Field Narrows for Visual Effects Oscar

Chris here. We should soon be getting word of what films have moved on in bake off rounds for Oscar categories like Foreign Film and Makeup and Hairstyling. But now we have a longlist for the Visual Effects category and many of the players are genre films and blockbusters as expected. There is still room for a surprise or two, the most heartwarming of which is certainly Netflix's Okja. There's even two unseen films among the lineup: The Last Jedi and the Jumanji sequel.

Here are the 20 eligible films:

• Alien: Covenant
• Beauty and the Beast
• Blade Runner 2049
• Dunkirk
• Ghost in the Shell
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• Justice League
• Kong: Skull Island
• Life
• Logan
• Okja
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
• The Shape of Water
  
• Spider-Man Homecoming
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
• War for the Planet of the Apes
• Wonder Woman

Isn't it surprising that the awe-inspiring motion capture work on the new Apes trilogy has gone un rewarded so far? Folks might need to be reminded about War, but it would make for a lovely series capper should it take the prize this year. The candidates will narrow further to end at the end of the month. Any thoughts on frontrunners? Oscar chart here.

Happy 50th to Underappreciated Steve Zahn

by Nathaniel R

"Bad Ape" is still one of the best movie characters of 2017. He comes courtesy of the ambitious War for the Planet of the Apes, various visual effects technicians, and Steve Zahn who brilliantly embodies him. On the actor's 50th birthday a quick list of our 5 favorite Zahn performances over the years. He's one of Hollywood's most reliable (and most adorable) character actors and still has never really gotten his due. 

01 "Sammy Gray" in Reality Bites
02 "Glenn Michaels" in Out of Sight
03 "Lenny Hase" in That Thing You Do!
04 "Bad Ape" in War for the Planet of the Apes
05 "Fuller" in Joy Ride

P.S. Also celebrating birthdays today: actors Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Butler, Xiaoming Huang, Frances Conroy, Chris Noth, Joe Mantegna, and Shawn Yue, cinematographer Conrad W Hall, and director Gary Marshall; And though they are departed they are not forgotten: author Robert Louis Stevenson, and actors Hermione Baddeley, Oskar Werner, Madeleine Sherwood, and Jean Seberg, and 5 time Oscar nominated set decorator Hal Gausman (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Untouchables, etcetera)