Is there hope for an interesting Best Animated Feature race?
Tuesday, October 1, 2013 at 10:00AM 
Tim here. Right at the end of last week, the Academy very quietly issued a rules change pertaining to the Best Animated Feature Oscar: instead of requiring that members of the nominating committee had seen at least 80% of the films on the eligibility list (an onerous task indeed, given that these are people who care about animation for a living, and that list can sometimes be, like, 20 films long), now the voters can pick any animated films they darn well want to, which is potentially going to do away with all those fun little nominees like A Cat in Paris and The Secret of Kells, things that badly need the exposure. Perhaps not. But if we’re about to enter a world where Planes can snag a nomination over Ernest & Celestine (please oh please Oscar gods, don’t let that happen), something is even more broken with a dodgy category than we’ve thought.
Now comes the news that the European Film Academy has announced its own list of nominees: the modeling clay stop-motion of Jasmine by Alain Ughetto and a new version of Pinocchio by Italian director Enzo d’Aló. And The Congress featuring Robin Wright which played at Cannes and is the new film by Ari Folman, director of Waltz with Bashir (which famously attempted three specialty nominations for Documentary, Animated Feature and Foreign Film but was disqualified from the first, failed the second and became the first animated film ever nominated for Best Foreign Film.)
Jasmine is a "claymation story of love and revolution"
We have no way of knowing if any of these will be squeaked into the United States in time for Oscar qualification – the vagaries about what counts as “qualifying run” for this category is especially dubious – but given how everyone in the world agrees that we’re looking at the weakest year for animated features since the category was born, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some canny distributor decided to use this nomination as the spur for a Hail Mary pass.
Is there a possibility of repeating 2011, when two functionally un-released foreign films made the nomination list? It’s hard to say, especially with the rules change in the nominating process, but faced with tiny niche releases that nobody has heard of getting national attention, and the possibility of the phrase “Oscar nominee Turbo” ever being said by anybody, I know which one I’m hoping for.
Reader Comments (10)
There's an animated French film out called "The Painting" which really needs to be released properly--not sure if it's eligible for this year's Oscars or if it missed the cut for last year's, but it's extremely cool.
@Dback The Painting was eligible last year and missed the nomination.
Really hoping Frozen knocks it out of the park and snags the Oscar. A win for Monsters University wouldn't be too bad though, better than the Brave win last year.
Juan Jose Campanella's Foosball is not scheduled for a 2013 release. However, at one point Campanella said that if he had to personally rent a theater in LA for a one-week qualifying run, he would do it. I hope he does, cause he sure as hell is not getting any help from Universal.
marcos -- that's exactly why i included it. i think it's foolish to assume I know what will qualify and what won't in this category. it's too confusing to accurately forsee (along with documentary and the shorts programs. i hadn't even heard of some of the eligible ones last year like "wrinkles"!
This rule change is wildly depressing, especially because I found Monsters University cloying and unnecessary. I am hoping Miyazaki's film is pure magic and he takes this again.
The rule change sounds so silly, why on earth it was made.
But I do not believe that Turbo and Planes have any changes. Frozen, The Wind Rises, Ernest and Celestine, The Croods and Monsters University seem the most likely lineup. But this year would be excellent for only 3 nominees so only the firs tree get nominated, but I think there is enough for 5.
I hope miracles happen and The Missing Picture got a proper release and nominated for Best Animation this year.
Really, I don't think that "the weak year for animation" even exist, there are many amazing indie animated films out there that needed qualifying for theoretical release. Anime we have The Wind Rises, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Garden of Words by Mankoto Shinkai. In Europe we have the 3 films just nominated for European Animated Feature (with Jasmine looks interesting and The Congress looks amazing), Ernest and Celestine, little Russian 3D films named Snow Queen (in sync with Disney Frozen) with also have good reviews, the Italian adult animated The Art of Happiness which just debuted in Venice Film festival. In US we also have the indie The Oversimplification of Her Beauty with in my money more interesting than Turbo or the Croods. Therefore all I hope is that they have a proper release and the Academy is brave enough to nominate them (Actually in this category they tend to favor Euro art house than the blockbusters, it seems)
JASMINE looks incredible, although I question whether THE CONGRESS will be Oscar-eligible in whatever year it gets a release since films have to be 75% animation (right?) and from what I've heard it's 50/50 animation and live action? Maybe I read wrong.
Tombeet, I can't imagine THE MISSING PICTURE passing any eligibility tests for this category since it is again 50/50 with clay figures and real footage, plus the clay sequences aren't exactly "animated" so much as they just sit there. Now, documentary feature on the other hand... I am all for it.
Joe -- say what now? Brave is thrice the movie that Monsters Uni is.
tom -- what Glenn says. Missing Picture is not animated at all. Just uses carved figurines to talk about atrocities since there is no footage available only the directors memory That said it's very good so i'm hoping it can make a run for documentary and foreign film.