VES Nominations & Final Visual Effects Oscar Predictions

by Nathaniel R

on the set of Solo: A Star Wars Story

The Visual Effects Society have released their nominations for the year. Avengers: Infinity War, Incredible 2, and Lost in Space lead the nominations in the movie, animated movie, and television divisions.  The full list of nominations, Oscar predictions, and a few comments follow...

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Christopher Robin
• Ready Player One
• Solo: A Star Wars Story
• Welcome to Marwen

Black Panther was entirely shut out, not just in this top category, which is a marked contrast here given its win at the Critics Choice Awards. But as strong as Black Panther is in some craft areas its effects work isn't as strong as its Marvel companions this year. That said we still think it has a great shot at a nomination at the Oscars due to affection for the film overall (which never hurts in any category). Annihiliation, which didn't make the Oscar finals much to our confusion, was also shut out of the VES nominations. 

This category is where you look to see the Oscar correlative since it's an overall category and because Oscar rarely rewards "supporting" visual effects. Here's a sampling of how correlative the awards have been in past years

2018: TBD
2017: 5/5 different winners
2016: 3/5 same winner
2015: 3/5 different winners -Ex Machina, the surprise Oscar winner, received zero VES nods
2014: 4/5 different winners -VES had 6 nominees that year so a better chance of correlating
2013: 4/5 same winner
2012: 4/5 same winner
2011: 3/5 different winners -Hugo, the Oscar winner, wasn't nominated in the main category of the VES but won the "supporting" category.
2010: 4/5 same winner

It's hard to make out any patterns on what stays or goes other than the fact that if a film has heat in other categories, it's more likely to show up at the Oscars even if it was snubbed at VES. Though even that isn't always the case for what they drop or add.

FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS THEN? We're still ruminating on this category. Avengers: Infinity War and Ready Player One feel like the only locks of the 10 finalists. Ant-Man and the Wasp and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feel like the only unlikelies (we personally love the Ant-Man effects so these are not qualitative judgments) which leaves six films fighting for three slots. How to choose between First Man, Black Panther, Christopher Robin, Mary Poppins Returns, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Welcome to Marwen? It's a tough call but tossing a coin and assuming affection for the film puts Black Panther over the finish line, Star Wars' track record (only one Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith has missed in this category and back then they only had 3 nominees) helps Solo, and... Welcome to Marwen surprises?

OKAY BACK TO THE VES NOMINATIONS

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

• 12 Strong
• Bird Box
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• First Man
• Outlaw King

Some truly bizarre nominees, apart from First Man,  which has a good shot at an Oscar nomination in the visual fx category.  What kind of effects did Bohemian Rhapsody and Bird Box have? We've seen both films but don't remember any visual effects from either... Bird Box's whole thing is that you can't see its paranormal (?) alien (?) metaphoric (?) threat so we're having trouble remembering any effects beyond a couple of people having strange eyes. 

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

• Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
• Incredibles 2
• Isle of Dogs
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode 

• Altered Carbon; “Out of the Past”
• Krypton; “The Phantom Zone”
• Lost in Space; “Danger, Will Robinson”
• The Terror; “Go For Broke”
• Westworld; “The Passenger”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode 

• Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan; “Pilot”
• The Alienist; “The Boy on the Bridge”
• The Deuce; “We’re All Beasts”
• The First; “Near and Far”
• The Handmaid’s Tale; “June”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project

• Age of Sail
• Cycles
• Dr Grordbort’s Invaders
• God of War
• Marvel’s Spider-Man

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

John Lewis & Partners- The Boy and The Piano from Factory Studios on Vimeo.

• Beyond Good & Evil 2
• John Lewis; “The Boy and the Piano”
• McDonald’s; “#ReindeerReady”
• U.S. Marine Corps; “A Nation’s Call”
• Volkswagen; “Born Confident”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project

• Beautiful Hunan; “Flight of the Phoenix”
• Childish Gambino’s Pharos
• DreamWorks Theatre Presents Kung Fu Panda
• Osheaga Music and Arts Festival
• Pearl Quest

Have to admit this category will need to be explained to us. It seems to be a mix of live concerts, theater AND films, which is confusing. Obviously it must make sense to visual effects artists.

Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature

• Avengers: Infinity War; Thanos
• Christopher Robin; Tigger
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Indoraptor
• Ready Player One; Art3mis

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature 

• Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch; The Grinch
• Incredibles 2; Helen Parr
• Ralph Breaks the Internet; Ralphzilla
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Miles Morales

OHMYGOD... how impressive was Ralphzilla? I didn't even like Ralph Breaks the Internet but those effects were unbelievable. Helen Barr and not Jack-Jack in Incredibles 2. Jack-Jack is the MVP and also probably the most complicated to animate given all the shape-shifting. 

Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project 

• Cycles; Rae
• Lost in Space; Humanoid
• Nightflyers; All That We Have Found; Eris
• Spider-Man; Doc Ock

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial 

• McDonald’s; Bobbi the Reindeer
• Overkill’s The Walking Dead; Maya
• Peta; Best Friend; Lucky
• Volkswagen; Born Confident; Bam 

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature 

• Ant-Man and the Wasp; Journey to the Quantum Realm
• Aquaman; Atlantis
• Ready Player One; The Shining, Overlook Hotel
• Solo: A Star Wars Story; Vandor Planet

A bit strange to not see Wakanda here, though. We're now going to pretend that the Quantum Realm nomination is for Michelle Pfeiffer; Congratulations Michelle Pfeiffer on your VES nomination, a first for an actress! (ahhhh, that was satisfying

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

• Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch; Whoville
• Incredibles 2; Parr House
• Ralph Breaks the Internet; Social Media District
• Spider-Man; Into the Spider-Verse; Graphic New York City 

Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project 

• Cycles; The House
• Lost in Space; “Pilot”; Impact Area
• The Deuce; 42nd St
• The Handmaid’s Tale; “June”; Fenway Park
• The Man in the High Castle; Reichsmarschall Ceremony

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

• Aquaman; Third Act Battle
• Echo; Time Displacement
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Gyrosphere Escape
• Ready Player One; New York Race
• Welcome to Marwen; Town of Marwen

Hmmm. Have to admit Aquaman lost me a bit in that Third Act Battle. Too much too look at, a busy chaotic mish mash of CGI. 

Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project 

• Avengers: Infinity War; Nidavellir Forge Megastructure
• Incredibles 2; Underminer Vehicle
• Mortal Engines; London
• Ready Player One; DeLorean DMC-12
• Solo: A Star Wars Story; Millennium Falcon

For a second we forget that Mortal Engines was a movie that existed. But its travelling city is nominated here! Did any of you see it? 

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

• Avengers: Infinity War; Titan
• Avengers: Infinity War; Wakanda
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Venom

Ah, here's Wakanda. But the nomination goes to Infinity War rather than Black Panther. 

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature 

• Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch; Snow, Clouds and Smoke
• Incredibles 2
• Ralph Breaks the Internet; Virus Infection & Destruction
• Smallfoot
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

A bit confusing to have whole films competing with specific specific effects, don't you think?

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project

• Altered Carbon
• Lost in Space; “Jupiter is Falling”
• Lost in Space; “The Get Away”
• The Man in the High Castle; “Statue of Liberty Destruction”

And a whole series competing with individual episodes? Strange. 

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

• Avengers: Infinity War; Titan
• First Man
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Welcome to Marwen

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode

• Altered Carbon
• The Handmaid’s Tale; June
• Lost in Space; “Impact”; Crash Site Rescue
• Silicon Valley; “Artificial Emotional Intelligence”; Fiona 

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Commercial

• Apple; “Unlock”
• Apple; “Welcome Home”
• Genesis; “G90 Facelift”
• John Lewis; “The Boy and the Piano”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

• Chocolate Man
• Proxima-b
• Ratatoskr
• Terra Nova

Comments

[Reds]

Oh man zero noms for Paddington :(

[Marcelo - Brazil]

I watched Mortal Engines last week.

Fun, entertaining. Great visual effects.

[Kelly Garrett]

I'm really hoping for no Marwen here and no Dumplin (sorry Dolly!) in song so I don't have to watch them!

[Tim]

Huh. Nothing for Annihilation. I realize concept design etc. isn’t the same thing as visual effects but still.

[Tr]

That Critics Choice win for Panther proves that most critics are woefully uneducated when it comes to visuals.

[Travis C]

The concert footage is what i believe is the main special effects achievement of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Maybe it's so good, we don't notice that it's fake?

[MJS]

The crowd at the Live Aid performance in Bohemian Rhapsody was definitely CGI, and not very good CGI for that matter. The Bird Box CGI probably had something to do with 28 Days Later style post-apocalyptic desolation and some of the chaos in the early scenes.

[Teppo2]

Pretty happy Christopher Robin made it here. I don’t anticipate it following suit with Oscar, but that integration between Pooh/company and the real world was adorably flawless.

Also, I don’t get the love for Ready Player One. Some of those digital sets look great (I don’t mind the singling out of the “The Shining” hotel sequence), but a lot of it just came across like a middle of the road video game from 5 years ago. I suppose maybe that was the point? It didn’t work for me either way.

[ben1283]

I hope Solo gets in. That chase sequence at the start is such a high point, and unlike so much CGI it didn't feel weightless! The lack of Paddington 2 is so distressing - the animation is so personable, and a big part of what makes the film so special.