'Rogue One,' 'Doctor Strange' make the Oscar VFX contenders short-list
Rogue One is in the running to win at least one Oscar, as the Star Wars spinoff is among 20 contenders to advance for a visual effects award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday.
The prize has roots dating back to the first ceremony in 1928 (Wings won it, along with Best Picture and virtually everything else) and is typically pretty sci-fi and blockbuster-heavy. Because let's face it, this is just as much a "most effects" award as it is "best" -- and this year has its fair share of that.
But sci-fi (Rogue One, Arrival) and super heroes (Doctor Strange, X:Men Apocalypse, Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War, the 8th, 9th and 10th noms for Marvel since Iron Man) will have stiff competition this year, even just to get nominated.
That's because Disney's The Jungle Book became a global box office juggernaut on the strength of its naturalistic environments and talking animals. And the Academy likes some meaningful story along with its effects, putting Arrival way up the list, too.
Meanwhile, Doctor Strange might be the super hero genre's best shot at a VFX Oscar, which would be a first.
Rogue One follows a long tradition of Star Wars films up for the award. The three original trilogy films each won it, while two of the George Lucas prequels and The Force Awakens were merely nominated (the only one not nominated was Revenge of the Sith).
The list of 20 finalists, determined by the Academy's Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, will be whittled down to 10 in a vote later this month, and five of those will be nominated by the Academy at large before the February ceremony.
The finalists are:
Alice through the Looking Glass Arrival The BFG Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Captain America: Civil War Deadpool Deepwater Horizon Doctor Strange Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Independence Day: Resurgence The Jungle Book Kubo and the Two Strings Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Passengers Rogue One Star Trek Beyond Suicide Squad Sully Warcraft X-Men: Apocalypse
The 89th Oscars will be held Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017.
Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
