Increasingly international and fiercely competitive, the visual-effects sector is now a vitally important component of the wider global film industry. And that is not just because of the massive commercial success of effects-heavy fantasy adventures and comic book-based action films. These days, digital effects created on any one of four continents can play a part in comedies, dramas and animated family films as well.
The 10-film shortlist for this year’s visual effects Academy Award — the list from which five nominees will soon be chosen — covers a range of genres, each of which has produced at least one visual effects Oscar winner during the past decade.
From the realms of sci-fi — genre of recent Oscar winners Inception and Avatar — come the alien planet epic Prometheus, the historical/futuristic Cloud Atlas and the Mars-set John Carter.
The fantasy genre — producer of the multiple Oscar-winning The Lord Of The Rings films — this year provides dark fairy tale Snow White & The Huntsman and The Lord Of The Rings prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The comic-book world — whose only recent winner has been Spider-Man 2 — has the rebooted The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel’s The Avengers and Batman trilogy finale The Dark Knight Rises in this year’s running.
And then — following recent winners Hugo, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — there are the less genre-specific entries: dramatic adventure Life Of Pi, with its CG-enhanced animals and seascapes, and action thrillerSkyfall, which could become the first James Bond film since Moonraker to be nominated in the category. click here
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