Oscars 2017: Best Visual Effects Shortlist Revealed

Collider

Oscars: 'Fantastic Beasts', 'Doctor Strange', 'Rogue One' and 7 More Make Best Visual Effects Shortlist

By Haleigh Foutch

Published Dec 16, 2016

'Passengers', 'The Jungle Book', and 'Arrival' also make the cut.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the shortlist of the ten 2016 that will compete for Best Visual Effects nominations at the 89th Academy Awards. Both animated and superhero films have a very slight showing this year: LAIKA's stop-motion Kubo and the Two Strings is the sole animated finalist and Marvel landed both superhero spots with Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange. Marvel's parent company, Disney, has demonstrated their blockbuster dominance at the box office all year, and it's making a showing here as well with the studio taking home half of the ten spots for The Jungle Book, The BFG, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in addition to the two Marvel titles. Elsewhere, adult sci-fi fared well with Arrival and Passengers landing spots, while Deepwater Horizon is the only straight drama end up a finalist.

Ten titles have been cut since the original list of contenders was announced earlier this month. Among the titles dropped off the list, say goodbye to the rest of this year's superhero haul (Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, and Batman v Superman), and a haul of this year's middling to poor summer fare (Warcraft, Independence Day: Resurgence, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and Star Trek Beyond). As for the remaining films, if you're looking for a frontrunner, you have to look towards The Jungle Book and Doctor Strange, both of which created intricate and immersive environments for the film, though Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Kubo and the Two Strings are all fierce competitors.