Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Joe Letteri, Ryan Stafford, Matt Kutcher, Dan Lemmon, Hannah Blanchini
Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6
Don Hall, Chris Williams, Roy Conli, Zach Parrish
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Birdman
Ara Khanikian, Ivy Agregan, Sebastien Moreau, Isabelle Langlois
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones; The Children
Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Stuart Brisdon, Thomas Schelesny, Sven Martin
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
American Horror Story; Freak Show; Edward Mordrake, Part 2
Jason Piccioni, Jason Spratt, Mike Kirylo, Justin Ball, Eric Roberts
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Christoph Salzmann, Florian Schroeder, Quentin Hema, Simone Riginelli
Outstanding Compositing in a in a Photoreal/Live Action Commercial
SSE
Neil Davies, Leonardo Costa, Gianluca DiMarco
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones; The Watchers on the Wall
Dan Breckwoldt, Martin Furman, Sophie Marfleet, Eric Andrusyszyn
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
SSE; Maya
Neil Davies, Alex Hammond, Jorge Montiel, Beth Vander
Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Yi-chao Sandy Lin-Chiang, Joseph Salud, Demetrius Leal, Dave Blizard
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Wrapped
Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper, Florian Wittmann, Paolo Tamburrino
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Torquee de Remy
Tony Apodaca, Marianne McLean, Gilles Martin, Edwin Chang, Mark Mine
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal/Live Action Motion Media Project
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Kitchen Scene
Austin Bonang, Casey Schatz, Dennis Jones, Newton Thomas Sigel
Outstanding Models in any Motion Media Project
Big Hero 6; City of San Fransokyo
Brett Achorn, Minh Duong, Scott Watanabe, Larry Wu
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6; Into the Portal
Ralf Habel, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk, Olun Riley
Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
Game of Thrones; Braavos Establisher
Rene Borst, Christian Zilliken, Jan Burda, Steffen Metzner
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Interstellar; Tesseract
Tom Bracht, Graham Page, Thomas Døhlen, Kirsty Clark
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Quicksilver Pentagon Kitchen
Adam Paschke, Premamurti Paetsch, Sam Hancock, Timmy Lundin
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6
Henrik Falt, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk, John Kosnik
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Dominique Vidal, Isabelle Perin-Leduc, Sandrine Lurde, Alexandre Lerouge
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Big Hero 6; Baymax
Colin Eckart, John Kahwaty, Zach Parrish, Zack Petroc
Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Caesar
Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Andrea Merlo, Emiliano Padovani
Outstanding Performance of an Animated Character in a Commercial, Broadcast Program, or Video Game
SSE; Maya
Jorge Montiel, Alex Hammond, Daniel Kmet, Philippe Moine
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
While I am an Interstellar apologist/advocate/defender, I think Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is more than deserving of the Visual Effects honors this year. Apes lives or dies by its VE and is way more dependent on them than Interstellar is and I think that’s something that should be considered in this category. The VE are also really fucking amazing.
My issue, however, is that I think Interstellar is suffering from a sort of “take-down,” initiated not by one person, but collectively as a sort of (perhaps unintentional) movement against the film since its release–the lack of a cinematography nomination is probably the clearest example of this. I think a consensus has grown and will culminate with the Oscars, to actively NOT vote for Interstellar and I think it’s going to walk away empty-handed on Oscar night. I wouldn’t be surprised if X-Men walks away with the award for that dazzling and showy Quicksilver scene.
In any event, this year has initiated a detour from what’s been true of the Visual Effects category in the last 5 years. Some of you may remember me pointing to the trends of the last 5 years that the Visual Effects winner has been a thread leading to one of the year’s top BP contenders, but this year, for the first time since the BP field expanded, there isn’t a BP nominee in the VE field and the VE winner won’t align with the Cinematography winner (because no film has a nomination in both).