Best Visual Effects

Gender

Only 6 women have been nominated in the category of Best Visual Effects, including one in 2026.* This is less than 1% of the 878 nominees in this category and a ratio of 145 men to every one woman nominee. Four of the women nominated were white women: Suzanne M. Benson (1987), Pamela Easley (1994), Sara Bennett (2016), and Genevieve Camilleri (2021). There were two women of color nominated in this category. The first, Kiyoko Shibuya, was nominated in 2024, and then most recently Charmaine Chan was nominated in 2026. Three women have won, the first in 1987 (Suzanne M. Benson), the second in 2016 (Sara Bennett), and the third in 2024 (Kiyoko Shibuya). No women were nominated more than once; 39% of men were nominated 2 or more times.

6

OF 878 NOMINEES WERE WOMEN

Two nominees in this category were women of color.

Race & Ethnicity

There were 878 nominees for Best Visual Effects, and 4% were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group.* Of the 35 underrepresented nominees in this category, the first was nominated in 1978 (Gregory Jein). There have been 8 underrepresented winners of the Best Visual Effects Award. Four of the winners got their win in 2024 for Godzilla Minus One. Fourteen of the nominees were Asian, 10 were Hispanic/Latino, 5 were Black/African American, 2 were Middle Eastern/North African, and 4 were multiracial/multiethnic.

The percentage of one-time nominees was higher for underrepresented (72%) than white  (61%) nominees. The most nominated underrepresented individuals were (Pablo Helman) had four total nominations followed by R. Christopher White with three. In contrast, the white individuals with the most nominations had 13 nods (Daniel Sudick, Dennis Muren).

4%

OF 878 NOMINEES WERE UNDERREPRESENTED

Eight people of color have won the OSCAR for Best Visual Effects.