AWARDS
Watch: Video Recap - 37 Years of 'Best Visual Effects' Oscar Winners
by Alex Billington
January 29, 2014
Source: Vimeo
As we head into the final weeks of the awards season, it's time to take a quick look back at movies that have won Best Visual Effects over these last 37 years. In 1977, a specific award category for visual effects was "reintroduced" into the Oscars with the current name of Best Visual Effects. Some of the big winners include Alien, Aliens, Titanic, Star Wars, Superman, E.T., Indiana Jones, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jurassic Park, Gladiator, The Matrix, Avatar. This video was conceived and edited by Nelson Carvajal and gives us a comprehensive look back at at the movies that have defined, and redefined, the magic of Hollywood effects.
This was posted on Vimeo directly by Nelson Carvajal under fair use. The background music is the song "Time" from Hans Zimmer's Inception score. This was created as a VFX retrospective in anticipation of the 86th Academy Awards. The nominees at the 2014 Oscars for Best Visual Effects: Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Marvel Studio's Iron Man 3, Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger and Bad Robot's Star Trek Into Darkness. Last year, Ang Lee's Life of Pi won over The Avengers and Prometheus, but this year? It better be Gravity - that movie is a huge VFX achievement.
9 Comments
1
AWESOME
Boomboom on Jan 29, 2014
2
This is the one category I really care about every year. Glad to know I've seen every one of these films, on this list, unlike the nominees for the Best Picture most years. I think it's between Gravity and The Hobbit this year. Think I'd like to see it go to Gravity.
David Diaz on Jan 29, 2014
3
I agree. The Hobbit was great visually (as we've come to expect from Peter Jackson's crew) but it wasn't that different from any other LOTR movies, thematically. Gravity on the other hand put a completely fresh and stunning spin on outer space films. Also, the fact that Gravity has extremely long scenes without any cuts makes it all the more worthy of the award.
TheOct8pus on Jan 30, 2014
4
Why the fuck was Pacific Rim not even nominated? To me, it had the best VFX after Gravity. What 'effects' in The Lone Ranger were worthy of a nomination? This year's nominations kind of suck. Tom Hanks wasn't nominated for Phillips. Enough Said and Frances Ha, two of my favourite films last year, got nothing. American Hustle, save for the acting, feels overrated to me. I haven't seen Stories We Tell, but I've read it was a sure winner. Weird, man.
Ronnie Deori on Jan 30, 2014
5
Gravity invented technology to tell it's story, and to the people at the bakeoff that counts a bit more. Also Lone Ranger contained some pretty good practical/vfx combinations which also count.
Japetto on Jan 30, 2014
6
I said "after" Gravity. And in that way, even Wolf Of Walf Street had 'practical' VFX. Pacific Rim deserved a nomination at least. Gravity's the winner, of course.
Ronnie Deori on Jan 30, 2014
7
That isn't exactly what I mean, WOWS had some set extension, Lone Ranger had physical effects that were accentuated by VFX elements (it's the same reason why The Transformer movies are always nominated) But yes Gravity was the crowning achievement of the year.
Japetto on Jan 30, 2014
8
Gravity deserves this one. By far the most original effects and cinematography. Looking back on history, George Lucas, James Cameron and Spielberg were all repeaters and innovators, of course.
TheOct8pus on Jan 30, 2014
9
I think that "Time" has become the new Requiem for a Dream for internet videos.
Cody Thomason on Jan 30, 2014
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