Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), directed by James Cameron. Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
A Wētā FX Academy Award nominee says he is hopeful the cutting-edge approach to the newest Avatar film will be recognised at today's awards ceremony.
The Oscars begin in Hollywood at 1pm, New Zealand time.
The New Zealand-made Avatar: The Way of the Way of Water is nominated for the Best Picture, Sound, Visual Effects, and Production Design categories.
There are two other films with Wētā teams also running up for the Visual Effects category - The Batman, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Four-time Academy Award winner Joe Letteri, who worked on the Avatar sequel, told Morning Report about 1600 people worked on the visual effects for the film over five years.
"Best Picture [award] would be fantastic, because it's a beautiful film and James Cameron and Jon Landau just did a fantastic job pushing it through, and also the sound team and the production design. We've got fingers crossed for all of them," Letteri said.
"Everyone's hopeful, everyone's in a good mood, and you get to talk about the work [at the Oscars event], which is something I love to do," he said.
"I think there is that draw, that it is a very popular film, that helps, but on the other hand as you say, the arthouse films have a particular draw with ... a lot of the voting segments of the Academy, so you never know how it's going to come out in the end."
"You need it to be as believable as possible for the film" - Joe Letteri
Winning an award for the film would bring recognition for the Wētā FX team's skillset, Letteri said.
"When we talk to clients, they understand we're able to bring them something new, we can add something to their film. We're not just plugging gaps that need to be plugged, we can work with them as creative partners," he said.
"Those are the kinds of [collaborations] that directors, especially up and coming directors, appreciate. So that's really the big win for us, is getting that known."
The team had worked hard on not only trying to relay the characters' emotions, but to evoke empathy from the audience through CGI, Letteri said.
"The reason Peter Jackson hired me was to come down from San Francisco to work on Gollum [for Lord of The Rings], that was a character I loved from the books, and we talked a lot about how you're going to make there character work and it was all about the empathy. You want to watch that character and feel something for him, you want to be on that character's side.
"So now you fast forward to a film like Avatar, we're working with a fantastic team of actors and you want to feel that empathy for all of them.
"Especially because you've got an ensemble cast, and sometimes they're right in the stories, sometimes they're wrong, but you want to be able to feel like you can understand them, and that's probably the part that we worked the hardest on."
A couple of researchers at Victoria University of Wellington had also helped the team understand more about coral reefs for the underwater scenes, he said.
"That's one of the best thing about this job, every day is a school day. You just get to crack into anything you have to do and learn it as best as you can because you need it to be as believable as possible for the film."