FINAL 2023 Oscar Predictions: VISUAL EFFECTS
In what should be the easiest victory of the night, Avatar: The Way of Water should swim away with the win for Visual Effects are dominating with BAFTA, Critics’ Choice and a record-setting sweep of nine Visual Effects Society (VES) wins from its also record-setting 14 nominations, where it only lost when competing against itself.
Anything else would be an earth-shaking upset, even more so than Ex Machina beating out Best Picture nominees The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015.
Here are my final 2023 Oscar winner predictions for Visual Effects.
| 1. Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios) – BAFTA, CCA, VES Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett |
| 2. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures) – BAFTA, CCA, VES Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher |
| 3. The Batman (Warner Bros) – BAFTA, CCA, VES Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy |
| 4. All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) – BAFTA Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar |
| 5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios) – CCA Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick |
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.
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)
- Producers Guild Awards Nominations for Sports, Children’s and Short-Form Programs - December 12, 2025
- Wim Wenders to Lead 76th Berlin International Film Festival Jury - December 12, 2025
- 2026 Oscar Predictions: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY and ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (December) - December 12, 2025
Producers Guild Awards Nominations for Sports, Children’s and Short-Form Programs 
Wim Wenders to Lead 76th Berlin International Film Festival Jury 
2026 Oscar Predictions: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY and ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (December) 
San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) Nominations: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners’ Lead