So the Academy will be holding the annual Visual Effects Bake-Off. From an already narrowed list of seven films, the Academy's visual effects branch will choose 3 films to be nominated for the Oscar.

What would your picks be? And why? And what films in 2002 aren't on the list that maybe should have been?

And no about how you hate visual effects/CGI

Voting procedure for the visual effects branch of the Academy:

20 members of the Visual Effects branch of the Academy
select 7 films for overall consideration. Then, every
member of the Visual Effects branch assembles, and listens
to presentations made by representatives of each film.
A reel of the shots is shown, and questions are posed to
each effects team. The Academy members then vote on their
first, second and third choices. The top three vote-getters
will become the three final nominees for the Oscar. From
these nominees, the full Academy votes for the winner
of the Oscar.

Personally, I don't even think this should be a question. Ep2 was basically one big CGI-fest coupled with something that seemed like a plot.

TTT had Gollum sure, but those Treebeard sequences didn't really do it for me.

Minority Report, Attack of the Clones, and Two Towers deserve to be nominated. The rest didn't have great visual FX IMO.

Ditto.

and Clones should win. Quality of the story kept out of it, it's the best visual effects ever.

I have to agree with the choices of Minority Report, AOTC, and Two Towers. Harry Potter could be in there too. Great effects. But Spidey and Men In Black have no business competing for an Oscar.

I willing to bet right now AOTC won't even get a nomination. There's a conspiracy theory going around ILM and the head of the visual effects branch of the academy. I don't normally buy into conspiracies, but there's so much politics in the Academy Awards, who knows.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Clones doesn't get a nom. Or, if it does get a nom, it definately won't win. The Hollywood community looks down on Lucas because he finances his films independently, produces them in house, and uses non-union crews. Oscars are for Insiders and Lucas is definately an Outsider.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Spiderman wins (even though its effects are nothing special). The Academy has dollar signs in its eyes and frequently gives awards to the most successful of the nominees in technical categories.

Minority Report
LOTR TTT
Attack of the Clones
and
Harry Potter COS

WILL be nominated, and I foresee Minority Report as the recipient of the award.

I would be enormously be surprised, although I understand why you would say that.

Take off one of those-only three get nominated for this award.

I think it will be TTT-especially because of Gollum; actor Andy Serkis has NO chance of a nomination because of the precedent it would set for virtual actors.

True true, minus Harry Potter then.

I think as far as effects being seamless and really enhancing a movie... MINORITY REPORT. The effects don't distract from the film, are not obvious and really work well....

all the others have more showy effects, but I think the best visual effects are ones that don't seem like effects at all....

MATT

Well, that's only because Minority Report had only a fraction of what TTT and AOTC had. But considering both of those are fantasy films and their content requires a lot more effects than a Minority Report does, it's to be expected. But I agree with you that ILM did an amazing job with MR and I'd have no real problem if it won.

Well there are many in Hollywood that resent Lucas' power, influence, independence and authority he has when making his films, which means his ability to dictate what he wants in his films rather than haggling with studios for money as well as other things. But, I meant something else entirely. I'll try to get the article that discusses it.

EDIT: Here's the article that discusses the peculiarities with the VFX oscar and ILM. Certainly ILM doesn't deserve it every year. I have no idea whether it's accurate, but it's at least an interesting read. Like I said, considering the politics in the Academy Awards, it wouldn't surprise me.

http://www.dailydigest.net/oscarplayoffs022202.html

I totally agree, even Ebert said the same thing.

I think "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" should win it because of Gollum.

This thread was meant to see which films go from the bake-off 7 to the 3 up for nomination. Also, I believe there used to be talk of the committee thinking about extending the catagory to include 5 nominees, especially since 2003, 2004 & 2005, are going to showcase many films with tons of effects. I think these coming years are going against what the past reflects in the way of an up year for effects than a down year, seems like the studios are willing to shell out the money for higher budgets.

I always thought 1995 was an interesting year considering that the bake-off only nominated 2 films instead of 3. And Babe won over Apollo 13. Granted it was a thin year for VFX... I don't remember what other films were in the bake-off.

Good article Terrel. That guy is a total fan boy ILM worshiper but he still makes some good points about the politics of Oscar and how everybody knows everybody else and the Oscar has everything to do with those relationships.

My point wasn't that the Academy won't award a film an Oscar because its effects were done by ILM, but that they definately won't award an Oscar to a film directed by George Lucas. And not just because he is persona non grata among the Special Effects Award voters, but because he makes films totally outside of Hollywood, without their money, labor, or facilities.

That really wasn't directed at you Pants. Just a good read relating to this thread. Like I said, I have no idea if there is any validity to it. But he does makes some strong points as you say. I thought TPM should have won over The Matrix. Gladiator shouldn't have won either, though the effects are not nearly as bad as some claim. I even thought the effects in A.I. were damn near perfect. But it's all guess work.

Honestly, I don't put much stock in the Oscar for Best VFX. The folks voting on it have no real expertise or knowledge of what they're actually voting on and it wouldn't surprise me if many just voted blindly without giving it any real thought. The VES awards are probably a better judge of the actual quality of work amongst different films.

As I predicted with my votes...

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
SPIDER-MAN
STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES


I think Sony Imageworks would have had a chance with Stuart Little 2, but SPE screwed up and tried to place it in the Animation Feature catagory.

And what did everyone think of the Chubb Chubb short? Not quite Geri's game, but I thought it was well done...

As I said in the other thread. Spider-Man? Just another case that proves that the Academy doesn't know what they're voting for in these technical categories. They just write in any vote. Minority Report should be in and Spidey should be out. Even Chamber of Secrets would be a far better choice than Spidey.

I don't think Spiderman should be in there either, but knowing that it was one of the most seen films and the bake-off's are usually based on presentation of material, it certainly had enough behind it to garner a nomination.

What I'm trying to figure out.. if every
member of the Visual Effects branch assembles, and listens
to presentations made by representatives of each film.
A reel of the shots is shown, and questions are posed to
each effects team. The Academy members then vote on their
first, second and third choices. The top three vote-getters
will become the three final nominees for the Oscar. From
these nominees, the full Academy votes for the winner
of the Oscar.

Does the voting then consist of every member of the Academy.. or just in that branch?