Visual effects Oscar contenders include ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and ‘The Last Jedi’

It’s officially Oscars season once again and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 20 films in the running for nominations in the “Best Visual Effects” category at the 90th Academy Awards. Among the films are sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, which hits theaters December 15. The Academy revealed its shortlist for the visual effects category this week, and indicated that the list of potential visual effects Oscar nominees will be shortened to 1o films by the end of December. Those 10 films will then advance to the nomination voting stage of the Academy’s selection process. The final list of Visual Effects nominees will be announced with the rest of the Academy Awards nominations on January 23. The 20 films on the initial shortlist of potential Visual Effects nominees include (in alphabetical order):
Alien: Covenant
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
Ghost in the Shell
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Justice League
Kong: Skull Island
Life
Logan
Ojka
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Shape of Water
Spider-Man Homecoming
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Thor: Ragnarok
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
War for the Planet of the Apes
Wonder Woman
The broadcast for the 90th Academy Awards ceremony will kick off March 4 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will return as the ceremony’s host, making him just the second consecutive-years host since Billy Crystal emceed the 1997 and 1998 ceremonies. The ceremony was pushed back from the event’s usual February air date in order to avoid conflict with broadcasts of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Last year’s Oscar for visual effects was won by Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, which won a competitive category that also included oil-rig disaster movie Deepwater Horizon, Marvel’s reality-bending superhero film Doctor Strange, stop-motion animated adventure Kubo and the Two Strings, and sci-fi prequel film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Digital Trends profiled all five nominees in our annual “Oscar Effects” series. The debut of The Midnight Sky on Netflix might be one of the quietest premieres of George Clooney’s career, with the sci-fi drama arriving on the streaming service shortly after a pandemic-limited theatrical release. Despite that lack of buzz, the gripping, atmospheric film was named one of the year’s best movies by the National Board of Review and is nominated for an Academy Award for its breathtaking visual effects. The Midnight Sky is directed by Clooney and has the actor portray a terminally ill scientist who must embark on a dangerous journey through the Arctic Circle in order to let a returning spacecraft know the Earth is no longer habitable due to a recent global catastrophe. Felicity Jones portrays a crew member on the Aether, a massive, deep-space exploratory vessel returning from a journey to K-23, a fictional moon of Jupiter capable of supporting human life. Walt Disney Studios is no stranger to turning movie animals into memorable lead characters, and that tradition continues with The One And Only Ivan, a big-screen adaptation of K. A. Applegate’s novel of the same name. Inspired by a true story, the film follows Ivan the gorilla as he attempts to find a new home in the wild for himself and several other animals living in a circus-themed mall. Directed by Thea Sharrock, The One And Only Ivan features Sam Rockwell as the voice of Ivan, alongside a cast of similarly well-known actors voicing Ivan’s animal friends, including Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito, and Helen Mirren. Bryan Cranston portrays the owner of the circus, one of the few human characters featured in the story. The Academy Awards always offer plenty of surprises, both in the list of Oscar nominees and the eventual winners. One of the pleasant surprises in this year’s list of nominees is Love and Monsters, director Michael Matthews’ charming romantic adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with gigantic, man-eating creatures. Nominated for an Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category, Love and Monsters follows a young man (played by The Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien) who decides to leave his underground bunker and embark on a dangerous journey to reunite with his girlfriend in another bunker miles away. In order to do so, he must traverse a landscape filled with mutated bullfrogs, centipedes, snails, and other now-deadly creatures that forced humanity underground.