Superheroes will square off against wizards and apes will do battle with pirates in the next round of the Academy Awards' Visual Effects race.
The Academy announced on Wednesday that the field has been narrowed from 15 films to 10 by the Visual Effects Branch's Executive Committee. The remaining films include all of the presumed favorites, including "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (below), "Hugo," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."
Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," which has a 20-minute effects sequence early in the film, also moved on to the next round, a "bakeoff" in which clips from the 10 semi-finalists will be shown to voters at the Academy on January 19.
After that presentation, branch members will vote and the field of 10 will be cut in half to produce the final five nominees.
The most surprising cut from the list of 15 is probably "Super 8," with its spectacular train-crash sequence. Other films that were eliminated are "Cowboys & Aliens," "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," "Sucker Punch" and "Thor."
The shortlist:
"Captain America: The First Avenger"
"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"
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
"The Tree of Life"
"X-Men: First Class"
