A long line of visual effects aficionados wound around the block outside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills on the night of Jan. 21. The annual visual effects branch’s Bake-Off that determines the three Oscar nominees never fails to attract attention, and by the time branch chairman Richard Edlund took the stage the theater was packed.

Edlund began by referencing the huge box office returns achieved by visual effects films in 2003, and observed that “often the effects are the most exciting parts of movies.” He announced that the running order of the seven films under consideration, determined by lot, would be: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Buena Vista), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Twentieth Century Fox), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line), Peter Pan (Universal and Columbia Pictures), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Warner Bros.), X2: X-Men United (Twentieth Century Fox) and Hulk (Universal Pictures).

A digital debate raged in the battle between these two beasts. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King © New Line Prods. Inc. Hulk © 2003 Universal Studios. All rights reserved. Credit: ILM.

In explaining the process by which the executive committee of the visual effects branch chose the seven films in competition, Edlund noted that 40 members of the branch cast secret ballots. While he remarked that the committee had culled these from 254 eligible films released last year, Edlund further explained to VFXWorld that the total list of eligible films was reduced quite rapidly. “We understand that there are a few matte shots in lots of movies. But on the committee’s first pass, we put in movies that we thought had respectable visual effects in them. A movie needed to be nominated by someone and seconded by someone else. We followed Robert’s Rules of Order.

“Once we got down to about 40 films, we went through the nominating and seconding process again to arrive at a short list of 19. We dissected those films and then everybody chose up to 10 titles in the order they thought were most deserving. It’s a secret ballot watched over by Price Waterhouse.” Edlund added that the 40-person committee is about 10 people larger than most of the Academy’s executive committees, due to the complexity of the subject and the variety of disciplines involved. He asserted that there’s a notable lack of partisanship on the committee, which includes people from various effects houses and different aspects of the craft. “These people are the crème de la crème. Everyone hangs their swords outside the door.”

Of course, partisanship was very much alive at the Bake-Off, as various individuals applauded their favorite films. To the voting members in the audience, Edlund explained that three choices should be listed on the ballots in order of preference, and he cautioned that listing the same film three times would not enhance its chances of becoming a nominee.

Unlike previous Bake-Offs that have frequently run late because Q&A sessions were often open-ended, this year presenters were only allowed three minutes after their reels to make further comments or take questions from the audience. A red light bulb next to the podium would glow to indicate when time had expired. In a deadpan reference to a past event in which Jim Cameron had unscrewed the light, Edlund promised, “THIS bulb is epoxy-ed in.”