Oscar Prep: Visual Effects

I'd like to say this is a tight race. It's not. Beyond The Lone Ranger's nomination, this is a set of movies I can agree with. I would've been nice for Pacific Rim to sneak in. That was always a longshot though.

 A couple notes first:
-Each category is arrange from Most to Least likely to win by my measure.
-An '*' before the title indicates a movie that I have seen.
-I'm trying to keep the shorthand to a minimum (get it). A couple that come up though are BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), SAG (Screen Actors Guild), PGA (Producers Guild of America, WGA (Writers Guild of America), DGA (Directors Guild of America).

Other Picks

Best Visual Effects
Front Runner: *Gravity
Winner: BAFTA - Best Special Visual Effects, Visual Effects Society - Every Award Possible. I'm not kidding, look at that ceremony.
Gravity is going to clean up in the Technical Categories and of all the sure things, this is the surest. The Visual Effects society will probably name this award after Gravity within the decade. And it will be a deserved win.

Dark Horse: *The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Nominee: BAFTA - Best Special Visual Effects, Visual Effects Society - Outstanding Visual Effects
Smaug looked pretty great. It's hard to the Academy getting a renewed interested in Middle Earth though. Especially with such a cemented front runner.

Other Nominees:
*The Lone Ranger
Winner: Visual Effects Society - Outstanding Visual Effects
It has something the other nominees don't: a win. That's it.
*Star Trek Into Darkness
Nominee: BAFTA - Best Special Visual Effects, Visual Effects Society - Outstanding Visual Effects
It's a coin toss between the bottom two. When in doubt, pick the one without exploding Iron Man suits.
*Iron Man 3
Nominee: BAFTA - Best Special Visual Effects, Visual Effects Society - Outstanding Visual Effects
Even the least likely winner has two different nominations to its name. That goes to show that this year's field of nominees is incredibly consistent.