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The 2020 VFX Oscar nominations, explained by a VFX artist

A VFX artist reacts to 5 Oscar-nominated movies.

1917, Avengers: Endgame, The Irishman, The Lion King, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are five very different movies nominated for the same award: the 2020 Oscar for Visual Effects.

Each movie is a masterpiece of computer-generated art, from the Avengers’ super suits to Star Wars’ chase scenes to the incredible de-aging effects in The Irishman.

It’s easy to be awed by these effects — or to not even notice them. So we brought in Niko Pueringer, a visual effects artist and founder of the production studio Corridor Digital, to help us break down the visual magic behind each film.

Check out Niko and Corridor’s YouTube channel for more visual effects breakdowns, like this one, where they remade visual effects in The Mummy Returns.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. And if you’re interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.

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