The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed the 10 films that remain in contention for the 2018 Visual Effects Oscar. Not surprisingly, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Blade Runner: 2049” and “The Shape of Water” made the cut.
The 10 films that are no longer in the mix include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Ghost in the Shell,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Justice League,” “Life,” “Logan,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Wonder Woman.”
The 10 finalists are as follows:
“Alien: Covenant”
“Blade Runner 2049”
“Dunkirk”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
“Kong: Skull Island”
“Okja”
“The Shape of Water”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”
“War for the Planet of the Apes”
Bong Joon-Ho revisits the Visual Effects of “Okja”
The biggest surprises are the inclusions of “Kong: Skull Island” and “Alien: Covenant” over “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and/or “Wonder Woman.”
Determined by the Academy’s visual effects branch committee, all members of the branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 6, 2018 (known as the Visual Effects bake-off). The branch will then vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be revealed on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.
Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
