Oscar Predictions: Best Visual Effects

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Monday, March 15th. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in all categories.

Last year’s nominees: Avengers: Endgame, The Irishman, The Lion King, 1917, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

My choices: Coming soon!

This year’s locks: Tenet, The Midnight Sky

Possible: Mulan, Welcome to Chechnya, Mank, Birds of Prey, Soul

Unlikely: The One and Only Ivan, Love and Monsters, Bloodshot

The rundown: This category feels like it should be pretty set, but I’m sure that won’t be the case. Tenet and The Midnight Sky seem like the frontrunners, with only one likely Best Picture contender in the race, Mank. After interviewing the visual effects supervisor for Welcome to Chechnya, I’m pretty confident in that film’s chances, and I suspect that Mulan will round out the category. Soul would be a rare animated inclusion, and Birds of Prey would be a bit of a surprise because its predecessor, “Suicide Squad,” wasn’t nominated. I don’t see any of the other three, The One and Only Ivan, Love and Monsters, and Bloodshot, making the cut, but those happen to be the three I haven’t seen, so it’s possible they’ll manage to impress voters.

Forecasted winner: I see Tenet winning this.