Best Visual Effects: Ranking Every Oscar Nominee
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We’re now hopping into the two categories that affect what we see on screen: Best Visual Effects, and Best Cinematography. Starting off with the former category, we’re celebrating the art of CGI. I sometimes do have a tough time with this category because it can be tough to tell what is fulfilled practically and what is accomplished through some damn strong computer-generated graphics. That line between the two practices is getting more and more blurred every day. Sometimes, it can be obvious what is CGI but it can still be well done. Luckily, I don’t need to bring up lacklustre effects, because none of the nominated films have this problem (thank goodness, because some years…). What spectacles blew me away? Which imagery took me to new realities and heights? Here are your nominees.
Biggest Snub: Nope
While I didn’t think Nope was the best film of last year, to see it get zero nominations feels a little wrong. It particularly did really well in the visual effects department: the main monster of the film is absolutely breathtaking to look at, and it flows and behaves so gracefully (motion is quite important when it comes to good CGI, in my opinion). Nope was meant to feel like a big film, and its central creature helps it achieve that: it’s actually the part of the film’s intended scale that works the best.
5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever-Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White, and Dan Sudick
The good news is that I feel like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has better visual effects than its predecessor, which was a better film overall yet it had CGI that was quite debatable. Even still, I find Wakanda Forever to be the weakest nominee of this group, even if it’s ever so slightly so. The building of worlds and technology here is pretty inspired, but you can almost always tell that you’re looking at visually created images (although the line between the production design and the visual effects work is a bit blurred, so bravo to both departments here). Good work here, but I felt the other nominees were stronger.
4. All Quiet on the Western Front-Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank, and Kamil Jafar
It’s tough to tell what is practical in All Quiet on the Western Front and what is CGI, but that’s a testament to how good both departments are here. There are a lot of different explosions and sets of bullets flying every which way, and all of this orchestrated chaos is done quite well. You’re not going to get what you wouldn’t find in a great war film, but that kind of goes without saying: the war genre usually demands the best technical and production-based setups in order to work. All Quiet on the Western Front is quite thrilling thanks to the CGI artistry here.
3. The Batman-Dan Lemmon, Russel Earl, Anders Langlands, and Dominic Tuohy
While much of The Batman is made practically, the CGI steps in when it counts and upholds the insanity on screen. It’s not as if the entire film is full of virtual artistry, since this version of the film is meant to be more of a noir thriller that’s at least rooted in reality (a stylish one, anyway). However, the moments that do need CGI are given a ton of attention, and it shows with some jaw dropping action. Matt Reeves may not be as tethered to practicality like Christopher Nolan is with his Dark Knight trilogy, but he at least mirrors the latter’s grittiness when he does work with CGI in The Batman, and the effects are a nice payoff.
2. Top Gun: Maverick-Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson, and Scott R. Fisher
I thought the CGI in Top Gun: Maverick was already great when I got to the climactic in-air battle sequence, and I was going to be placing it highly on this list. However, when learning that the vast majority of the landscape shots behind the pilots in the closer shots are green-screened, that sent me soaring. I have to applaud the team here for creating an illusion of being airborne in the countless shots within the film: the missile and machine gun activity later in Top Gun: Maverick is just the icing on the cake. I do feel like the film has wound up doing a bit better during the awards season than I would have expected, but this nomination was a must.
1. Avatar: The Way of Water-Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Sandon, and Daniel Barrett
Well, yeah. Make fun of James Cameron all you want, but he was at least on to something when it came to the visual effects of Avatar: The Way of Water. The original film transported us to Pandora with some of the greatest visual effects in all of film. I feel like the graphics themselves have only slightly improved since the original film, but even then they’re great in this way. Where The Way of Water wins (if it wasn’t going to already) is for its underwater sequences. On one hand, what you actually see is just astonishing, and it’s a CGI wonderland that harkens back to how Avatar first felt when it hit theatres (that spark has returned). On the other, consider the technology that went into shooting these sequences in water, and a lot of that has to do with the digital constructions and rendering that capture the motion capture brilliance. For me, this is almost no contest. Avatar: The Way of Water is a winner here.
My review of Avatar: The Way of Water
Who I want to win: Avatar: The Way of Water, but I’d be okay with Top Gun: Maverick picking up a win here.
Who I think will win: Avatar: The Way of Water. It isn’t the awards season juggernaut that the original film was, but it will definitely get a win or two in these technical categories. I’d assume a win for Best Visual Effects is a safe bet.
Tune in tomorrow for our next Academy Award category! We’re reviewing every single nominee on every weekday.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.