2021 Oscar Predictions: VISUAL EFFECTS (September)

While every Oscar category has been, and will continue to be, impacted the coronavirus pandemic and the lack of open movie theaters, none will be more turned upside down than Visual Effects.

Normally jammed with spring and summer tentpole action and sci-fi films, only a few of which have survived this year, who knows what this top five will end up like. With films ditching 2020 for mid and late 2021 berths, there could be some more inspired choices here than usual. We have had some blockbusters…or the 2020 versions of them with Tenet‘s meager domestic performance and Mulan going straight to Disney+ (at a premium cost, of course) but we also have some hits that made it under the wire early this year like Bird of Prey, Sonic the Hedgehog and The Invisible Man. Netflix has the upcoming space drama The Midnight Sky (December) and 20th Century Studios has Free Guy (moved from July to December), if the latter is even released.

Two big question marks remain: will MGM/UA bump No Time to Die again and will Warner Bros stick with Dune‘s December release or bump that too? They just moved Wonder Woman 1984 for the third time, that’s now opening on Christmas, just one week later.

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

1. Dune (Warner Bros) [moved to October 2021]
Nominees TBD

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

3. Mulan (Disney+)
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

Doolittle (Universal Pictures)
Nominees TBD

Free Guy (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures)
Nominees TBD 

The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

The New Mutants (20th Century Studios)
Nominees TBD

No Time to Die (MGM/UA)
Nominees TBD

Tenet (Warner Bros)
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.

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