In looking over the options for this year's visual effects and makeup and hair contenders, one thing is certain: we'll be drowning in sequels come Oscar time. Or at least come 'bake-offs' time when the these two branches whittle down the competition with screenings of clip reels of the work in question.
Some umbrella questions to consider...
- Can Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and/or Transformers: The Last Knight reverse the course on their franchises? The last installments of each of those franchises were utterly ignored by Oscar but all three franchises used to yield nominations.
- Can Logan massage those amazing reviews into a campaign despite the Academy's overall lack of interest in the X-Men franchise? They do have a popular craftsman (Joel Harlow) behind the makeup this time. He's been nominated 3 times in the past 8 years
Joel Harlow, pictured working on Calisto for LOGAN (2017) already has 3 nominations and a win. - Will Oscar ever fully warm to the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the world at large has? Oscar hasn't shown much interest in superheroes that aren't Batman or Spider-Man (aside from random visual fx nods here and there). This year Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 will try to repeat its Oscar plays from last time (Visual FX & Makeup) but Thor: Ragnarok has an uphill battle (Oscar ignored both previous Thor films)
- What are we to make of Blade Runner 2049? It's a unique scenario in that the original 1982 film was not well received at the time of its release but did garner two nominations (Art Direction and Visual Effects) that it should have won. Will the sequel feel like borrowed glory or a chance to make amends given the prestigious team behind it?
- Will the Star Wars franchise ever miss out on nominations? Nearly all franchises which start out as Oscar favorites do at some point. But no Star Wars film has yet been altogether snubbed. The closest was Revenge of the Sith with the series low of one nomination (curiously that one nod was in a category no other Star Wars film has been nominated in: Makeup). Star Wars films, on average, receive 4 nominations (if you count their special achievement statues as nominations... which you should before some categories existed)
See the new Oscar charts for the first predictions of the year in these two categories.