM
Life of Pi

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS
The Impossible

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Life of Pi- Richard Parker

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave- Merida

OUTSTANDING FX/SIMULATION IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Life of Pi- Storm of God

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A LIVE ACTION FILM
Marvel's The Avengers- Midtown Manhattan

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave- The Forest

OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING
Life of Pi- Storm of God

OUTSTANDING MODELS
Marvel's The Avengers- Helicarrier

OUTSTANDING FX/SIMULATION IN AN ANIMATED FILM
Brave

Two hiss fit points on Visual Effects.  Firstly, the Academy's saddening rejection of The Impossible with its bravura tsunami sequence-- a brilliant display of visual effects as storytelling, a point made even more shameless with the inclusion of the weaker, but similar Academy-approved take in Clint Eastwood's wan Hereafter a few year back.  The second one is a bit more complex, and likely involves a great deal more in the politics of rewarding the best in filmmaking than the actual fruits of the labor itself.  It was unsurprising that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey would make the cut-- a clearly a deserving one considering the immense visual achievement, but the horror or shrieks come from the fact the film, a deviation of the already hugely honored Lord of the Rings films was shortlisted without actually being viewed by its jury.  That's shameful!          

Best Visual Effects

The semi-finalists for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award have been announced.  Five of these ten titles will be nominated when the announcements are made January 10th.

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Cloud Atlas
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• John Carter
• Life of Pi
• Marvel's The Avengers
• Prometheus
• Skyfall
• Snow White & the Huntsman

The lists of titles snubbed include: The Hunger Games, The Impossible, Total Recall, Looper.

Interesting to note that The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall would be somewhat anomalous in that both use more practical visual effects (stunts and mis en scene tricks) than CGI, prominent in the remaining films, which might make both films vulnerable in the end.  Life of Pi looks like the only one of the ten with a Best Picture chance, which might bode well not just for a nomination, but the eventual win-- the past three years the Visual Effects winner was a Best Picture nominee (Hugo, Inception and Avatar.)

Cloud Atlas, the box office dud from the Wachowski Bros. and Tom Twyker may still be an Oscar nominee.

Only four these films were not presented in 3-D (Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and Snow White and the Huntsman.)

Two of these films, Cloud Atlas and John Carter were two of the costliest bombs of the 2012, so it will be interesting to see if either can gain any traction in the one category that typically favors blockbusters.

Each film will present a clip reel and panel for members of the Visual Effects branch of Academy shortly before the nominations are announced.

Visual Effects Society Winners

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (in an effects driven feature)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BEST SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS (in a feature)
Hugo

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (animated feature)
Rango

BEST ANIMATED CHARACTER (in a live action feature)
Caesar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BEST ANIMATED CHARACTER (animated feature)
Rango, Rango

BEST CREATED ENVIRONMENT (live action feature)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

BEST CREATED ENVIRONMENT (animated feature)
Rango

BEST VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY (live action feature)
Hugo


BEST VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY (animated feature)
Rango

BEST MODELS
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

BEST COMPOSITING
Captain America: The First Avenger

This just makes it confusing-- who's the frontrunner now in the Best Visual Effects category-- Hugo? Rise of the Planet of the Apes? Transformers?

Best Visual Effects

Here are the 15 finalists in contention for Best Visual Effects at this years Oscars.  For the first time, there will be 5 nominees, instead of 3.  Here are the big guns:

• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Cowboys & Aliens
• Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Mission: Impossible- The Ghost Protocol
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Real Steel
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
• Sucker Punch
• Super 8
• Thor
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• The Tree of Life
• X-Men: First Class

What's the odd fit here?  Obviously the esoteric origins of the universe (complete with dinosaurs) Tree of Life feels lost in the shuffle of noisy blockbusters and franchise stuff.  The victory, I'm suspecting, will likely be Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a nod at recognizing Andy Serkis.  Thoughts?

Visual Effects Society Winners

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS (Effects Driven Movie)
Inception

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS
Hereafter

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION (Animated Film)
How to Train Your Dragon

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER (Live Action)
Dobby, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER (Animated Film)
Toothless, How to Train Your Dragon

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS (Animated Film)
How to Train Your Dragon

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT
Paris Dreamscape, Inception

OUTSTANDING MODELS & MINIATURES
Hospital Fortress Destruction, Inception

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING
Inception

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Day & Night

An Inception orgy!  Still miffed that the infectious visual style of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World never got an traction; again with my broken record.

Visual Effects Society Nominations

Inception limbos ahead with the F\X guild.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual-Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture
Inception
Iron Man 2
TRON: Legacy
Alice In Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
Green Zone
Salt
Hereafter
Black Swan
Robin Hood


Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Tangled
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
Shrek Forever After
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader – Reepicheep
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Dobby
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Kreacher

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – Digger
How to Train Your Dragon – Toothless
Tangled – Rapunzel
Megamind – Minion

Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Shrek Forever After
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Iron Man 2 – Stark Expo
TRON: Legacy – Disc Game
Inception – Paris Dreamscape
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Sand Room

Outstanding Models & Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
Shutter Island – Ward-C Int./Ext. Lighthouse Int./Ext.
Iron Man 2 – Hammer Military Drones
The Expendables – The Palace Explodes
Inception – Hospital Fortress Destruction

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
TRON: Legacy
Alice In Wonderland – Stolen Tarts
Inception
Hereafter – Tsunami Sequence

SHAMEFULLY IGNORED ACROSS THE BOARD: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Best Visual Effects

The visual effects branch of the Academy has narrowed the nominating pool down to seven:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Hereafter
• Inception
• Iron Man 2
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• TRON: Legacy

It's a given at this point, it's Inception award to lose, but a second viewing of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World recently reminded how ebullient and meticulous the effects really are.  I've been championing this sadly underwritten film for months now, but this is the most legitimate Oscar chance it has-- don't disappoint me.

Best Visual Effects

The 15 semi-finalists in the running for the 2010 visual effects Oscar are:

An epic of epic epicness.

• Alice in Wonderland
• Clash of the Titans
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Hereafter
• Inception
• Iron Man 2
• The Last Airbender
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Shutter Island
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Tron: Legacy
• Unstoppable

One of the only awards that celebrate the biggest, the baddest, the meanest and the three dimensional, still the f\x department seems pretty lame this year (Hereafter?).  I'm guessing it's an easy victory for Inception.  However, if a brave academy would ever\could ever acknowledge the utterly delightful invention of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, it would make my world; for my two cents, there was no other film of 2010 that used effects in such a witty, gleeful manner, and isn't that what this category is supposed to embrace- the exuberant possibilities of filmmaking.