There isn’t much happening in the race for Best Visual Effects this month. A few critics groups include this category in their annual awards so we will begin to see their selections in December. Last year, Tenet was the overwhelming favourite with the critics associations, so we’ll see if they can predict the eventual winner this year too.
Now that Don’t Look Up has been seen, it sneaks into the top five this month. The film’s doomsday plot features a slew of effects-heavy set-pieces and we know it’s going to receive a big campaign from Netflix. They’ve managed to nab one of their film’s a nomination for the last two years in a row, so they clearly know how to woo the right voters in this category.
We also finally saw the long-awaited new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, and, naturally, it’s a cavalcade of elaborate CGI that should be right up the Academy’s alley. While two of the three original Spider-Man films received a Visual Effects nomination, neither Spider-Man: Homecoming or Spider-Man: Far From Home made it past the shortlist stage. Is the third time the charm for this beloved franchise?
In recent years, the Academy has only nominated one superhero film in this category. They’re spoiled for choice this year with Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage all in the mix with Spidey. Will it be a repeat of 2014 and multiple comic book adaptations make it in? Or will they battle it out to be this year’s chosen one?
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS PREDICTIONS:
1. Dune (Warner Bros.)
2. The Matrix Resurrections (Warner Bros.)
3. Godzilla vs. Kong (Warner Bros.)
4. Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
5. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures)
IN CONTENTION
Black Widow (Disney)
Eternals (Disney)
Finch (Apple TV+)
Free Guy (Disney)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony Pictures)
Jungle Cruise (Disney)
No Time to Die (MGM)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney)
The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.)
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony Pictures)