F0r almost as long as there have been movies in theaters, there’s been a need for special visual effects to bring them to life. However, it wasn’t until 1938 that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created an Oscar to recognize the people who create these visual delights. The Academy hasn’t always given an award every year, but the Oscar for Best Visual Effects has been pretty consistently present since it was rebranded in 1977.
At tonight’s 97th annual Oscars, there will be a new winner in the Visual Effects category. To mark the occasion, we’re sharing our picks for the 7 Best Visual Effects Oscar winners of all time. These are the game-changing films that redefined what can be accomplished on-screen.
7. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
In 1991, it was morphin’ time in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. For the sequel to The Terminator, James Cameron needed a more intimidating model to go up against Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800. That’s where the team of Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren Jr., and Robert Skotak came in to create the groundbreaking morphing effects of the T-1000 (Robert Patrick).
The idea of sentient liquid metal is ridiculous, but this team convincingly created the illusion of one of the scariest on-screen villains of all time. The T-1000 could change shape, disguise itself as anyone, and any of its limbs could become weapons at a moment’s notice. These effects still look great over three decades later.
6. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘s story and its first-ever crossover between Disney and Warner Brothers’ cartoon icons would have made it an ic0nic film on its own. The reason why Ken Ralston, Richard Williams, Edward Jones, and George Gibbs took home the Oscar for this 1988 movie was for the way it skillfully blended live-action and animation in such convincing ways. The Toons cast shadows and seem to have weight and depth in our 3D world. It’s also very funny and even occasionally poignant.
5. Jurassic Park
Not all of the dinosaurs in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park were CGI creations. Spielberg’s special effects team — including Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, and Michael Lantieri — were limited by the technology available in 1994. So some of the dinosaurs are puppets or animatronic. But when the CGI T-rex begins chasing the heroes, it really felt like dinosaurs could walk the Earth again.
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring wasn’t just the best fantasy movie that anyone saw in 2001. It was also the coming out party for Weta Digital as one of the best special effects companies in the world. Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, Richard Taylor, and Mark Stetson — and the rest of the team at Weta — convincingly brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of elves, dwarves, orcs, men, and Hobbits to life in vivid detail. And who could ever forget the brief clash with the demonic balrog?
Weta also won the next two Oscars for Achievement in Visual Effects for The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Over two decades later, not even director Peter Jackson has surpassed his earlier fantasy films.
3. Avatar
Weta Digital was also behind most of the special effects of James Cameron’s Avatar. But in 2009, there was so much work to be done on this film that even ILM had to step in and lend a hand. Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones won the Oscar not only because of the lush visuals of Pandora or the 3D effects that truly felt three dimensional. The reason this film was a game-changer is that it relied on virtual performances from almost the entire cast of Na’vi characters, and it made them seem like real characters instead of obviously fake creations.
2. The Matrix
1999 was supposed to be defined by the first film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Then The Matrix showed up to eat ILM’s lunch with the work of Manex Visual Effects and Animal Logic that created a world very much like our own… except heightened with advanced morphing capabilities for the villainous agents and the now-famous bullet time effects. John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, and Jon Thum were deservedly awarded the Oscar for their efforts. Some of the most impressive effects came inside of the Matrix itself. But just in case you’ve never seen the movie, we’re not going to tell you what the Matrix is. It’s better to find out yourself.
1. Star Wars
Forty eight years may be a little young to be a grandfather, but the original Star Wars is the granddaddy of every special effects blockbuster that came after it. In 1977, no one had seen a sci-fi movie with effects like these, and movie lovers couldn’t get enough of the space opera that unfolded before them. John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, and Robert Blalack were recognized by the Oscars, and the special effects team of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were also winners in the visual effects category.
Although director George Lucas decided to replace some of the original effects in his Special Editions of the first Star Wars trilogy, his first versions of these films are truly pieces of art. They transformed movies into what they are today, for better or worse. We like to think it was for the better.
