After pulling together its exhaustive list of soundtracks eligible for 2017’s Best Original Score accolade – and excluding a few heavy-hitters in the process – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whittled down its contenders for the VFX Oscar to ten.
The Jungle Book and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are among those films to make the cut, while somewhat unsurprisingly, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Marvel’s mind-bending Doctor Strange also find themselves in contention.
After iterating on the technology introduced in James Cameron’s Avatar remarkably well, Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book seems like the one to beat this year, but don’t discount Rogue One‘s – or indeed Strange‘s – chances of puling an upset. Speaking of which, Warcraft and Tim Miller’s Deadpool are two notable exceptions from The Academy’s shortlist, while Peter Berg’s true-life thriller Deepwater Horizon is a surprising entry to the top ten.
From here, voting members will be invited to ten-minute screenings of each nominee on January 7, before the final list of five will be unveiled alongside all other nominations for the 89th Academy Awards on January 24, 2017. The main event takes place on February 26, while below you’ll find the collection of movies in the running for Best Visual Effects.
Arrival
The BFG
Captain America: Civil War
Deepwater Horizon
Doctor Strange
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The Jungle Book
Kubo and the Two Strings
Passengers
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
As for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it’s now screening in theatres worldwide. Curious to know how the Gareth Edwards-directed anthology movie stacks up? Check out our official review for more.
