The Visual Effects Society announced their nominees two days ago and I was too distracted to notice (you’ve see why today and will again tomorrow, and especially on Monday). But here we are.
I’ll have minimal amounts of things to say about each category, because I’ve already moved on to Oscar prognosticating. But still, it’s worth looking at. As a refresher, here’s your shortlist for the category:
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Christopher Robin
First Man
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Mary Poppins Returns
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Welcome to Marwen
And here are your VES nominees:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Welcome to Marwen
No Black Panther. That’s telling. Even the guild doesn’t necessarily think the effects were overly special.
The Christopher Robin inclusion and the Marwen inclusion really open up the possibilities of the category.
Star Wars has pretty much always been nominated, so that’s a big step in that direction. Infinity War and Ready Player One always seemed like major contenders for the actual category
Really this is gonna just make things a little more interesting because the two no one would have expected are two that theoretically could make it on. Fun times.
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
12 Strong
Bird Box
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Outlaw King
First Man is the only one that matters, and at this point it looks like a solid contender for the final category.
Notice no Mary Poppins anywhere. That’s interesting as hell.
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
The Grinch
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Yeah, that all makes sense.
Incredibles or Spider-Verse will win. Nothing new.
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
Avengers: Infinity War (Thanos)
Christopher Robin (Tigger)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Indoraptor)
Ready Player One (Art3mis)
Art3mis looks great. Thanos is a good choice too.
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
The Grinch (The Grinch)
Incredibles 2 (Helen Parr)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (Ralphzilla)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Miles Morales)
Cool. Guessing Morales wins, but Elsatigirl makes sense for them too.
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Journey to the Quantum Realm)
Aquaman (Atlantis)
Ready Player One (The Shining, Overlook Hotel)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Vandor Planet)
Quantum Realm was nice. Overlook Hotel was most people’s favorite part of that movie. No issues here. If I gave it any consideration I could maybe think of something else, but this is fine.
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
The Grinch (Whoville)
Incredibles 2 (Parr House)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (Social Media District)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Graphic New York City)
Spider-Verse should win, otherwise this category is bullshit.
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Aquaman (Third Act Battle)
Echo (Time Displacement)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Gyrosphere Escape)
Ready Player One (New York Race)
Welcome to Marwen (Town of Marwen)
Marwen looked awesome, but Ready Player One is nuts in terms of what they pulled off there.
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Avengers: Infinity War (Nidavellir Forge Megastructure)
Incredibles 2 (Underminer Vehicle)
Mortal Engines (London)
Ready Player One (DeLorean DMC-12)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Millennium Falcon)
The Forge was cool, but the Falcon is the Falcon.
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Avengers: Infinity War (Titan)
Avengers: Infinity War (Wakanda)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Venom
Venom. Ha.
I’m guessing effects simulations are CGI approximations of real life stuff? No clue. No real stake in this one, so I don’t know.
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
The Grinch (Snow, Clouds and Smoke)
Incredibles 2
Ralph Breaks the Internet (Virus Infection & Destruction)
Smallfoot
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Oh, so yeah, it is actual effects that they are simulating. Makes sense.
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
Avengers: Infinity War (Titan)
First Man
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Welcome to Marwen
They nominated a lot of the same stuff. That’s interesting.
I’m gonna plug this into what I’m doing for my nominations ballot. This should be interesting.
Last of the Release Calendar tomorrow, then we start getting into nominations after that.
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