2021 Oscar Predictions: VISUAL EFFECTS (October)

Dune is gone. Wonder Woman 1984 is definitely going to pack its magic lasso and move to 2021 so I’m preemptively dropping it now. That’s going to make for a very different looking visual effects category than we’ve seen before, allowing films with strong supporting visual effects to rise instead of being dominated by CGI-heavy blockbusters (although we do still have Birds of Prey in the mix).

This may be a chance for an animated film like Soul or Over the Moon to get in, as 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings did, and animated films often make the shortlist.

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

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

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

2. Mulan (Disney+)

Nominees TBD

3. The Midnight Sky (Netflix)

Nominees TBD

4. Greyhound (Apple TV+)

Nominees TBD

5. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount Pictures)

Nominees TBD

Other Contenders

The Call of the Wild (20th Century Studios)

Nominees TBD

Cinderella (Sony Pictures)

Nominees TBD

Death on the Nile (20th Century Studios)

Nominees TBD

Doolittle (Universal Pictures)

Nominees TBD

Free Guy (20th Century Studios)

Nominees TBD

The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures)

Nominees TBD 

The New Mutants (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

Over the Moon (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

Soul (Pixar)
Nominees TBD

Tenet (Warner Bros)
Nominees TBD

• Author
• Recent Posts

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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Sets Dates and Timeline for 2026 Awards - March 18, 2025
• 3rd Children’s & Family Emmy Awards: ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Leads with Eight; Jacob Tremblay, Christian Slater, Meryl Streep Win - March 16, 2025
• 75th ACE Eddie Awards: ‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘Wicked’ Top Winners for Film Editing - March 15, 2025