Oscar Countdown: Visual Effects & Make-Up

In advance of the Academy Award ceremony on Feb. 26, Screen Grab will predict the winners in all categories.

Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Did you know that Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the highest-grossing film of 2011, earning $381 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide? And that the eight films in the Harry Potter franchise have a global total of $7.7 billion? The Academy’s last chance to recognize Harry Potter — and the cracking good film Deathly Hallows 2 — is in the technical categories (including Art Direction, which will cover tomorrow), but it’ll probably be eclipsed by its rivals. The last hour of Transformers: Dark of the Moon presents some of the biggest and most elaborate special effects set pieces in film history.
Prediction: Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its intelligent, motion-capture primates have a stronger emotional component to their effects than any of the contenders, as well as more buzz, thanks to the unsuccessful push to recognize Andy Serkis as Best Supporting Actor as Caesar.