My Award Nominations: Visual Effects

There's so much swell work out there this year. Not only are the Visual Effects in these five movies extremely proficient, but what I love most about them is that they have personality. It's easy to take photoreal illusions for granted these days, so it bears reminding that thy are created by artists who truly are thinking about deeper things than "How real does it look?". Watch some of the embedded featurettes to see what I mean.

Inside Out dominates Annie Awards

While all eyes were on the DGA last night, ASIFA-Hollywood held its annual Annie Awards. It was a great night for Pixar Studios, which scooped every single eligible category, mostly for Inside Out (quelle surprise), although The Good Dinosaur was tossed one very deserving consolation win for its visual effects.

As a nice change, the organization added a category for Independent Feature Animation. Is it a ghetto category? Sure. But small, scarcely distributed animated films would never stand a chance against widely seen studio fare. I'm delighted to see Ale Abreu's wonderful Boy and the World took this prize, and hope that it helps ensure the continued success of international GKIDS pickups in future awards seasons.

Equally delightful was the decision to give Best Animated Short to Don Hertzfedlt's brilliant World of Tomorrow. Fingers crossed for the Oscar!

Check out all the feature film winners after the cut.

Visual Effects Society winners

Not a lot of love spread at the VES honours last night, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens took four prizes (two for the Millenium Falcon chase alone) and The Revenant three (two for the bear sequence alone), leaving but a single consolatory win for presumed Oscar frontrunner Mad Max: Fury Road (for its sandstorm). Granted, the prominence of stunts and in-camera effects was always going to make Mad Max a tough sell with the guild, but this doesn't help.

I've been wondering if this is the year the Academy finally bucks the trend of always opting for a Best Picture nominee in this category given the chance. There are three of them up for the VFX Oscar after all (Mad Max, The Martian and The Revenant), and split allegiances could create a perfect storm for Star Wars to speed up through middle. This seems the natural place the recognize it for its record-breaking box office. As in many craft categories, I'm waiting for BAFTA to shed some light.

On the animated side of things, the VES finally, for the first time I can remember, didn't give all four prizes to the same movie. The Good Dinosaur won three (which, quite frankly, it deserved), but they threw a bone to Inside Out for the beautifully expressive character animation of Joy. Good call.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
“The Revenant”

Critics Season Opens, While Films They Honour Do Not

December is officially here, so the critics have begun unloading their year-end superlatives. But since those of us in the real world still have 26 days before the end of the year, some of the biggest honorees are still an unseen mystery to us. Todd Haynes' Carol was undoubtedly the biggest love-affair for the New York Critics Film Circle, who handed it four prizes including Best Film, but I'll be lucky if it opens anywhere near me before the month is out.

The National Board of Review, while naming Mad Max: Fury Road their best of the year, threw far more support in terms of number of prizes behind films like The Martian (Best Director, Actor and Adapted Screenplay) and The Hateful Eight (Best Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay). The latter won't even begin limited engagements until Christmas!

But I was not completely starved for entertainment. Rocky spinoff Creed opened during the American Thanksgiving weeekend, and I found it rather enjoyable. Writer-director Ryan Coogler showed much promise in his 2013 debut Fruitvale Station, as did star Michal B. Jordan, and both continue to prove their genuine talent in this crackerjack boxing flick.

Early Oscar Predictions: Animated Feature

Animated films are a special case in which the vast majority of the work is carried out in post. Years are often spent on the animation alone, and that's not even taking into account all the other elements such as effects, music and sound.

Walt Disney animation has dominated lately, winning back-to-back Best Animated Feature Oscars and two Best Animated Short Oscars in the last three years, but they have no feature in contention for 2015. With one of the big three American studios sitting it out, one would think that a DreamWorks entry should make the cut, but do Home or B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherwordly Operations really strike anyone as Oscar-worthy? I have my doubts.

Instead, it may be Disney's corporate acquisition Pixar that reclaims some of their lost lustre by double dipping, as for the first time ever they are cranking out two original films in the same year.