Academy names finalists for Best Visual Effects and Make-up Oscars

By Lawrence French • January 4, 2008

Given the great abundance of award worthy effects films that are released each year, one has to wonder why the Academy in all its great wisdom, continues to announce a list of seven finalists for the effects Academy Award and then insists on whittling it down to only three nominees.

Every other award category (except for make-up and sound editing) has five nominees, so to reduce the effects award to only three simply doesn’t make sense. It appears this rule is a hangover from olden days when there were often less then five films that could be considered worthy for nomination.

That was certainly the case in 1976, when the Academy’s board of governors made the startling bad judgement of giving an Oscar to KING KONG for best visual effects. That ridiculous mistake caused several prominent members of the effects branch to resign from the Academy in protest.

In any case, today the Academy announced the list of seven finalists, which will be narrowed down to three actual nominees after a vote by the effects nominating committee on Jan 16.

My own favorite effects film, SPIDER-MAN 3 didn’t even make the list, despite the excellence of effects work on display in creating the Sandman. Also missing from the list are HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and Disney’s ENCHANTED with it’s spectacular SLEEPING BEAUTY inspired live-action dragon.

The seven effects films deemed the worthiest by the Academy this year are:

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Universal)
EVAN ALMIGHTY (Universal)
THE GOLDEN COMPASS (New Line Cinema)
I AM LEGEND (Warner Bros.)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (Disney)
300 (Warner Bros.)
TRANSFORMERS (Paramount)

While the seven finalists for best make-up are:

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (Miramax)
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (Warner Bros.)
LA VIE EN ROSE (Picturehouse)
NORBIT (Paramount)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (Disney)
SWEENEY TODD THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (Paramount)
300 (Warner Bros.)

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About the Author

Lawrence French

LAWRENCE FRENCH celebrated his 20th anniversary as a contributor to Cinefantastique Magazine with his cover story on the making of THE RETURN OF THE KING. As Cinefantastique’s longtime San Francisco correspondent, he has written numerous stories about Pixar and Lucasfilm, and interviewed such genre stalwarts as Vincent Price, Tim Burton, Ray Harryhausen, John Lasseter, Phil Tippett and Ray Bradbury. He is also the editor of the highly regarded website on Orson Welles, Wellesnet.com. His book as editor of Richard Matheson’s Edgar Allan Poe scripts for THE HOUSE OF USHER and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was published by Gauntlet Press in 2007, with a second volume on TALES OF TERROR and THE RAVEN due out in 2008. For Cinefantastique Online, he curently writes the regular column Supernal Dreams.

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