Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 6, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Which films the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science actually nominates will be announced on January 16, 2014, and on March 2, 2014 we will then know who gets to take home the gold statue called Oscar. At least the DP editorial team and the Academy were already on the same wavelength when it came to selecting good VFX. There were or still will be making-of reports in our magazine on almost all the films on the shortlist.
Here are the ten films that made it one round further:
- Elysium
- Gravity
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Iron Man 3
- The Lone Ranger
- Oblivion
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Thor: The Dark World
- Pacific Rim
- World War Z
ILM can therefore calculate that it has a strong chance of winning a golden boy, because the studio was involved in "Pacific Rim", "Elysium", "Lone Ranger" and "Star Trek Into Darkness". Digital Domain could win with either "Iron Man 3" or "Oblivion", while Weta has the Hobbit as another iron in the fire alongside the superhero film. MPC was responsible for "Lone Ranger" and "World War Z", and Double Negative could win with "Thor: The Dark World". Among German studios, Pixomondo is represented with "Oblivion" and "Star Trek", while Trixter was involved in "Iron Man 3".
For anyone wondering where one of this year’s most VFX-heavy films has gone: Perhaps the Academy—just like the DP editorial team—could no longer see the VFX shots in "Man of Steel" due to the speed of the camera pans and the editing pace, the whole thing in stereo 3D, and therefore could not judge them as good or bad.
You can learn more about the shortlisted films in these DP issues: The upcoming DP magazine, which our subscribers will receive on December 11, will include a background report on the second "Hobbit" installment; the color grader of "Elysium" also reports on her work on the project.
In DP issue 06/13, you will find an extensive report on "Pacific Rim"; both set designer William Cheng and compositor Michael Ralla told us a lot about the making of the robot film. Also in the same issue, we spoke with VFX supervisor Thilo Ewers of Pixomondo and Paul Lambert of Digital Domain about "Oblivion".
"Iron Man 3" was our cover story in DP 04/13 , and in it Digital Domain, Legacy Effects and The Third Floor report on their work on the blockbuster. For issue 05/13, we were able to speak with J.J. Abrams’ editorial team about "Star Trek Into Darkness".
You can find all further information about the Oscar here.
