War for the Planet of the Apes - 1 nomination

Visual Effects, Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joel Whist

This is the third in the reimagined Planet of the Apes in which talking ape, Caesar leads the village of apes, all of whom can speak or sign to communicate.  This community has been at war with the humans for what we gather is some time, and scouts have discovered a desert to which all of the apes could escape, thereby ending the war with the humans.  One night, a soldier comes and murders some of the community, including Caesar's own wife and child.  Caesar is blinding by rage and vows to avenge his family, while he sends the apes to escape.  Unfortunately, he discovers that all of the apes have been captured by the soldiers and are put to work in a forced labor camp.  Meanwhile, we discover that the rest of the army is not necessarily aligned with this band of soldiers and their plans, so there are multiple wars happening concurrently.  That's more than enough of a plot summary, so let me tell you some additional things about the film.

First, Andy Sirkus (who plays Caesar) is at some point just going to be owed an Oscar.  He is the king of motion capture having played "my precious" Gollum and so many others.  I don't know how to describe the humanity that Sirkus gave Caesar in this film.  The effects obviously contribute significantly to making this world seem real.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes also was nominated in this category, and I think it boils down to how real the apes seem, even though there are lots of explosions and other effects that contribute to the story.

I was surprised to have liked this film as much as I did.  Thanks to Oscars nominations, I've actually seen the entire trilogy, and this movie brought a very satisfying conclusion to the story.