2021 Oscar Predictions: VISUAL EFFECTS (January)

Erik Anderson January 25, 2021

Finally a little bit of action in this category. With nearly all of the major player blockbusters that would have dominated this category moved off into later 2021 or 2022, it’s going to make visual effects a bit more interesting.

I know some will call it barren but, like a lot of other categories with fewer choices and not as many sequel/prequel IPs, voters will have to dig a bit deeper and even appreciate the amount of unseen heavy lifting that supporting visual effects do to carry a film. While we know that everything in George Clooney’s space drama The Midnight Sky is pure VFX wizardry, seeing the bits and pieces of backgrounds, animals, sky and atmosphere that populate David Fincher’s early Hollywood drama Mank should be more than enough to impress. Same goes for the superb work in Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man.

Digitized animals and creatures as main characters should also find a place, at least on the shortlist, in the form of The One and Only Ivan, Doolittle and Sonic the Hedgehog.

The case of Warner Bros and how they’re propping up Wonder Woman 1984 on their awards FYC page and not Birds of Prey is a mystery. What are they thinking?

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Visual Effects for January.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

1. The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, Dave Watkins, Max Solomon

2. Tenet (Warner Bros)
Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley, Scott R. Fisher, Mike Chambers

3. The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures)
Jonathan Dearing, Marcus Bolton, Matt Ebb, Aevar Bjarnason

4. Mulan (Disney+)
Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury, Steve Ingram

5. Mank (Netflix)
Wei Zheng, Simon Carr, Pablo Helman, James Pastorius

6. Greyhound (Apple TV+)
Nominees TBD

7. Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros)
Nominees TBD

8. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount Pictures)
Nominees TBD

9. The One and Only Ivan (Disney+)
Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones, Santiago Colomo Martinez

10. Doolittle (Universal Pictures)
Nominees TBD

Other Contenders (alphabetical by film)

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Warner Bros)
Nominees TBD

The Call of the Wild (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

Greenland (STX Entertainment)
Nominees TBD

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix)
Brad Parker, Carlos Monzon, Eric Guagilone, Stefano Pepin

Monster Hunter (Screen Gems/Constantin Films)
Nominees TBD

The New Mutants (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

News of the World (Universal Pictures)
Roni Rodrigues, Ian Fellows, Andy Morley, Brandon Keys McLaughlin

Over the Moon (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

Soul (Pixar)
Michael Fong, Bill Watrel

Underwater (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.