This weekend, the visual effects arm unveiled its annual contest, a pre-nomination voting event featuring the top 10 shortlisted films in its category. Branch members were able to see an impressive and diverse range of big-budget work like Marvel’s. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3at 15 million dollars Godzilla minus one from Japan’s Toho to a rare animated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Speaking with the help of a translator, the Godzilla minus one The team of potential nominees offered a charming look at their work, which involved innovation (from character work to water) to complete the film’s 610 visual effects shots within the constraints of a small budget and just 35 artists. That unique situation also meant that godzilla was one of several films whose four possible nominees for creative contributions (in this case, including the film’s director Takashi Yamazaki and composer Tatsuji Nojima) were not the more typical special effects supervisor and special effects supervisor roles you see often among the nominees in this category. In fact, Yamazaki could be the first director recognized in the category since Stanley Kubrick received an Oscar for the visual effects of his landmark 1968 film. 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Before the baking, which took place on Saturday at the Academy Museum and was also live-streamed, a committee of the VFX branch had already vetted all individuals for their creative contributors to the shortlisted films. Among them, Indiana Jones and the dial of destinyThe lineup of whose four names included visual effects producer Kathy Siegel, although producers are also not typically considered for this award.
A year ago, the visual effects competition sparked a broader conversation when it was revealed that one of the shortlisted films, Top Gun: Maverick—whose PR narrative had at least initially focused on actor training and live filming—actually involved 2,400 visual effects shots, including the creation of completely computer-generated airplanes.
It underscored what some VFX professionals say is sometimes a practice: studio marketing departments emphasize how productions actually do things, but don’t always show the full picture when it comes to VFX. “It’s to the extent that this costs people nominations and this costs people the Academy Awards,” said a member of the VFX branch in a He hollywood reporter article on the subject published last year.
This year, there was nothing as obvious as DissidentBut the issue is still on people’s minds.
For example, last summer, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 Filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie appeared in a behind-the-scenes video about the film’s intense car chase in Rome and said, “Everything we filmed is completely practical” (although McQuarrie had also spoken publicly about the film’s visual effects). During baking, visual effects supervisor Alex Wittke reported that the team intended to do things for real whenever possible, although the film also contained approximately 3,700 visual effects shots. (For comparison, shortlisted Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 contained 3,066, according to its VFX supervisor, Stéphane Ceretti.)
He Mission Impossible The baking reel included the aforementioned sequence in Rome, including a shot of a lone yellow Fiat on a Rome street before computer-generated cars were added in post-production to create traffic. The Spanish Steps sequence, the team reiterated, was a fixed construction, since they (obviously) couldn’t damage the famous Italian landmark. The climactic train sequence was also featured. The team revealed that it was created with substantial use of a gimbal. Some felt that Cruise’s motorcycle stunt, arguably the film’s best-known shot, was noticeably absent from the reel.
VFX Shortlisted Movies Also Include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which highlights the blurring of the lines between what is considered animation and what is considered VFX; He Creator; Poor things; Rebel Moon; snow society and Napoleon.
Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on January 23.