Visual Effects Artists Behind The Hobbit Are Picketing The Oscars

Visual Effects Artists Behind The Hobbit Are Picketing The Oscars

Ironically enough, in 2013 the studio responsible for the crazy CGI tiger in Life of Pi won the Oscar for best visual effects just 11 days after declaring bankruptcy. Its story — seen in the short doc above — is indicative of a larger problem in the suffering VFX industry. Adding to that, the artists and animators behind The Desolation of Smaug are picketing the Academy Awards tonight.

These are the artists that make these big budget films what they are. However, studios are increasingly outsourcing to other countries thanks to tax subsidies. The Smaug folks, for example, don’t want to move their operation to British Columbia.