Don't expect Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer to win a Best Visual Effects Oscar as the shortlist was unveiled.

Missing the shortlist

Oppenheimer on an IMAX screen.

On December 7, the shortlist for the Best Visual Effects category was revealed by Variety. 20 potential nominees were named, but noticeably, Oppenheimer was not on it.

All three of the MCU films released this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels, made the list. Two films that haven't come out for general audiences, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Wonka, also made the cut.

This throws a winkle into next year's Oscars. Christopher Nolan's latest film seemed like a shoo-in for a VFX nomination. Given its visual ambition, it's truly surprising that it didn't receive a nod in this shortlist.

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Oppenheimer is based on the 2005 biography, American Prometheus. The film chronicles the titular physicist's part in the Manhattan Project and the aftermath of the development of the first nuclear weapons. Cillian Murphy plays the titular role, and the rest of the main cast includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr.

The 20 finalists for Best Visual Effects: 

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
  • Barbie
  • The Boys and the Boat
  • The Creator
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
  • Godzilla: Minus One
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  • Killers of the Flower Moon
  • The Marvels
  • Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One
  • Napoleon
  • Nyad
  • Society of the Snow
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
  • Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
  • Wonka