Never bet against Disney
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 5:30PM 
While not all of Disney’s movies get Oscar gold, it’s never a good idea to bet against the studio. This year, Captain Marvel, Dumbo and Aladdin failed to conquer any nomination, but many other Disney properties got in the race, even in categories people weren’t expecting them to. Think of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’s makeup nod, for instance. It’s true most of those movies don’t seem like frontrunners, but if we trust in the patterns of Oscar history, then we can be assured the House of Mouse will earn a couple of statues come Hollywood’s biggest night.
To prove this point, let's peruse the last decade of the Academy Awards and explore Disney’s many nods and victories. Notice there’s at least a win per year…
2010
TOY STORY 3
BEST PICTURE, Darla K. Anderson
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY, Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Randy Newman (winner)
BEST SOUND EDITING, Tom Myers & Michael Silvers
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Lee Unkrich (winner)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
BEST ART DIRECTION, Robert Stromberg & Karen O'Hara (winner)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Colleen Atwood (winner)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas & Sean Phillips
TANGLED
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Alan Menken & Glenn Slater
IRON MAN 2
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright & Daniel Sudick
DAY & NIGHT
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Teddy Newton
2011
THE MUPPETS
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Bret McKenzie (winner)
LA LUNA
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Enrico Casarosa
2012
BRAVE
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman (winner)
PAPERMAN
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, John Kahrs (winner)
FRANKENWEENIE
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Tim Burton
WRECK-IT-RALPH
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Rich Moore
THE AVENGERS
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams & Daniel Sudick
2013
FROZEN
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez (winner)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee & Peter Del Vecho (winner)
THE LONE RANGER
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING, Joel Harlow & Gloria Pasqua Casny
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams & John Frazier
SAVING MR. BANKS
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, Thomas Newman
IRON MAN THREE
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash & Daniel Sudick
GET A HORSE!
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Lauren MacMullan & Dorothy McKim
2014
BIG HERO 6
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Don Hall, Chris Williams & Roy Conli (winner)
FEAST
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Patrick Osborne & Kristina Reed (winner)
INTO THE WOODS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, Meryl Streep
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN, Dennis Gassner & Anna Pinnock
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Colleen Atwood
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING, Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou & David White
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner & Paul Corbould
MALEFICENT
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Anna B. Sheppard
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill & Daniel Sudick
2015
INSIDE OUT
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Pete Docter & Jonas Rivera (winner)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley & Ronnie Del Carmen
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS
BEST EDITING, Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, John Williams
BEST SOUND MIXING, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio & Stuart Wilson
BEXT SOUND EDITING, Matthew Wood & David Acord
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan & Chris Corbould
CINDERELLA
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Sandy Powell
SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Sanjay Patel & Nicole Paradis Grindle
2016
ZOOTOPIA
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Clark Spencer (winner)
PIPER
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Clark Spencer (winner)
THE JUNGLE BOOK
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones & Dan Lemmon (winner)
MOANA
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Ron Clements, John Musker & Osnat Shurer
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Lin-Manuel Miranda
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
BEST SOUND MIXING, David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio & Stuart Wilson
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal T. Hickel & Neil Corbould
DOCTOR STRANGE
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli & Paul Corbould
2017
COCO
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Lee Unkrich & Darla K. Anderson (winner)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez (winner)
STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII – THE LAST JEDI
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, John Williams
BEST SOUND MIXING, Michael Semanick, David Parker, Stuart Wilson & Ren Klyce
BEST SOUND EDITING, Matthew Wood & Ren Klyce
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Ben Morris, Michael Mulholland, Neal Scanlan & Chris Corbould
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN, Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Jacqueline Durran
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner & Daniel Sudick
LOU
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Dave Mullins & Dana Murray
2018
BLACK PANTHER
BEST PICTURE, Kevin Feige
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN, Hannah Beachler & Jay Hart (winner)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Ruth E. Carter (winner)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, Ludwig Göransson (winner)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Sounwave, Kendrick Lamar, Anthony Tiffith & SZA
BEST SOUND MIXING, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor & Peter J. Devlin
BEST SOUND EDITING, Benjamin A. Burtt & Steve Boeddeker
BAO
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Domee Shi & Becky Neiman (winner)
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
BEST PRODUCTIN DESIGN, John Myhre & Gordon Sim
BEST COSTUME DESIGN, Sandy Powell
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, Marc Shaiman
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman
INCREDIBLES 2
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Brad Bird, John Walker & Nicole Paradis Grindle
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Rich Moore, Phil Johnston & Clark Spencer
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl & Daniel Sudick
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Chris Lawrence, Mike Eames, Theo Jones & Chris Corbould
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan & Dominic Tuohy
And here are 2019’s Disney nominees…
STAR WARS: EPISODE IX – THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, John Williams
BEST SOUND EDITING, Matthew Wood & David Acord
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, Dominic Tuohy & Roger Guyett
TOY STORY 4
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE, Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen & Jonas RIvera
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Randy Newman
MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING, Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten & David White
FROZEN II
BEST ORIGINAL SONG, Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
AVENGERS: ENDGAME
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken & Daniel Sudick
THE LION KING
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones & Elliot Newman
KITBULL
BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Rosana Sullivan & Kathryn Hendrickson
Which one of them will win? At this point, The Lion King, Toy Story 4 and Frozen II seem like the safest bets. One way or the other, Disney will win something.
Reader Comments (7)
It's interesting that this might be the first year since 2010 that Disney does NOT win an Oscar. I'm rooting for LAIKA! (Though I would be happy to see the awesome culmination of Avengers Endgame rewarded.)
Outside of animated category wins (which...duh), Disney has only won in 5 of these ceremonies. Toss out Original Song (the easy pick for least relevant category right now), and that number drops to 2 of 9. 2010 and 2018.
If you make good animated films and musicals consistently wins are bound to happen since let’s face it, the competition in each category isn’t that difficult.
It looks like Disney gets a lot of movies nominated but they don't have overall love across the board. Only three movies scored 5 or more nominations in ten years.
Lost in this is that a lot of high-profile awards contenders from Disney have underperformed nomination-wise come Oscar morning - Into the Woods, Saving Mr. Banks, Mary Poppins Returns, The Help (distribution) and even Inside Out come to mind. Winner-wise, they’ve mostly been successful in the animated and song categories - pretty spotty everywhere else. Their best chances this year seem to again rely on animated short or an upset by Toy Story 4, or maybe Visual Effects due to sheer domination of the category - but I could just as easily see them going completely winless as well.
Re: everyone discounting Disney in the Visual Effects category: Do we really think that The Irishman or 1917 have the energy in that category to overtake The Lion King? I thought TLK was butt ugly, but it seems unbeatable.
It's fascinating to observe the way Disney's impact extends beyond just the box office, as evidenced by its continued presence at prestigious awards ceremonies like the Oscars. I like Disney movies and animation; especially I'm fond of Inside Out by Pete Docter. I've written a kind of paper for college on this animated movie. It has been interesting to investigate this movie from that point and by this web link I've found a lot of good articles on some character analysis and so on. In any case, it will be interesting to see which of their properties ultimately come out on top during Hollywood's biggest night, but one thing is for sure: it's never a good idea to bet against Disney.