BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 86th Oscars®.
The films are listed below in alphabetical order:
- 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
The Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Thursday, January 9, 2014. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
Oscars nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
I didn’t see ENDER’S GAME, but were there VFX?
Shocked neither OZ nor MAN OF STEEL are there. Man of Steel wasn’t that great, but the FX were massive, and I did enjoy the film. I HATED Oz, but I would’ve nominated the effects, as they were the only positive thing about the film IMO.
Man of Steel should have made it over Iron Man 3, but everyone who didn’t work on Gravity or Pacific Rim is essentially battling for third place.
-Watermelons
The VFX for MAN OF STEEL are sooo over the top. At the end, that entire neighborhood exploding and all, the train and blah, blah… It’s just got bad taste. I respect everybody’s opinion, but I so can see why the movie was left out.
Okay. I read most of that article. I can’t see how you’re supposed to know all that just by watching the movie. Because I’d seen plenty of movies where people floated in space, it didn’t look new to me. So it’s a good thing people who know all that behind the scenes stuff are the ones who vote.
My two favorite movies with Special Effects are
Gravity
World War Z
I would add
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek Into Darkness
…But yeah, Man of Steel should be included. Oh well…. Still a great year for F/X
Given the mega financial success of both “Return to Oz” and “Man of Steel”, I was very surprised to not see them in the top 10 visual effects finalists.
After all, the films were made, I would warrant a bet on this, in order to show off their WHAM-BOOM-BAH special effects artists (sadly, little else was forthcoming – although I thought “Man of Steel” had its moments). I hated “Return to Oz”, though.
These two films could very well score later in the costume design, production design and cinematography categories (they were well-crafted films, I’ll give them that much). But not being noticed in the top 10 VFX for the year for either of these films probably doesn’t bode well for them in these other categories.
I’m more surprised by the omission of “Oz”…that seems, like Alice in Wonderland, right up their wheelhouse and a safe choice for a nomination
Glad to see some love for Oblivion, Pacific Rim, as well as — of course – Gravity. [All seen]
[…] Less than 60% of the whole list seen, for fun I predict the following final list:
* Gravity [Supposedly the one to beat]
* Pacific Rim [Not going to be surprised if it gets the gold guy in the end; not saying it is better than Gravity (etc.) or not]
* Oblivion [Tom Cruise’s connection, maybe? Fancy its FX myself, too]
* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug [Naturally, have yet to see it; wild guess, plus the project being Hobbit-related one]
* Star Trek Into Darkness [Wild guess, totally]
—
Hate to blow off my own covert operation, but I just came back from a stint in a faraway Tibetan cave [*clueless*]; so my question is: what is it all about Man of Steel controversy you guys are talking about??
@BWI Brendan, Catching Fire’s vfx were okay but not stellar when comparing to what made the cut and even what was omitted. The costume design for that movie, however, is where the goodies are at.
@Jermey, +1. I liked the film a lot and I loved the visual effects. They were my favorite of the year but I felt they were wonderfully utilized, especially in the beginning on Krypton.
Pretty large omissions:
GREAT GATSBY
MAN OF STEEL
CATCHING FIRE
The Academy screws this category up on a fairly consistent basis.
Awwww, that was nice of them to bother listing nine other films with Gravity.
I really wanted This is the End to get in there. Booo!
No “Man of Steel”?? This is a joke!
Warner Bros is not the name of the film. Fix the alphabetization, please.
I think that the 5 nominees are gonna be:
– Gravity
– The Hobbit
– Pacific Rim
– Star Trek Into Darkness
– Iron Man 3
So disappointed that now I am forced to predict Pac Rim. Most overrated film with most overrated visual fx ever. If they gave out awards for best hidden use of darkness and rain to hide ugly effects, it would win all of them.
I think MAN OF STEEL is absent just because of some controversy about its vfx artists not being paid accordingly or something like that. Politics. At any rate I’m against awarding performances and/or technical aspects from bad films so good riddance. From that list I’d nominate:
GRAVITY
PACIFIC RIM
WORLD WAR Z
THOR THE DARK WORLD
INTO DARKNESS
And If the initial reactions are to be believed, replace INTO DARKNESS with SMAUG.
Bears repeating I’d nominate these if I had to choose from that^ list, AMPAS would never nominate DREDD, and I would –or TRON: LEGACY.
Patrick,
That article is pretty amazing and goes into detail about the groundbreaking innovations necessary to achieve Cuaron’s vision. Simulating zero-g is just the tip of the iceberg. But why is that even necessary? Weren’t you overjoyed by the first shot (seconds)? That’s it.
Surprised Man of Steel isn’t here (just like everybody else) I think if there will be 5 vfx nominees they may be:
(The traditional obvious winner) Gravity
Desolation of Smaug
I’m hoping Star Trek Into Darkness lands this nomination
Pacific Rim deserves a nom
And Iron Man 3 to finish off the series in which the first two films also received nominations in this cat.
I’m with Jeremy on this. Man of Steel’s absence is nonsense.
@Antoinette
You don’t have to work in F/X to recognize how hard it is to simulate zero gravity. Mike Seymour explains it all:
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/gravity/
Say what you will about Man of Steel(and lord knows, things have been said), it had some incredible visual effects. Shocked its not on the shortlist here.
It’s Gravity’s to lose, regardless, I suppose.
WHERE IS THE GREAT GATSBY?!?!?!?!
Ummmm
Okay so on this thread maybe someone can tell me why GRAVITY was an effects breakthrough. I don’t work in F/X but I heard that a lot so I would like to know what it was. Thank you. 🙂