Ten films representing a broad range of visual effects work made the VFX category shortlist for the 96th Academy Awards, among them Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a rare animated feature selection.
Also advancing in the VFX Oscar race are The Creator, Godzilla Minus One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Napoleon, Poor Things, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire and Society of the Snow.
The VFX branch executive committee selected the shortlist. Next, all branch members will be invited to participate in a “bake-off” during which they will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films, before they vote to nominate five of these films for the VFX Oscar.
It’s infrequent to see an animated movie, like Sony Pictures Animation’s bold Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, make the VFX shortlist and even more rare to earn a nomination. To date, only 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings (both stop-motion) have earned VFX Oscar noms, plus Jon Favreau’s 2019 The Lion King (if you are among those who consider this an animated movie). This selection of Spider-Verse underscores the continued blurring of the lines between what is considered animation and what is viewed as visual effects.
Guardians 3 was the only Marvel movie to advance. The MCU has had at least one VFX-nominated movie in eight of the past 10 years (one exception was 2020, when the studio didn’t release a movie because of the pandemic). The VFX in Guardians 3 was led by two-time Oscar-nominated production VFX supervisor Stephane Ceretti, and the work was shared by roughly 10 VFX companies including Framestore and Weta FX.
DC Films — which earned a nomination last season for The Batman — had four movies in contention this year, including Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but none remain in the VFX race.
Expected titles that did advance included Gareth Edwards’ futuristic sci-fi story The Creator for 20th Century Studios and Disney’s Indiana Jones the Dial of Destiny, both of which featured VFX work led by Industrial Light & Magic. Others to make the cut include a pair of recent releases, Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon for Netflix and Japan’s Godzilla Minus One. Barbie, which sits atop this year’s box office, was snubbed.
Among those with more of a “supporting” VFX distinction, shortlisted titles include Society of the Snow, director J.A. Bayona’s drama about the 1972 Uruguayan Andes flight disaster. The movie, representing Spain, also advanced in the international feature category when the shortlists were announced Thursdsay. Last season’s winner in the international feature category, Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front, earned a VFX nom.
Others on this this season’s VFX shortlist are the more stylized fantasy Poor Things and the epic battles of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.
The more “invisible” VFX contenders that failed to advance include Killers of the Flower Moon, though 84 minutes of the film contained visual effects.
Earlier this year, The Hollywood Reporter examined the trend of studios and filmmakers not always painting a full picture of the visual effects work in a movie. It’s a conversation topic that could re-emerge this awards season. One high profile example cited in that story was Top Gun: Maverick, which initially followed a narrative emphasizing that the stunts were real. But when it made the VFX shortlist in early 2023, it was revealed during the bake-off that the movie involved 2,400 VFX shots including the creation of fully CG aircrafts.
A source for that story said that sometimes there’s a blatant directive that “there will be no discussion of VFX. … We don’t want to overshadow the actors [or] we don’t want to break the mythology that somebody did all of these stunts.” Following the release of this article, the Visual Effects Society issued a rare statement saying, “This story exposed a truth of what so many of our members and VFX practitioners have been grappling with for years. … They absolutely deserve credit where credit is due.”
This story cited recent movies including Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (which didn’t advance in the VFX race) and Dead Reckoning (which did), whose early marketing leaned in to practical work, though not an overtly as last season’s Maverick.
The VFX branch will gather for its annual bake-off on Jan. 13, following a vote for which movies to nominate for the VFX Oscar.
