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