Amaze amaze
I loved what they did with the character, but I feel like this is getting into muddy waters. Can they recognize a single performer when Rocky had a team of puppetteers working together?
They do this stuff. Awarding best SFX to the FX shop lead manager who probably did none of the actual work and only did managerial tasks gets handed the award while the individuals get nothing. Ortiz, as far as I can tell, is the lead puppeteer, so that would track. Except in this case he was doing actual on-screen work.
I think he should absolutely be eligible for an SFX award or special award. The subtitle says he’s eligible for a supporting actor award. That’s the one I think might be questionable given Rocky’s movement was a team effort
Many awards considered Andy Serkis eligible for supporting actor for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Translating his performance to the screen required a lot of work done by others, but in the end he did contribute the parts that we consider to be acting: saying lines, expressing facial expressions, using body language to actually convey and evoke emotions, in a way that his performance absolutely made the audience perception of his character.
For Ortiz, it seems like he did enough of the actual “acting” work to count. If Rocky is a character (and I think he clearly is), then the person who voiced and moved him in most scenes should still get credit for the acting part.
Similarly, Ryan Gosling had some scenes where he was in harnesses managed by teams of people coordinating the stunts. But he still gets the credit for the “acting” part.
His work was extraordinary.
