OVP: Best Visual Effects (2000)
The Nominees Were...
John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, & Rob Harvey, Gladiator
Scott E. Anderson, Craig Hayes, Scott Stokdyk, & Stan Parks, Hollow Man
Stefen Fangmeier, Habib Zargarpour, John Frazier, & Walt Conti, The Perfect Storm
My Thoughts: With us moving away from the era of the film franchise into films that were more stand-alone, we are also moving away from the era of the giant CGI manifestation, where you're seeing superheroes and major franchises like Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean dominate these nominations. Though that'll change soon, as of right now, none of these films have had sequels (or are sequels), which with the unusual exception of the 2020 Covid-impacted nominees, has never happened before in this category in our write-ups.
Of course, one of these films will get a sequel in the next year (Paul Mescal in a thigh-high battle skirt, yes please), so we'll start with Gladiator. This is one of the prime reasons that I rewatched this movie recently, because I had not had a great memory of the film itself having a lot of impressive special effects. Rewatching, that's because it's largely complimentary effects, but it's not a lack of quality. The battle with the tiger notwithstanding (which is very impressive), what works really well in Gladiator is the way that they expand this world through CGI, battle scenes between a couple of people becoming larger crowd sequences that feel genuine to this world is impressive. It's not a film where visual effects take centerstage so it's harder to judge, but what's there works very well.
The Perfect Storm, on the other hand, is very much an "effects as centerpiece" film. This movie's work with water is fantastic, both in terms of CGI and practical effects onboard the ship. The movie is terrifying, frequently giving us a sense through the effects not just of the damage the water can cause (and the way it is a constant threat), but it also gives us a sense of scale of the actual travails encountered by commercial fishermen. The movie's own quality, admittedly, is a bit dubious-but this isn't Best Picture, it's Best Visual Effects, and I left agog at how stately and realistic this water work could get.
Our final nomination is Hollow Man, continuing the unusually long history of invisibility being a draw for nominations at the Oscars in this category. This is one of those movies that the CGI doesn't stand up to today (it simply doesn't-it'd be more realistic and impressive in 2023 than it was in 2000), but for the time, it's quite staggering how well it works. This is particularly true about the invisibility transformation scenes, not just Kevin Bacon's, but the monkey's as well, as we see sinew & muscle start to be ripped from the viewer's eyes. It's really graphic, and works in showing us the character's stripped humanity. Again, not a good movie...but impressive special effects.
Other Precursor Contenders: As I mentioned in our 2001 article, we don't have a Visual Effects Society Awards before 2002, so we don't have that as a precursor, just BAFTA. BAFTA had five nominations in 2000, with The Perfect Storm winning against Chicken Run, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Gladiator, and Vertical Limit. Oscar was doing shortlists in 2000, so we have Cast Away, Dinosaur, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and X-Men as our four finalists, and I'm guessing...The Grinch? Right? None of these standout (and Dinosaur in particular is weird given how rare it is to have animated films for VFX, even in the also-rans), but Grinch got in in a lot of other Oscar categories and seems a safe bet.
Films I Would Have Nominated: What's weird (and telling for a movie like Oppenheimer later this year) is that one of the major Best Picture contenders, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, couldn't get into the nominations in 2000, or even the shortlist. While less showy and more focused on stunt effects, the work in this movie is so light & inspired, and it also is more iconic than anything that actually got on the Oscar shortlist.
Oscar’s Choice: Generally, if a Best Picture nominee gets into this category, it wins, and that was the case with Gladiator.
My Choice: I'm going with The Perfect Storm, which I think does the best job of combining practical & CGI effects, and also terrified me as a child. Behind it, we'll go Hollow Man and then Gladiator.
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you want to ride the waves with me or would you rather get in the ring with Oscar? Is the Invisible Man the VFX branch's favorite of the Universal monsters? And do we all agree the Grinch is in fourth place, or do you want to make a case for one of the other films? Share below!
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