Watch a Supercut of Every Best Visual Effects Oscar Winner
Hard to believe, but the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins were once considered cutting-edge special effects. In 1964, the Disney classic became the second-ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, most recently awarded to Interstellar. In our latest Oscars supercut, Yahoo Movies takes a look at all the past winners of the Best Visual Effects Award, including such landmarks as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, and Avatar. Watch the video above.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized the importance special effects since the very first year of the Academy Awards, when 1929’s Best Picture winner Wings picked up an additional award for “Best Engineering Effects.” Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, visual and sound effects were grouped together in a Special Effects category, with winners like Cecil B. DeMille ’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments. In 1963, the categories were split into Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing, both of which are still awarded to this day.
This year’s competition for the Best Visual Effects Oscar is particularly stiff, as the nominees include Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As seen in the video above, the Star Wars saga already has three wins under its belt, but the Academy also favors films set in space, films involving fantasy or dystopian future worlds, and films that feature realistic-looking animals — which means that all of this year’s Best Visual Effects nominees have a pretty good shot.
The 88th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, will air live Feb. 28 on ABC. Go here for Yahoo Movies’ complete coverage.
Watch a video of every Best Picture Oscar winner ever:
