32 films competing for nominations in Best Animated Feature
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 3:42PM by Nathaniel R
Frozen 2 is clearly hoping to be the first animated franchise to win the Animated Feature category twice.
The Oscar race is officially on for Best Animated Feature. 32 films are planning to compete, which is easily a record as there are usually closer to 22 or so, so we'll definitely have 5 nominees again this year. But the question is which. We've divvied the 32 films up into types to make this easier to process...
The American Mainstream Studio Offerings
Abominable
The Addams Family
The Angry Birds Movie 2
Frozen II
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
The Secret Life of Pets 2
Spies in Disguise
Toy Story 4
Six of the nine most high profile films are sequels and the animation branch hasn't shown a great love for those in the past. In the 18 years of this category, there haven't been many sequels nominated and the only one that won was Toy Story 3. All of which we think means there might be a big window of opportunity here for Oscar voters to get a bit more adventureous this year... but voters haven't ventured away from Disney and Pixar very often in terms of wins so perhaps either Toy Story 4 or Frozen 2 will make history by becoming the first franchise to win twice in this category.
Streaming Contenders
Klaus (Netflix)
Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery (Prime)
We have high-hopes for Klaus in terms of a nomination but will it be loved enough to win? We're confused about the Primal eligibility since as far as we were aware it was a TV series streaming on Prime. Or have they fused all the episodes into a feature and if so, how exactly is it eligible?
The Specialty House
Missing Link (Laika)
Laika's never missed the category when they had a candidate for inclusion, though they've yet to win. Missing Link will be an interesting test case because, though it's wonderful, it flopped quite brutally in the American marketplace. Can Oscar attention give it a second life?
White Snake
The Overseas Blockbusters
Ne Zha (China)
Promare (Japan)
Weathering With You (Japan)
White Snake (China)
No Chinese pictures have yet been nominated for the Oscar in this category though Japanese films have been up on occassion, though only Spirited Away (2001) managed a win. Promare and Ne Zha both already received US releases, earning over a million each in specialty runs. But sadly no international features ever seem to really crossover. American audiences are weirdly resistant to foreign animated features even though many of them are dubbed and appropriate for children. It's an odd blind spot our nation's parents have!
Ne Zha and Weathering With You (which will see US release in 2020) are both also submitted in the Best International Feature race. No film has been nominated in both categories though one film which tried it, Waltz With Bashir, did get nominated for International Feature.
A Documentary
Rezo (Russia)
An autobiographic film about a Georgian artist
I Lost My Body
Art Films & International Titles
Another Day of Life (International, EFA Winner 2018)
Away (Latvia)
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (Spain)
Children of the Sea (Japan)
Dilili in Paris (France)
Funan (France/Cambodia)
I Lost My Body (France, Annecy winner, Cannes Critics Week winner)
The Last Fiction (Iran)
Marona’s Fantastic Tale (France)
Okko’s Inn (Japan)
Pachamama (France/Luxembourg)
The Swallows of Kabul (France)
This Magnificent Cake! (Belgium, the shortest entry at just 44 minutes)
The Tower (France)
Upin & Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris (Malaysia)
Only four of these have gotten a run in US theaters but the ones that had vanished in a blip. Okko's Inn was the only minor success earning $134,000 in arthouses. Bunuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles earned $36k Funan earned $15k and This Magnificent Cake! just $7k
Reader Comments (12)
And no Lion King!
Of course no Lion King, why would Disney submit a film they're pretending is not animated for Best Animated Feature?... ;)
I´m insist that animation is not a genre, but as a drawer and cartoon fan that i am, is so pleased that these category exists even when the same is a little stucked being dominated with american-familiar films.
Les Triplettes de Belleville, Nocturna, Mary and Max, It´s Such a Beautiful Day and Pequeñas Voces could have been perfect winners.
I´m wondering if the film Gritos en el Pasillo it would be elegible for these category.
I Lost My Body will be released in select theaters and streamed on Netflix. Might boost its chance in terms of audience reach? Seems to have the right kind of pedigree (winning top awards, etc.)
Still no mention of Robert Forster's passing?
I hope this category returns to be voted exclusively for the Animated Branch. They gave us surprising and inspired noms. But one studio was mad and changed the rules (Finding Dory was snubbed >.<)
Primal was an Adult Swim show that stealthily premiered as a movie in LA before airing on TV.
Promare's actually been a decent box office success at $1.3 million when you consider that its wide release was only two days for as a Fatham Event and its limited release had enough word of mouth hype that its box office actually went up in its second weekend despite losing screens. Done well enough that GKIDS is bringing it back for another Fathom screening in December.
Robert Forster is an honorary brotha for all eternity for his stoic swooning and lusting over Pam Grier in Jackie Brown. R.I.P.
Kat & /3rtful - put up a post. We knew him the teensiest tiniest bit offline so it was quite a shock and not easy to just post about like a news story as we normally would.
Leon -- ugh. Disney is the worst.
Jija -- you'd think buit it's always hard to know. especially when a lot of the specialty releases try the last second approach which we dont think works even a fifth as often as Hollywood thinks it does.
Cesar -- according to the Academy these 32 are the only eligible ones.
Rubi - thanks for the correction. have updated the post
leon, if that's the reason then it's a shame because "Finding Dory" didn't deserve anything, it was ok at best.
I like this category with inspired nominees and strong group of winners ("Inside Out", "Zootopia" and "Coco" was a particularly inspired).
*inspired group
@Nathaniel. Thanks for your response, but I should have been more specific.
The film what i´m talking about was released in 2007 but my doubt is because the film is made with drawned peanuts that are moved as puppets.
What i´m wondering myself is, if the films that are made entirely with puppets (Meet the feebles, 31 minutos, for example) could it be condsider for the animation category.