Oscar Predictions: Best Visual Effects

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 10th. As a result, most of the corresponding guilds won’t have announced their picks by then, so I’m making predictions in advance without being able to take those into consideration. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in most of the major categories, saving some of the biggest categories for last.

Last year’s nominees: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Hugo, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon

This year’s locks: The Dark Knight Rises, Life of Pi, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Very likely: Prometheus

Possible: The Avengers, Skyfall, The Amazing Spider-Man, Snow White and the Huntsman, Cloud Atlas

Unlikely: John Carter

The rundown: This category contains less suspense than other races since ten finalists have already been established, five of which will be nominated. That’s too bad half of this list, but honestly, not terrible odds for any of them. The only Best Picture contender in the mix is Life of Pi, which will surely be here, as should The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I’m hopeful that both Prometheus and The Avengers will be rightly recognized here, but I have a feeling that The Amazing Spider-Man and Snow White and the Huntsman will instead. Since I’ve been given Skyfall statistics in every other race, I’ll point out that the last James Bond film to be nominated in this race was “Moonraker” in 1979.

Forecasted winner: Maybe The Dark Knight Rises, but who knows?