Kong: Skull Island - 1 nomination

Visual Effects, Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus

I sat down to write this blog post and I thought, "I'm writing an Oscars blog post.  For Academy Award nominee, King Kong.  Am I drunk right now?"  Well guess what? King Kong in 1977 was not only NOMINATED for three Academy Awards, it actually WON one, for none other than Visual Effects.  So take that Ms. Judgy McJudgerson!

This film is your basic Kong experience, a giant monkey inhabits an uncharted island.  A team of scientists come to explore said island accompanied by the military and photojournalist,and they quickly discover that Kong is not the bad guy, but the protector of the island from underground giant lizards called "Skullcrawlers."  Lots of people die and lots of crazy monsters die and at the end of the film, we get an obligatory post credits hint that there will be more of these films hunting down other fantastical and dangerous creatures like Godzilla.

It's not a terribly serious film, but it's fun, has great one liners,  and was surprisingly entertaining.  There will always be an audience for these films so they'll just keep making them. And while I'm taking stock, the visual effects (and the setting of the film) are gorgeous and so cool.  So, ok Skull Island, I'm giving you an Oscars pass!