The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced which 15 films will be considered for nomination for the VFX Oscar next month. Of the titles named, the most non-traditional VFX film on the list is probably The Tree of Life, on which VFX supervisor Dan Glass collaborated with both Terrence Malick and Douglas Trumbull to help create a family drama that stretches, in a few bold VFX sequences, across an incomprehensible vastness of time.
The nominations process is a little more brief. The next step will be a narrowing of the list early next month to just 10 films by the executive committee of the Academy’s VFX branch. Next, all members of the VFX branch will be invited to what’s best known as the VFX Bake-Off, where clips from the 10 films will be shown. The final five, selected by the VFX branch membership, will be announced with the rest of the Oscar nominees on January 24. The Oscars will be presented February 26.

Here’s the complete list of shortlisted films:

Captain America: The First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sucker Punch
Super 8
Thor
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Tree of Life
X-Men: First Class

For more information: www.oscars.org.