It’s Thursday and I’m back with a new Thursday Movie Picks feature post. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.
This week is once again part of the Oscar Winner Edition, which will continue to be a reoccurring theme during each month. Today we are tackling the categories Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. We’ve had two categories in one before and I think it worked alright, so I hope I can make this one work as well. I don’t think I pay as much attention to visual effects on an active level as I do with cinematography, but those are both such important elements of the industry. I found a lot of movies that were nominated and/or won in both categories, but I tried not to use the same movies in both for my list. Let’s dive in!
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Navarro)
I love this movie, even though it breaks my heart every single time. It just has such an interesting atmosphere and the look definitely speaks for itself. I even read the book (you can find my review here) and felt like it just added to the magic.
Hugo (Robert Richardson)
It wasn’t my favorite movie, but I was utterly enchanted by the look of it. Just from the trailer alone, I thought “yes, I want to see what this is” and it looked so beautiful.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Ex Machina (Mark Williams Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris and Andrew Whitehurst)
You’ve heard me gush about Ex Machina before, because I love the cast and story. Alicia Vikander as a robot was so well done! I think that definitely earned them the Oscar.
Babe (Scott E. Anderson, Charles Gibson, Neal Scanlan and John Cox)
I just couldn’t resist featuring this movie, because I loved it as a kid. Talking farm animals were just the best. Need I say more? I probably should, but I don’t know what … just that I’ve never seen it in English and feel odd not hearing it in the German dubbed version.
Life and Other Disasters 