Best Film Editing:

With four out of five Best Film Editing nominations being first time nominees, there’s a high likelihood that someone could be having a very good night on March 12th. But, they’ll have to get past Mikkel E. G. Nielsen and his work in the dreary The Banshees of Inisherin first, Nielsen winning Best Film Editing not too long ago for his work in Sound of Metal. Manipulating pace and tone is the job of the film editor and we see some spectacular examples of this in nominees such as Everything Everywhere All at Once and Tár.

The other two nominees, Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick, share a strong presence at this year’s Academy Awards. Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond’s high-energy editing in Elvis is fitting for the Luhrmann film while Eddie Hamilton’s work on Top Gun: Maverick help enable the film to be the exhilarating ride it is.

Prediction: Paul Rogers (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Best Visual Effects:

Avatar: The Way of Water might be the favorite for Best Visual Effects, but it won’t be a given. Despite the splash that the Avatar follow-up has made in this year’s nominations and a win for the first film of the series in 2009, there’s another film that has captivated audiences similarly: Top Gun: Maverick. Tom Cruise’s stardom is almost (just almost) eclipsed by the visual spectacle of dogfights and explosions in the return to Top Gun as well as the in-cockpit filming. The result is a spectacle that wowed audiences when the film finally premiered last May after numerous COVID-related delays. Also depicting combat is All Quiet on the Western Front. Featuring long tracking shots and an emphasis on naturalistic filmmaking, there’s more than meets the eye in terms of visual effects. CG blends seamlessly within the final product, and makes All Quiet on the Western Front a sleeper pick for this category.

In the realm of superheroes is The Batman. Depicting Gotham and Batman’s crime fighting always is spectacular and comes with opinionated fans, and it’s clear that this showing of the caped crusader is the most celebrated since The Dark Knight. Chase sequences, the rushing of water, and a fight scene occurring within a stadium demonstrate the strength of visual effects in this film. 

Underwater is a common motif to two of this year’s nominees, Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Both films enlisting the expertise of Wētā FX, Avatar: The Way of Water can be celebrated for its underwater motion capture technology and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for its immersive CG environments.

Predictions: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett (Avatar: The Way of Water)