Visual Effects frontrunner “The Jungle Book,” which advances the technology introduced in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” will vie for the Oscar with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which has some major VFX breakthroughs of its own, recreating characters played by Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher, respectively.
Other strong contenders include Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” and a rare (“The Nightmare Before Christmas” snagged a nomination in 1994) stop-motion animated film, “Kubo and the Two Strings” (Laika).
READ MORE: 2017 Oscar Predictions
Contenders (in order of likelihood to win):
1. Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Dan Lemmon (“The Jungle Book”)
2. John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, and Neil Corbould (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”)
3. Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli, and Paul Corbould (“Doctor Strange”)
4. Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean, and Brad Schiff (“Kubo and the Two Strings” )
5. Craig Hammeck, Jason Snell, Jason Billington, and Burt Dalton (“Deepwater Horizon”)
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