VFX Oscar shortlist features three Framestore titles

Framestore sees three films featuring its teams’ work in this year’s Oscar shortlist.

The films are:

Top Gun: Maverick

A critical and commercial smash, the biggest film of 2022 features supporting VFX so seamless it appears effortless (hint: it wasn’t).  From faultless comp work to intricately crafted digital models, the VFX team benefited from hours of edge-of-the-seat plate footage and incredible access to some of the world’s leading engineers, designers and pilots. The work was led by production VFX Supervisor Ryan Tudhope, and completed by the Montreal team under the Method Studios banner.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore

Production VFX Supervisor Christian Manz returned for this latest Wizarding World entry, which took in the talents of Framestore’s London and Montreal VFX teams, as well as its Pre-production Services division for postvis, virtual scouting and virtual camerawork. Alongside epic environments, faultless compositing and eyebrow-singeing FX work Framestore’s signature character animation was front-and-centre, taking in old favourites like Pickett the Bowtruckle and Teddy the Niffler alongside wholly new creations that included Qilins, Wyverns and Manticores.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

Led by VFX Supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot, Framestore’s contribution to this Sam Raimi blockbuster included the creation of a fire-spewing ribbon demon, the cloud-shrouded Vishanti Temple and a standout moment in which Doctor Strange and America Chavez hurtle through 20 distinct universes in a single 40-second shot. Drawing from the work of Dalí, Escher and Picasso, this Easter egg-strewn sequence was designed to give audiences a mind-expanding glimpse of the multiverse and was recently described by the LA Times as the “crème de la crème” of the film’s VFX work.

Fiona Walkinshaw, Framestore’s CEO, Film & Episodic, said: “These three films showcase the work of some phenomenally talented artists, producers and technologists. While they represent a fraction of the film and episodic projects we’ve worked on this year, they provide an effective snapshot of our creative breadth as a company. From hyper-realistic aerial battles to duelling wizards and flights of surrealistic fancy the quality of the work is second to none. It’s also rewarding to see two projects in contention that feature the artistry of our new colleagues in Montreal and Mumbai – it’s exceptional work, and having them part of Framestore’s global offer is helping us go from strength to strength as a company.”

The 10 shortlisted films will next enter the ‘bakeoff stage’ of the awards process. From there, five nominees will be chosen and announced on 24 January 2022.