Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith was the first film shown at the Bakeoff and it came in with all guns blasting. Audiences are spoiled by ILM’s exemplary work. © & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. Digital wo

The Visual Effects Bakeoff exploded onto the screen Wednesday night with incendiary space battles, skeletal nemeses, attacking squirrels, bats — lots of bats — New York as it hasn’t existed for 70 years, a giant gorilla, miniature dragons, flying horses, a monumental bridge explosion, attacking tripods, a menagerie of talking animals, including centaurs, beavers, unicorns and, of course, a majestic lion.

Richard Edlund (left) of the Academy called the Bakeoff finalists “shining movies,” while vfx supervisor Jeff Okun announced that each film is incredible in its own right. Courtesy of AMPAS (left).

Just another ordinary night in the fabulous world of vfx.

This annual event at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was, as usual, filled to the rafters with visual effects professionals, enthusiastic students, potential nominees and members of the visual effects branch of the academy. But, unlike the rest of us, they were actually there to narrow this field from seven films to three, which would then be put to the entire academy to determine the team that will receive the coveted Oscar on March 5.

OK, back to the Bakeoff. As he has for the last decade or so, Richard Edlund, the outgoing chair of the executive committee of the vfx branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, introduced the evening, noting that by secret ballot the steering committee chose seven films from 311 eligible movies. He noted that “it’s helpful to see these films at the Bakeoff; they were chosen by the nomination committee. They’re the shining movies.” Visual effects supervisor Jeff Okun (last year’s Elizabethtown) concurs, “Each of the nominated films would win the award hands down if they were in separate years! That is what is so amazing about this batch of films. Each is incredible in its own right.” It’s comments like those that make me happy I don’t have to do the choosing!

The alternate universe of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory offered singing and dancing 2'4" Oompa-Lompas, the result of some great motion capture, match moving, roto and animation. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

This usually festive night buzzed with an enthusiasm I love about this industry. It’s an enthusiasm that seems almost contradictory to the relative solitude necessary to create all those creatures, cars, battles and the thousands upon thousands of skies, textures, paintings and composites that slip by unnoticed as we do what the director intended: sit in a darkened theater, ignore our popcorn and red vines, and get completely absorbed in the story. And that’s the big carrot we as an industry seem to be munching on right now: This industry has succeeded in creating the tools, and the artists who master them, that allow directors to tell extraordinary stories. As Edlund so eloquently observed: “Whether it’s an actor, or a lion or an ape; whether it’s 50 guys rowing a boat or a caped crusader saving a town, without the visual effects, the movie would be naked, so to speak. Visual effects clothe the movies and are key to the movies’ success.” The evening would prove this point without a shadow of a doubt.

The films were presented in an order determined by lot, as Edlund says. They were pulled out of a hat (I’ve always wanted to see that hat — is it like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter?), so our evening started with Star Wars: Episode III— Revenge of the Sith (John Knoll, Roger Guyett, Rob Coleman and Brian Gernand). Blasting onto the screen was the space battle of the century — this and any other. The work is exemplary — as audience members, we’re so spoiled by ILM’s work — and I was only sorry we didn’t get to see more of the 2,400 shots: but what are you going to do when your effects reel is 90 minutes long?

You know it’s going to be a good Bakeoff when the first question is thrown out by the always-eloquent Bill Taylor, who asked about models and miniatures. Of which there were, according to vfx supervisor Knoll, about 80,000 hours worth. In case there was any thought that our industry was done with practical effects, the evening would reveal many more films that made extensive use of them.