2026 Oscars: ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ ‘Frankenstein, ‘Sinners’ Among 20 Films Make the Visual Effects Finalists Cut
Avatar: Fire and Ash, Frankenstein and Sinners are among the 20 films to make it past the first hurdle on the way to the Oscars for visual effects. They are among the 20 finalists who will next be whittled down to 10 when Oscar shortlist voting begins in two weeks.
Superhero films from both the MC and DC universes made waves with Captain America: Brave New World, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts* representing the Marvel faction and Superman repping DC Studios. The Disney domination continued with Avatar: Fire and Ash and Predator: Badlands on the 20th Century Studios side and Lilo and Stitch under the main banner.
Universal Pictures has three films: the blockbusters How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World Rebirth and Wicked: For Good while Netflix nabbed two, The Electric State and Frankenstein. Warner Bros was a big winner with F1: The Movie (as its distributor), Mickey 17, A Minecraft Movie, Sinners and the aforementioned Superman.
In my most recent predictions for visual effects, 15 of the 20 titles are mentioned.
The Oscars shortlist begins Monday, December 8, at 9 a.m. PT and ends Friday, December 12, at 5 p.m. PT. The shortlists in 12 categories will be announced on Tuesday, December 16. The VFX bake-offs will take place Jan. 10-11, when the final 10 films will present to members of the branch for final nomination consideration. Voting for all branches occurs January 12-16, with the Oscar nominations being announced Thursday, January 22. In the middle will be the Visual Effects Society nominations on January 13.
This news was first reported by Variety.
Here are the top 20 VFX finalists.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century Studios)
Captain America: Brave New World (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios)
The Electric State (Netflix)
F1: The Movie (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios)
Frankenstein (Netflix)
How to Train Your Dragon (Universal Pictures)
Jurassic World: Rebirth (Universal Pictures)
Lilo and Stitch (Walt Disney Pictures)
The Lost Bus (Apple Original Films)
Mickey 17 (Warner Bros)
A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros)
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Paramount Pictures)
Predator: Badlands (20th Century Studios)
The Running Man (Paramount Pictures)
Sinners (Warner Bros)
Superman (Warner Bros/DC Studios)
Thunderbolts* (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios)
Tron: Ares (Walt Disney Pictures)
Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
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.
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