by Nathaniel R
The Oscar charts overhaul is upon us. Let's discuss each category. First up a two-fer, Animated Feature and Documentary Feature. In both instances we don't have full eligibility lists yet but we know some of the titles that have qualified or will qualify.
ANIMATED FEATURE
We currently know of 15 features that are eligible or that plan to be. Since the threshold is only 16 films to create a full five-wide nominee field, we've decided to change our previous three-only prediction. (We'd love those odds if we were animated producers. It's so crazy easy to get nominated, statistically speaking, unlike other categories where hundreds of competitors vie for 5 slots. As we've said multiple times if the same percentage rules applied to Best Picture each year we'd have like 80-90 Best Picture nominees each year. Teehee.)
The contest is shaping up to be a battle royale between Pixar's Christmas entry Soul and the wondrously individualistic Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers...
That Irish studio has been nominated each time they've made one of their exquisite hand-drawn movies. They're definitely the David in the battle with a Goliath. History shows that it's very hard to convince Oscar voters that studios beyond the Mouse House exist -- in other words they're rarely rooting for David and handing him stones for his slingshot.
Otherwise though, the nomination contest is a free for all. It's tough to argue that any other animated films this year have a case for themselves on a wide enough scale to make them formidable. Generally Oscar voters will select at least one international feature for this category but it's tough to see which it will be as no international title has a large critical or populist profile yet. Japan's Demon Slayer is an absolute behemoth at the box office in its home country but that rarely matters to Oscar and they've ignored every example of anime of this particular kind (franchise-based) in the past. There's no US release date for Demonslayer but you can watch the television series its based on at Hulu if you're curious.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Last month we hard the list of 80+ films that were already screening for the documentary branch in this category though surely more have been added since. But that gives us a baseline to work from (along with precursor honors like Cinema Eye, IDA, Critics Choice, and DOC NYC Shortlisting to see how well the films are going over with multiple voting bodies. Blend them all together in a pot and you get "consensus" however annoying that word is and however much it sometimes shuts out terrific as yet undiscovered or underappreciated art.
Kristen Johnson's inventive personal Dick Johnson is Dead is doing well with precursors but, even though I absolutely love it (and our 'Doc Corner' guru Glenn, does too), I'm not currently predicting it. I wonder if the more traditionalist members of the doc branch might balk as its playful irreverence with form and its mordant humor.
CHECK OUT THE CHARTS - What do you think has the edge right now in both races?