The top 20 finalists for the visual effects Oscar have been notified they have made it to the next round of voting. With Oscars shortlist voting opening in eight categories on Thursday, Dec. 14, Variety has learned exclusively that the visual effects finalists include Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” and the lone animated feature contender, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” The Academy declined to confirm the final list of the 20 movies.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
The 20 movies will go on to the next round of voting, which will occur Dec. 14 to 18. Ten films will be named on Dec. 21, along with nine other categories. The five nominees will be determined after the Jan. 11-16 voting, with the noms announced on Jan. 23 in all categories.
Popular on Variety
The finalists are full of IP and big-budget superhero spectacles including three from Marvel Studios — “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “The Marvels,” alongside three Warner Bros. titles — “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” “Barbie” and “Wonka.”
Disney, the parent company of Marvel, also picked up two additional mentions with Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” from 20th Century Studios and James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” from Walt Disney Studios.
Paramount Pictures nabbed three of its own — “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.”
Netflix also pulled a trifecta of nominations with the swimming biopic “Nyad,” survival biopic “Society of the Snow” and the upcoming Snyder movie, “Rebel Moon.”
Among the surprises were George Clooney’s sports drama “The Boys in the Boat” from Amazon MGM and the recently released “Godzilla: Minus One” from Toho.
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” was among the two titles for Apple, which co-distributed the crime epic with Paramount. The other was for Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” which Apple partnered with Sony to release.
Speaking of Sony, the most inspired choice of the lineup is the inclusion of the animated feature “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which hopes to join the ranks of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) and “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016) as the only animated movies ever to be nominated in the visual effects category.
Searchlight Pictures got a huge boost with “Poor Things” making the list, bolstered by the film’s gorgeous visuals and powerhouse performances from Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo.
To be expected, there were a handful of snubs, with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” being the most prominent, albeit the film’s heavy use of practical effects. Other notable omissions include “Blue Beetle,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Flash,” “Meg 2,” “Ferrari” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.”
The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10.
Visual Effects Top 20 Finalists
- “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanumania” (Marvel Studios)
- “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (Warner Bros.)
- “Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
- “The Boys in the Boat” (Amazon MGM Studios)
- “The Creator” (20th Century Studios)
- “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (Paramount Pictures)
- “Godzilla: Minus One” (Toho)
- “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Marvel Studios)
- “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (Walt Disney Pictures)
- “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
- “The Marvels” (Marvel Studios)
- “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures)
- “Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
- “Nyad” (Netflix)
- “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
- “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” (Netflix)
- “Society of the Snow” (Netflix)
- “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
- “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (Paramount Pictures)
- “Wonka” (Warner Bros.)
