It’s no secret that the Oscar for Best Visual Effects is a particularly tough category to predict due to the fact that the nominees are decided in three stages. First, members of the executive committee of the branch determine the 20 titles eligible for further consideration. Then that list is narrowed down to 10 semi-finalists (announced on Dec. 17). All branch members are then invited to a virtual screening of highlights from these 10 selected movies in January, during which the shortlisted nominees can discuss their work. The final five nominees will be announced on Jan. 19. The entire voting membership of the Academy then votes for the winners.
As some award-watchers have pointed out, each year the biggest contenders are usually the ones that totally rely on state-of-the-art effects to tell their story. Think recent winners Godzilla Minus One (2024), Avatar: The Way of Water (2023), Dune (2022), Tenet (2021) and Blade Runner 2049 (2018). Here is are the details of the shortlisted finalists in this exciting race:
Alien: Romulus
Director: Fede Álvarez
Released by: 20th Century Fox Studios
Release Date: Aug. 16, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Eric Barba
VFX Houses: ILM, Fin Design + Effects, Image Engine, Tippett Studio, Wētā FX, Wylie Co., Atomic Arts, Metaphysic, Studio Gillis, Legacy Effects, Wētā Workshop, Pro Machina
Notes: The priority for this movie’s VFX team was to capture the spirit of the original Alien franchise’s intergalactic fright spectacle by creating a collection of practical Facehugger puppets. Different techniques were mixed together on the film, as illustrated by the zero-G elevator shaft scene that used CG and animatronic creatures, a five-story horizontal set, an LED wall, digital set extensions, atmospherics, live-action actors and digital doubles. The CG spaceships had a miniature aesthetic that was achieved by giving them a matte instead of a glossy finish. AI was also a critical tool in creating the facial performance for iconic android Rook, using footage from the late actor Ian Holm.
Better Man
Director: Michael Gracey
Released by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: Dec. 25, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Luke Millar
VFX Houses: Wētā FX
Notes: If Pharrell’s biopic could be done as a Lego-animated feature (see Morgan Neville’s Piece By Piece), there’s no reason why a movie about the life and music of Robbie Williams couldn’t depict the singer as a talented primate. How do you make this achievable and believable? You recruit the visual effects company that has cornered the CG primate market with its stellar work for the Planet of the Apes franchise, The Umbrella Academy, Space Force and Ad Astra. Director Michael Gracey and the team at Wētā FX pulled off an amazing hat trick, delivering a very believable singing and dancing CG ape that expresses very human emotions on many levels.
Civil War
Director: Alex Garland
Released by: A24
Release Date: April 26, 2024
VFX Supervisor: David Simpson
VFX Houses: Framestore, TPO VFX
Notes: Garland’s horrific worst-case scenario featured the pivotal task of transforming Atlanta into war-torn Washington, D.C. Not only did buildings have to be replicated but gunfights, explosions, tanks, Humvees and police cars needed to be incorporated into an urban landscape. To get the proper scope of human devastation and unrest, a hybrid of CG and tiling was used to bring the crowds up to the desired numbers. The destruction of the Lincoln Memorial was captured in a parking lot, where real foreground performers were accompanied by practical vehicles and a giant blue screen that provided the necessary interactive light.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Director: Shawn Levy
Distributed by: Disney
Release Date: July 26, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Swen Gillberg
VFX Houses: ILM, Framestore, Base FX, Barnstorm VFX, Raynault VFX, Rising Sun Pictures, Wētā FX, Method Studios
Notes: Despite its prevailing irreverent tone, the movie took a lot of serious time and effort to flesh out its demanding effects, which included desecrating a skeleton made out of “adamantium” and having the hands of a character go through the head of another. Plenty of cameos upped the ante, especially the massive corpse of Giant-Man that serves as the hideout for the villain Cassandra Nova — which required a combination of blue screen, practical props, major digital set extension and storm simulation. Key to the overall believability was the mask animation for the title characters, with Deadpool posing some creative challenges, such as making the inward and downward V reflect the desired emotional response for the character.
Dune: Part Two
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Released by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: March 1, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Paul Lambert
VFX Houses: DNEG, Wylie Co., Rodeo FX, Territory Studio
Notes: Without a doubt, one of the pivotal moments of Villeneuve’s blockbuster is the sequence in which Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) takes his maiden voyage on a sandworm, which required the creation of an entire worm unit and a three-month shooting schedule. And the Harkonnen Harvester attack scene used construction tractors that held giant black screens to get the right shadows on the characters. The vehicle they were trying to destroy was added later in post, and special attention was paid to timing of soldier being blown away by Chani firing the rocket launcher. The destruction caused by the atomic missile attack would impress even Roland Emmerich. Let’s also not forget the blue eyes created by spice consumption that were made possible by machine learning.
Gladiator II
Director: Ridley Scott
Released by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: Nov. 22, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Mark Bakowski
VFX Houses: ILM, Framestore, SSVFX, Ombrium, Exceptional Minds, Cheap Shot
Notes: The film’s massive naval battles reign supreme and were mainly shot dry to dry, courtesy of the special effects team led by Neil Corbould. They built the ships and had them placed via remote-controlled Self-Propelled Modular Transporters. A great deal of development work went into getting the correct look for the CG water. A legless, motorized rhino was constructed for the Colosseum battle scene, but it was subsequently replaced in postproduction. However, it proved indispensable for framing the shots and desired reactions from the cast. Extra time was used to capture several passes for the baboon fight to make the interaction between the combatants believable and readable.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Director: Wes Ball
Released by: 20th Century Fox Studios
Release Date: May 10, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Erik Winquist
VFX Houses: Wētā FX
Notes: This first installment of a new trilogy used an improved mocap process that implemented stereo cameras, allowing more nuanced facial performances and an increase in dialogue from the digital cast. A last-minute production change resulted in merging different locations as an homage to the original movie. Overgrown vegetation that had overtaken ruins of ancient human societies was created physically and expanded upon in CG. A couple of major action sequences revolved around some heavy water simulations, building upon technology developed for Avatar: The Way of Water.
Mufasa: The Lion King
Director: Barry Jenkins
Released by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Adam Valdez
VFX Houses: MPC
Notes: The VFX for this much-anticipated prequel was handled by MPC, which was also a significant force in producing the photorealistic animation style for the remakes of The Lion King and The Jungle Book, with Adam Valdez receiving an Oscar nomination for the former and winning one for the latter. It will be interesting to compare director Barry Jenkins’ take on the familiar beasts to Jon Favreau’s popular 2019 The Lion King. Mufasa promises more photorealistic technology and an updated version of MPC’s workflow, which uses VR with Unreal for layout and keyframe animation to depict more accurate facial details.
Twisters
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Released by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 19, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Ben Snow
VFX Houses: ILM, BOT VFX, Hybride Technologies, SDFX Studios, Yannix, Exceptional Minds, Vitality Visual Effects
Notes: Living up to its moniker, there are six tornado sequences, ranging from EF-1 to EF-5 storms, which consisted of a funnel, dust shroud and swirling debris as well as integrating sophisticated fluid dynamics tools with the clouds and background. Much effort was put into keeping the skies from the plates, but there were times that they had to be replaced and the lighting altered. The toppling of a water tower, major damage wreaked on a farmers market and movie theater being blown out of existence are among the film’s visually stunning sequences.
Wicked
Director: Jon M. Chu
Released by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: Nov. 22, 2024
VFX Supervisor: Pablo Helman
VFX Houses: ILM, Framestore, OPSIS, Outpost VFX, Lola VFX, BOT VFX
Notes: Flying monkeys and a university professor goat are just a few of the film’s dazzling creature effects. Elphaba’s green skin color was the result of both practical makeup and digital enhancement. Just like the old Hollywood studio days, massive practical sets were constructed for the movie, but they were extended further via CG. The Emerald Express, the rotating library and the iconic Wizard of Oz head were among the special effects created by the team headed by Paul Corbould. Unreal Engine was an essential tool in figuring out the shot design for the Emerald City set, which was unavailable due to construction. Although the overall look of the movie is inspired heavily by the classic illustrations in L. Frank Baum’s original books, CG effects were used to create hundreds of animals, atmospherics and set extensions.
