Though it was technically first given out in 1928 to the first Best Picture-winning film, Wings, the Oscar for Best Visual Effects was a special award from 1938 to 1963 when the category award began in earnest. In that first decade, the Oscar went to such classics as Cleopatra, Mary Poppins, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. And since then it has gone to little-known movies like the original Star Wars films, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and basically anything James Cameron has touched.
Ahead of the 89th Academy Awards, Burger Fiction has created a compilation of every visual effects winner. Sure, some of them look dorky as hell by today's standards, but others still really do hold up well. Consider Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, which is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking feats of computer-generated imagery. That scene of the T-Rex chasing the park car in the rear view mirror, which is included in this compilation's opening shot, still looks pretty damn good even 24 years later. The same could be said for 2001: A Space Odyssey, all of Cameron's films all the way up through Avatar.
And of course, there's last year, in which Ex Machina, the low key robot thriller, beat out both Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This year is another tight race, with Deepwater Horizon, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Rogue One all nominated.
