Every year, leading up to the Oscars, I break down every single category. It’s essentially a precursor to my picks. I explain all the stuff that needs to be explained in detail, so when the time comes to make my picks, I can refer to it as a shorthand.
In the articles, I’ll go over each category’s history, show previous winners and nominees, then list the current year’s nominees, talk about the guild history, if it’s important, what the guilds went with this year, whether that means anything for that particular category — all the background you need to know to make an informed decision. And then, once that’s all done, I’ll rank the nominees in that category in order of their likelihood to win, based on how I see it at the present.
The only difference between this year and previous years is that this year, I’ll be doing only one category a day instead of multiple categories. This is so I can take more time with each category and not stuff a bunch into a single article for information overload, and, simply, so I don’t have to do as much work. Though it is also easier this way. One category, one day.
Today is Best Visual Effects (aka Best CGI). I don’t have to waste any time with this category, since my article could literally just be empty space, and in the middle, the word “Gravity” and it would convey everything I’m going to say in the next thousand words.
|
Year |
Best Visual Effects Winners |
Other Nominees |
|
1927-1928 |
Wings |
The Jazz Singer The Private Life of Helen of Troy |
|
1938 |
Spawn of the North (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1939 |
The Rains Came |
Gone With the Wind Only Angels Have Wings The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Topper Takes a Trip Union Pacific The Wizard of Oz |
|
1940 |
The Thief of Bagdad |
The Blue Bird Boom Town The Boys from Syracuse Dr. Cyclops Foreign Correspondent The Invisible Man Returns The Long Voyage Home One Million B.C. Rebecca The Sea Haw Swiss Family Robinson typhoon Women in War |
|
1941 |
I Wanted Wings |
Aloma of the South Seas Flight Command The Invisible Woman The Sea Wolf That Hamilton Woman Topper Returns A Yank in the R.A.F. |
|
1942 |
Reap the Wild Wind |
The Black Swan Desperate Journey Flying Tigers Invisible Agent The Jungle Book Mrs. Miniver The Navy Comes Through One of Our Aircraft is Missing The Pride of the Yankees |
|
1943 |
Crash Dive |
Air Force Bombardier The North Star So Proudly We Hail! Stand for Action |
|
1944 |
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo |
The Adventures of Mark Train Days of Glory Secret Command Since You Went Away The Story of Dr. Wassell Wilson |
|
1945 |
Wonder Man |
Captain Eddie Spellbound They Were Expendable A Thousand and One Nights |
|
1946 |
Blithe Spirit |
A Stolen Life |
|
1947 |
Green Dolphin Street |
Unconquered |
|
1948 |
Portrait of Jennie |
Deep Waters |
|
1949 |
Mighty Joe Young |
Tulsa |
|
1950 |
Destination Moon |
Samson and Delilah |
|
1951 |
When Worlds Collide |
No other nominees. |
|
1952 |
Plymouth Adventure |
No other nominees. |
|
1953 |
The War of the Worlds |
No other nominees. |
|
1954 |
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
Hell and High Water Them! |
|
1955 |
The Bridges at Toko-Ri |
The Dam Busters The Rains of Ranchipur |
|
1956 |
The Ten Commandments |
Forbidden Planet |
|
1957 |
The Enemy Below |
The Spirit of St. Louis |
|
1958 |
Tom Thumb |
Torpedo Run |
|
1959 |
Ben-Hur |
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
|
1960 |
The Time Machine |
The Last Voyage |
|
1961 |
The Guns of Navarone |
The Absent-Minded Professor |
|
1962 |
The Longest Day |
Mutiny on the Bounty |
|
1963 |
Cleopatra |
The Birds |
|
1964 |
Mary Poppins |
7 Faces of Dr. Lao |
|
1965 |
Thunderball |
The Greatest Story Ever Told |
|
1966 |
Fantastic Voyage |
Hawaii |
|
1967 |
Doctor Dolittle |
Tobruk |
|
1968 |
2001: A Space Odyssey |
Ice Station Zebra |
|
1969 |
Marooned |
Krakatoa, East of Java |
|
1970 |
Tora! Tora! Tora! |
Patton |
|
1971 |
Bedknobs and Broomsticks |
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth |
|
1972 |
The Poseidon Adventure (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1973 |
No Award Given. |
No Category. |
|
1974 |
Earthquake (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1975 |
The Hindenburg (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1976 |
King Kong (Special Achievement Award) Logan’s Run (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1977 |
Star Wars |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
|
1978 |
Superman (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1979 |
Alien |
The Black Hole Moonraker 1941 Star Trek: The Motion Picture |
|
1980 |
The Empire Strikes Back |
No Category. |
|
1981 |
Raiders of the Lost Ark |
Dragonslayer |
|
1982 |
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
Blade Runner Poltergeist |
|
1983 |
Return of the Jedi (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1984 |
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom |
Ghostbusters 2010 |
|
1985 |
Cocoon |
Return to Oz Young Sherlock Holmes |
|
1986 |
Aliens |
Little Shop of Horrors Poltergeist II: The Other Side |
|
1987 |
Innerspace |
Predator |
|
1988 |
Who Framed Roger Rabbit |
Die Hard Willow |
|
1989 |
The Abyss |
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen Back to the Future Part II |
|
1990 |
Total Recall (Special Achievement Award) |
No Category. |
|
1991 |
Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
Backdraft Hook |
|
1992 |
Death Becomes Her |
Alien 3 Batman Begins |
|
1993 |
Jurassic Park |
Cliffhanger The Nightmare Before Christmas |
|
1994 |
Forrest Gump |
The Mask True Lies |
|
1995 |
Babe |
Apollo 13 |
|
1996 |
Independence Day |
Dragonheart Twister |
|
1997 |
Titanic |
The Lost World: Jurassic Park Starship Troopers |
|
1998 |
What Dreams May Come |
Armageddon Mighty Joe Young |
|
1999 |
The Matrix |
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Stuart Little |
|
2000 |
Gladiator |
Hollow Man The Perfect Storm |
|
2001 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence Pearl Harbor |
|
2002 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
Spider-Man Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones |
|
2003 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl |
|
2004 |
Spider-Man 2 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban I, Robot |
|
2005 |
King Kong |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe War of the Worlds |
|
2006 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest |
Poseidon Superman Returns |
|
2007 |
The Golden Compass |
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Transformers |
|
2008 |
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
The Dark Knight Iron Man |
|
2009 |
Avatar |
District 9 Star Trek |
|
2010 |
Inception |
Alice in Wonderland Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Hereafter Iron Man 2 |
|
2011 |
Hugo |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Real Steel Rise of the Planet of the Apes Transformers: Dark of the Moon |
|
2012 |
Life of Pi |
The Avengers The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Prometheus Snow White and the Huntsman |
Best Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness
I’d get into all this background stuff as to how the category usually goes and this and that, but honestly, we don’t have to bother this year. We know what’s winning and this article is merely a formality.
But, for the hell of it — first, Pacific Rim not being nominated is a joke. I get that they wanted to put The Lone Ranger on, and I suspect that was going to happen, but at Pacific Rim‘s expense and not Star Trek‘s is really a joke.
The second thing — just look up there at the past history of the category — Best Picture nominees do not lose. Since the advent of modern special effects and the modern Visual Effects category (which I say began with Star Wars, but if you want, you can say it began with 2001), Best Picture nominees have never lost in the category. Patton, to Tora! Tora! Tora!. That lost. But there were only two nominees there. So I don’t consider that a modern category. There wasn’t a category from 1972 to 1977. So starting with Star Wars in 1977, no Best Picture nominee has ever lost in the Visual Effects category except to another Best Picture nominee. Apollo 13, Master and Commander, District 9. Those are the only Best Picture nominees to lose in the Visual Effects category since 1977. You know what beat them? Babe, Return of the King and Avatar. Best Picture nominees don’t lose. I had to go through this in 2011 with all the idiots who said Rise of the Planet of the Apes was going to beat Hugo. No, it wasn’t. They. Don’t. Lose.
So, going back to my original point — this category is a formality. Gravity is winning.
Rankings:
5. Star Trek Into Darkness – nope. First one didn’t win, and they’re past this franchise. It’s lucky it got on. Also, not Gravity.
4. The Lone Ranger – also kind of lucky to get on, but I’m glad it did, because it’s a western. (And also — two-time Academy Award nominee The Lone Ranger.) Don’t think this is pulling a Golden Compass this year. (I’m sorry. Academy Award winner The Golden Compass.)
3. Iron Man 3 – Nope. First two didn’t win, and this one won’t either.
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Technically the only film with a shot to upset Gravity, which should tell you something. This category is the ultimate “sight test” category. You can just look at it and know what everyone is going to vote for. This franchise has three wins to its name, but the last entry went home empty handed (because of Life of Pi), and this one will too.
1. Gravity – It’s winning. The end. We know this.
- – - – - – - – - -
So that’s Visual Effects. Tomorrow is Makeup & Hairstyling, where we talk about both Academy Award nominee Bad Grandpa and two-time Academy Award nominee The Lone Ranger.
