For our eighth Rundown article, we look at took categories that can change the visual appearance of anyone or anything. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Visual Effects & Best Makeup & Hairstyling as well as general commentary about the race. Wednesday, we’ll cover two true life categories.

Best Visual Effects

Winner Predictions

• Gravity (WL O) (PP O) (TB O)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• The Lone Ranger
• Star Trek: Into Darkness

Runner-Up Predictions

• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (WL O) (TB R) [New]

(color and symbol key at bottom of page)

Wesley Lovell: This is the lockiest lock of any year since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Visual Effects a decade ago. Probably not, but it’s so certain that if you bet against it, you’d be losing money.
Peter J. Patrick: Gravity is such a foregone conclusion here that there is no runner-up. The other nominees can save their acceptance speeches for another year.
Tripp Burton: I almost didn’t choose a runner-up because Gravity is such a lock here. It has it all: Presumptive Best Picture frontrunner, innovative special effects that take over every shot in the film, loads of new technology created for the film and a box office smash.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Winner Predictions

• Dallas Buyers Club (WL O) (PP O) (TB O)
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
• The Lone Ranger

Runner-Up Predictions

• The Lone Ranger (WL O) (TB O)

(color and symbol key at bottom of page)

Wesley Lovell: I am not as certain as others that this is a slam dunk for Dallas Buyers Club. I still think it will win, but the other two nominees could be formidable opponents. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa created makeup effects that not only had to be believable onscreen, but had to stand up to scrutiny in public. Of course, anyone looking at someone from a distance has about the same chance to notice as they would watching it on the big screen, but that fact has been played up in the press to explain its nomination and some voters could buy that to give it the win. The Lone Ranger may get flack for the crappy make-up job on Tonto and perhaps that will seal the deal against it, but the rest of the film is filled with period finery (mustaches, especially) that make a compelling case for its win. Best Picture nominee Dallas Buyers Club is likely to triumph, but I wouldn’t be shocked (perhaps dismayed) if something else did.
Peter J. Patrick: There is no way the Academy is going to give an Oscar to a Jackass movie or reward Johnny Depp’s hideous Tonto makeup – Dallas Buyers Club has no real competition here.
Tripp Burton: This has traditionally been an award for Most Prosthetic Work, but none of this years nominees are gigantic prosthetic films (at least in the sense that they contain many characters with prosthetic work). In that sense, I could see any of these films walking up to the stage, and could also see any of the films running behind in a distant third. I think that in the end, the resistance of the Academy to award a Jackass film or one of the worst reviewed films of the year will lead Dallas Buyers Club to win here, if only because it is the only one the voters will bother watching.

KEY: