While the Academy Awards tend to give big blockbuster filmmaking the short shift, there’s one category is often entirely ruled by mass audience pleasures: the Visual Effects category. It’s the one category that has made films like The Avengers or Iron Man an Oscar nominee and it’s often incredibly competitive. On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) released the shortlist of the twenty films that will vie for a slot for the Visual Effects Oscar. The list pretty much amasses a majority of the biggest and most successful pieces of filmmaking released in theaters in 2015.
And, lo and behold, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the upcoming behemoth itself, was granted slot prompting a question on whether or not anyone in the Academy has actually seen the soon-to-be-released titan. The answer is likely not as Disney appears to be keeping a firm lid on that until the last possibly second. J.J. Abrams’ upcoming sequel was likely given a pass with the assumption that the visual effects will be impressive, if nothing else, on a craft level. For history buffs, the only Star Wars film not be cited for its effects at the Oscars was 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III –Revenge of the Sith; both A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back earned special achievement awards as the category wasn’t yet a permanent Oscar fixture. Of course, nineteen other films made the list including big guns Jurassic World and Mad Max: Fury Road. Suggesting the depth of visual effects in modern filmmaking, smaller films including art house breakout Ex Machina and Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk also made the cut.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 14, 2016. The ceremony will take place on February 28, 2016. Check out the full list below:
- Ant-Man
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Bridge of Spies
- Chappie
- Everest
- Ex Machina
- Furious 7
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
- In the Heart of the Sea
- Jupiter Ascending
- Jurassic World
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Martian
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
- The Revenant
- Spectre
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Tomorrowland
- The Walk
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