Is Visual Effects this year's least competitive Oscar category?

by Nathaniel R

Oppenheimer

The Oscar race that looks the most perplexing from this distance and could get worse with strike related delays is surely Best Visual Effects. Dune Part Two, before its departure from the calendar year, was an easy lock for a nomination and threat for a repeat win. Oscar voters are hardly purists or elitists in this category, since some truly questionable nominations have occured over the years. But still, every presumable contender remaining (whether already released or planning to arrive in time) has significant obstacles to success...

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Oscar Volley: "Avatar" versus what in Best Visual Effects?

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony. Here's Abe Fried-Tanzer and Nick Taylor to discuss Visual Effects.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever

ABE FRIED-TANZER: Hey Nick! Here we are discussing the category with the most stages of finalists, giving us a window into what could have been. I appreciated the inclusion of interesting choices like Bardo, Good Night Oppy, and RRR on the initial twenty-wide list, and was pulling for Nope and Thirteen Lives to move on from the next stage of ten. But none of that happened, and we’re left instead with five very different choices, none of which are based on original material.

There are some intriguing stats to share about these nominees, like that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever placed, but its predecessor (which scored a Best Picture mention) didn't in the same race...

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Team Experience Predictions - Round 3: Oscar Shortlists

We're polling Team Film Experience on where the Oscar race stands. This week, Best Picture and the Oscar shortlisted categories.

Both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front received major boosts from the Oscar shortlists.

The Oscars announced the shortlists for ten categories on Wednesday, December 21st. Both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the mentions, appearing in five categories each. How does this affect the Oscar race? Our team of writers updated their predictions in Best Picture and seven of the shortlisted categories (minus the shorts for now). Click for our predictions after the jump...

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The 95th Oscars Shortlists Are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

"All Quiet on the Western Front" | © Netflix

Like in the last few seasons, the Academy has announced shortlists in 10 Oscar categories – Documentary Feature, International Film, Original Score, Song, Sound, Visual Effects, and the three Shorts races. As always, there are surprises along with expected honors and the domination of certain frontrunners. One imagines this is an especially sweet batch of finalists for fans of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front, who rule over all other contenders with mentions in five different categories. Not far behind, we find Avatar: The Way of Water with four categories.

Expect more commentary at a later time, but for now, let's look over the complete lists and fire off some instant reactions…

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April Foolish Oscar Predix Pt 3 - Visual Categories

by Nathaniel R

Will ELVIS get the usual Catherine Martin nominations for a Bazmark production?

The April Foolish predictions continue with the visual categories which means the rest of the week is the highest profile of categories: Actors, Directors, and Pictures. Obviously this is too early for confidence -- especially in below the line categories since many films haven't released a single image yet. Much will change including which films get released but we'd hold up our year in advance prediction records against anyones.  At this point the only thing anyone has to go on is a) previous work from the craftsmen involved, b) whether the film might have a "Most" boost (contemporary set pictures generally struggle in the visual categories even when they're brilliant), c) hunches aka crystal ball projections as to how the film involved might fare overall. Regarding the latter, it's commonly understood that Best Picture heat will help you in every category even though each should be judged on its own merits.

Check out the charts, won'cha? Two items of discussion we wanted to underline follow after the jump...

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