Ratatouille has another potential Oscar nomination to its name, this time for Best Visual Effects.
The Disney/Pixar film, which is a solid favourite in the Best Animated Feature Film category, also got on the list for the Best Visual Effects shoot-out at this year's Oscar ceremony. This category usually honours big, special effects-driven, summer blockbuster flicks that otherwise don't get much Oscar love (films like Star Wars, The Matrix, etc.). Both Ratatouille and fellow Animated Film short-lister Beowulf got the nod from AMPAS over other special-effects extravaganzas like Enchanted and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Here Are the Fifteen Short-listed Films for Best Visual Effects
- Beowulf (Paramount)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal)
- Evan Almighty (Universal)
- The Golden Compass (New line Cinema)
- Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Warner Bros.)
- I Am Legend (Warner Bros.)
- Live Free Or Die Hard (Twentieth Century Fox)
- National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (Disney)
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (Disney)
- Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar)
- Spider-Man 3 (Sony)
- Sunshine (Fox Searchlight)
- 300 (Warner Bros.)
- Transformers (DreamWorks/Paramount)
- The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Columbia Pictures)
What Happens Next?
The 15-film shortlist was announced so that Academy special effects voters would get a chance to check out the flicks, and narrow the field down to another list of seven films. From those penultimate seven, the category gets slimmed down even more, to the three films that get the nominations on Oscar night (that would be February 24th, in case you hadn't heard).
And, of course, the special effects mavens from only one of those films will walk away with the Oscar.
Do Ratatouille Or Beowulf Have a Chance?
This means that the Brad Bird flick, since it already is a solid choice to get the Best Animated Film award, will likely get shoved out of the category by monster blockbusters like Transformers, 300 and Spider-Man 3. Of those three, only Spider-Man 3 and Transformers made more coin than Ratatouille's $608 million worldwide gross, but 300's lower budget actually made it more profitable than that Disney/Pixar film.
Getting a nomination in this category could be a way for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to salve Robert Zemeckis and Paramount's egos should Beowulf get nudged out of the Best Animated Feature Film category. However, Beowulf hasn't made nearly the box office splash that Transformers, 300 and Spider-Man 3 did, so its chances of making it to the Final Three on Oscar night are slim to none.
On the plus side for Beowulf, it's likely that scriptwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary will get a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Oscar night. It's entirely possible that Gaiman could end up competing against himself, should his Stardust also get tapped for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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