Over 400 visual effects artists were protested before this year’s Oscars ceremony, keen to shine light on the miserable conditions and lack of funds that plague many visual effects artists. During the ceremony itself, Best Visual Effects winner Bill Westenhofer who worked on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi attempted to address the visual effects issue but was unceremoniously cut off by the Jaws theme.
Indeed, Life of Pi now finds itself in the midst of the visual effects scandal as Rhythm & Hues (the team who created the effects for the film) may be Oscar winners, but they’re also bankrupt. They are the second visual effects company that has filed for bankruptcy in the last year, following Digital Domain, a company that creates a huge amount of visual effects for Hollywood films.