With the Oscar nominations set to be revealed Thursday morning (see Adam’s predictions here), one of the many question marks is the amount of love the Academy will extend to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While it has received critical praise and is continually owning the box office, the film may not be able to break into the bigger categories. However, it is fairly safe to assume that it will get a nod for its technical achievements, including visual effects. And just to remind you (and Oscar voters) of how impressive and effective the visuals are in the film, a new reel of VFX shots has been revealed. It consists of a comparison/before-and-after look of the shots as they were filmed and the finished project. Voting is over of course, but voters have probably already seen this video.  If Star Wars gets nominated, expect this video to land in front of the full Academy and not just the VFX branch. Check it out below:

It’s a rather revealing and detailed look at the work that went into bringing these scenes to life. Behind-the-scenes featurettes are always interesting, but this specific one offers plenty of information as to what they did to manipulate the scene and how they did it. While it aims to offer a look at the visual effects of the film, the reel does a good job showing the effort J.J. Abrams and company put forth towards utilizing practical effects as much as possible. It is heartening to see that small details that could have easily been CGI’d were actually made for the actors to interact with. Also, the fact that this reel takes us through large chunks of scenes is pretty neat.

Again it is curious to see if Star Wars has much of a pull with the Academy as it does with audiences. Be sure to check in tomorrow morning to see the nominations.