This year’s Best Visual Effects category is sure to be stacked. We’ve already seen great stuff in “Iron Man 3,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Oz the Great and Powerful” and “Man of Steel.” The work in “Pacific Rim” is, as you might expect, jaw-dropping. We still have “Elysium,” “Gravity” and a new “Hobbit” installment to come, and who knows how films like “Rush” and “All is Lost” might figure into the otherwise blockbuster-heavy (as usual) line-up?

All of that is to say that Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” is going to have a difficult time insinuating itself into the conversation. I know this film didn’t land very well with a great many but I’ll still stick up for it, and even though the effects go perhaps a bit too far for my taste here and there, for the most part, they are the extension of a discernible vision. That’s more than you can say of a great many contenders that find themselves duking it out in this race year after year.

One way to turn heads is putting together an elegant reel showcasing the work that went into bringing the film to life through CGI, and that includes the not-so-noticeable stuff as much as the eye-catching stuff that couldn’t possibly go unnoticed. That’s just what visual effects supervisor Chris Godfrey has done with vendor Animal Logic. And frankly, looking at the video below, I feel like the film might have a better shot at a nomination than I’ve been thinking as of late. We’ll find out at the end of the year.

Here is what Godfrey had to say about the reel:

“Baz has graciously agreed to let us release this ‘before and afters’ reel to show our peer group the VFX work completed on his film ‘The Great Gatsby.’ While this specific reel was the work of Animal Logic (as my primary vendor), in total I worked with 7 vendors including Animal Logic, Rising Sun and Iloura in Australia, ILM in San Francisco and also Prime Focus and Method Vancouver. We also ran an amazing internal SWAT team that completed over 400 shots. Congratulations to all who did such fabulous work on almost 1500 shots.”

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEeQmFK2o2U&w=640&h=360]