For our fifteenth Rundown article, we look at the only category that visually overlays something onto nothing. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Visual Effects as well as general commentary about the race. Thursday, we’ll cover the category that was once a special achievement award while its aural counterpart was a full-fledged category.

Best Visual Effects

Winner Predictions

• Blade Runner 2049 (WL O) (PP O) (PP R) [New] (TL O)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Kong: Skull Island
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• War for the Planet of the Apes

Runner-Up Predictions

• Star Wars: The Last Jedi (PP R) [New]
• War for the Planet of the Apes (WL O) (WL R) [New] (TL O)

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Wesley Lovell: With the Visual Effects Society going for War for the Planet of the Apes and BAFTA going for Blade Runner 2049, the competition seems to have boiled down to those two films. The key to interpreting this race may be discovered in the Planet of the Apes/VES relationship. Both prior films in the series won the VES award, but both went on to lose the Oscars. That could happen again here, though there are no Best Picture nominees in the race to throw a wrench into it. If Blade Runner 2049, a much more slickly visual film can win BAFTA, then it should win the Oscar.
Peter J. Patrick: The dazzling effects in Blade Runner 2049 should take this one easily, with Star Wars: The Last Jedi probably its closest competition.
Tripp Burton: This is down to the question of whether the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy can finally win an award here (it has lost this award both other times)? I’ve been bitten by that prediction twice before, and I can’t imagine voters finally choosing it now over the visual splendor that is Blade Runner 2049.
Thomas La Tourrette: This category has been exceptionally difficult to predict this year. It is definitely a two movie race, Blade Runner 2049 and War for the Planet of the Apes. And I am really not certain which one will win. I do not believe that the other three nominees will be a factor in this race. The original Blade Runner lost the award to E.T. This is the third nomination for the Planet of the Apes team and the effects have improved with each picture, but they did not win on either of their earlier nominations. Apes did win the four awards at the VES including the coveted Outstanding Visual Effects in an Effects Driven Feature Film category. However, the previous two Apes films also won that award and did not go on to win the Oscar. Blade Runner only won two awards and both of them seem minor in comparison, but I am not certain that it can be discounted. War for the Planet of the Apes might win for the franchise, but, since it has not won yet, I am not certain that there is that much love for the series. Right now I view it as a tossup between the two and either will be a well deserved winner. I will give it to Blade Runner as it may be viewed as something newer than War for the Planet of the Apes.

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