Biblical epics and a fairy tale musical missing from summer-heavy VFX shortlist

The 10 semi-finalists for the Best Visual Effects Oscar have been announced, and most of the usual suspects are present. Of those ten moving on, seven of them are summer blockbusters, every one of them a sequel or reboot (woe to original filmmaking).

Of course, the one wholly original film on the shortlist is probably the most likely to win; That'd be Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.

The most notable omissions are Into the Woods, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and Noah, all three of which seemed like viable spoilers. Well, not anymore.

My favourite inclusion may just be Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Unlike every other finalist, its effects are far more grounded in the service of good old fashioned action staging. I don't expect it to get nominated, but I didn't expect to even get this far. Good on it!

Here are the ten:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Maleficent
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past