I've read several complaints about the quality of the visual effects in Black Panther, complaints with which I, admittedly a novice in this field, cannot entirely agree. Yet it seems that visual effects artists themselves agree. The Marvel blockbuster may have made the shortlist for Oscar nominations, but it and fellow Oscar shortlisted Mary Poppins Returns both failed to score any nominations for the Visual Effects Society's 2018 awards. This is particularly surprising given that the VES is the American effects industry's guild, and Black Panther is the type of widely-seen, widely-liked title that could normally be expected to do well with such groups. Fellow Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War picked up the most nominations of any movie, notching up six in total, followed by Ready Player One with five. This year's VES awards ceremony will take place on the 5th of February. Full nominations details below.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Matt Aitken, Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Daniel Sudick and Jen Underdahl (Avengers: Infinity War)
Kevin Baillie, Marc Chu, Seth Hill, James Paradis and Sandra Scott (Welcome to Marwen)
Rob Bredow, Erin D. O'Connor, Matt Shumway, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy (Solo: A Star Wars Story)
Matthew E. Butler, Neil Corbould, Roger Guyett, Jennifer Meislohn and David Shirk (Ready Player One) Chris Corbould, Mike Eames, Steve Gaub, Chris Lawrence and Glenn Melenhorst (Christopher Robin)
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Mark Bakowski, Sophie Dawes, Michael Meinardus, David Robinson and Marcus Taormina (Bird Box)
Dan Bethell, Alex Bicknell, Greg O'Connor and Stefano Pepin (Outlaw King)
Kevin Elam, Ian Hunter, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles and J. D. Schwalm (First Man)
Tim Field, May Leung, Paul Norris and Andrew Simmonds (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Michael Meinardus, Roger Nall and Robert Weaver (12 Strong)
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Ryan Beagan, Marc Chu, C. Kim Miles and Matthew A. Ward - 'Town of Marwen' (Welcome to Marwen)
Daniele Bigi, Edmund Kolloen, Jean-Baptiste Noyau and Mathieu Vig - 'New York race' (Ready Player One)
Marcus Dineen, Victor Perez, Tomas Tjernberg and Tomas Wall - 'Time displacement' (Echo)
Oscar Faura, Pawl Fulker, Matt Perrin and David Vickery - 'Gyrosphere escape' (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
Cedric Lo, Ryan McCoy, Claus Pedersen and Mohammad Rastkar - 'Third act battle' (Aquaman)
Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature
Maxime Besner, Doan Thai Son, Saul Galbiati and Lee Woei (Welcome to Marwen)
Francesco Dell'Anna, Joel Delle-Vergin, Farkas Peter and Miles Lauridsen (First Man)
Juan Antonio Espigares Enriquez, John J. Galloway, David J. Nolan and Enrik Pavdeja (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
Sabine Laimer, Massimo Pasquetti, Tim Walker and Tobias Wiesner - 'Titan' (Avengers: Infinity War)
Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Neil Blevins, Philip Metschan and Kevin Singleton - 'Underminer vehicle' (Incredibles 2)
James Clyne, David Meny, Narita Masa and Steve Walton - 'Millennium Falcon' (Solo: A Star Wars Story)
William Gallyot, Mauro Giacomazzo, Giuseppe Laterza and Kim Lindqvist - 'DeLorean DMC-12' (Ready Player One)
Nick Keller, James Ogle, Matthew Sandoval and Sam Tack - 'London' (Mortal Engines)
Pan Ming, Chad Roen, Ryan J. Rogers and Jeff Tetzlaff - 'Nidavellir Forge megastructure' (Avengers: Infinity War)
Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature
Pontus Albrecht, Christoph Ammann, Julian Foddy and Clement Gerard - 'Vandor Planet' (Solo: A Star Wars Story)
Aaron Barr, Jeffrey de Guzman, Quentin Marmier and Ziad Shureih - 'Atlantis' (Aquaman)
Daniel Stefan Gagiu, Joana Garrido, Stanley Wong and Mert Yamak - 'The Shining, Overlook Hotel' (Ready Player One)
Harsh Mistry, Serizawa Yuri, Florian Witzel and Can Yuksel - 'Journey to the Quantum Realm' (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature
Gerardo Aguilera, Ashraf Ghoniem, Vasilis Pazionis and Hartwell Simpson Durfor - 'Titan' (Avengers: Infinity War)
Aharon Bourland, Aleksandar Chalyovski, Federico Frassinelli and Jordan Walsh (Venom)
Christian Gaumond, Dominik Kirouac and Chloe Ostiguy (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald)
Adam Lee, Miguel Perez Senent, Francisco Rodriguez and Florian Witzel - 'Wakanda' (Avengers: Infinity War)
Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature
Brian Cantwell, Hong Jung Seung, Ooi Kim and David Shirk - 'Art3mis' (Ready Player One)
Jan Philip Cramer, Darren Hendler, Sidney Kombo and Paul Story - 'Thanos' (Avengers: Infinity War)
Arslan Elver, Kayn Garcia, Laurent Laban and Mariano Mendiburu - 'Tigger' (Christopher Robin)
Yannick Gillian, Ted Lister, Keith Ribbons and Jance Rubinchik - 'Indoraptor' (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
Joshua Beveridge, Danny Dimian, Christian Hejnal and Bret St. Clair (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Brad Bird, Rick Sayre, John Walker and Bill Watral (Incredibles 2)
Bruno Chauffard, Janet Healy, Pierre Leduc and Milo Riccarand (The Grinch)
Jeremy Dawson, Lev Kolobov, Tim Ledbury and Mark Waring (Isle of Dogs)
Scott Kersavage, Cory Loftis, Ernest Petti and Bradford Simonsen (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
Nicolas Brack, Henri Deruer, Ludovic Ramiere and Loic Rastout - 'Whoville' (The Grinch)
Christopher M. Burrows, Philip Metschan, Michael Rutter and Joshua West - 'Parr House' (Incredibles 2)
Jon Krummel, Matthias Lechner, Benjamin Min Huang and Gina Warr - 'Social Media District' (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
Kimberley Liptrap, David Morehead, Park Tae Hyun and Bret St. Clair (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
Nicolas Brice, Eric Carme and Milo Riccarand - 'Snow, clouds and smoke' (The Grinch)
Paul Carman, Henrik Falt, Christopher Hendryx and David Hutchins - 'Virus infection and deconstruction' (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
Brian Casper, Simon Corbaux, Ian Farnsworth and Pawel Grochola (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Tiffany Erickson Klohn, Paul Kanyuk, Matthew Kiyoshi Wong and Vincent Serritella (Incredibles 2)
Martin Furness, Henrik Karlsson, Dmitriy Kolesnik and Theo Vandernoot (Smallfoot)
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature
Chad Belteau, Julie Bernier Gosselin, Marcos Caleb Kang and Humberto Francisco Rosa - 'Miles Morales' (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Francois Boudaille, Yarrow Cheney, David Galante and Olivier Luffin - 'The Grinch' (The Grinch)
Byun Dong Joo, Dave K. Komorowski, Justin Sklar and Le Joyce Tong - 'Ralphzilla' (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
Michal Makarewicz, Ben Porter, Edgar Rodriguez and Kevin Singleton - 'Helen Parr' (Incredibles 2)
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Thomas Battistetti, Melanie Geley, Guillaume Hoarau and Mickael le Mezo (Terra Nova)
David Bellenbaum, Martin Boue, Jorg Schmidt and Aleksandra Todorovic (Chocolate Man)
Elias Kremer, Denis Krez, Lukas Loffler and Tina Vest (Proxima-B)
Lena-Carolin Lohfink, Meike Muller, Anno Schachner and Lisa Schachner (Ratatoskr)
Image Credit: MovieStillsDB