Doc Corner: Denmark's Oscar Submission 'Flee' + 'We Are Russia' at DOC NYC

By Glenn Dunks

DOC NYC continues. The festival runs for in-person screenings from November 10–18 and then will carry over online until November 28. I have a Twitter thread covering what I am watching, but today we're looking at a big Oscar contender alongside a smaller, but no less worthy doc from the same part of the world.

I find it can often take a minute to get used to animated documentaries. I find the hand-crafted nature of the medium to be a bit of a barrier to the telling of these true-to-life stories. A barrier that my brain initially can’t quite comprehend when I am so used to the traditional elements—not too unlike adjusting to 3D or VR, maybe.

It’s true that animation has become more and more common in documentary, particularly as a means of representing moments of history that couldn’t have been captured on film. I sometimes wish they wouldn’t bother as the quality can often vary wildly. But like other documentaries made from a majority of animation (Keith Maitland’s Tower and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir come to mind), the much buzzed Flee quickly surpasses those up-front mental blocks. Here, the vivid, colourful animation brings out an even deeper well of emotion from émigré Amin Nawabi’s story in the same way blue eyes can bring out the colour of an item of clothing.

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1998: What if there already was a Best Animated Feature Oscar?

by Cláudio Alves

Mariah Carey and Whitney Huston perform a song from THE PRINCE OF EGYPT at the Oscars.

Before implementing the Best Animated Feature category, the Academy gave out three special awards over six decades honoring individual achievements in the art of feature-length animation – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Toy Story were the honorees. It was only in the new millennium that AMPAS finally buckled to rising pressures and created the official prize. In 2001, this Oscar was finally established. As we ready ourselves for the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1998, it's easy to wonder what would have happened if the category had been around a few years earlier…

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Animated Features of 2021... and first Oscar Predictions!

by Nathaniel R

This past year wasn't a particularly great one for animation but hope springs eternal and maybe we'll have a more competitive Oscar race next February? This will be the 21st year of the Best Animated Feature Oscar race. With 20 years of statistics we know what Oscar voters go for in this category and what they don't. They generally turn their noses up at sequels (unless they absolutely adored the first one). They will always honor at least one international title (but usually two) with a nomination, but they won't give them the win unless they absolutely have to. The animation studios Cartoon Saloon, Laika, and Aardman are widely respected by animators and will always be nominated if they're eligible... but it usually stops there as the wider voting body on the "win" defaults to big American studio animation and 70% of the time (literally) the wins go to the Mouse House for either Disney or Pixar titles. When it comes to animated titles from overseas they're a bit like they are with the Best International Feature category (even though it's different voters) in that they generally ignore Asian animation (with the exception of Studio Ghibli) and prefer European titles. 

With the recent announcement of the competitive line-up for the 2021 Annecy festival (one of the four most important animation events each year) we have a better sense of which international titles might crop up this year in the circles that love animated films. Surely at least some of these will submit to the Oscar race as well. So here's as many animated features as we could find that might delight animation-loving cinephiles this year

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Behind the Scenes of "Wolfwalkers"

by Nathaniel R

Today's must read is a memoir piece from storyboard artist Iker Madigan about working on Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers.  There are all sorts of interesting tidbits including how difficult compositional choices are with the two dimensional "flat graphic style" that Cartoon Saloon is known for. Here's another interesting note. I've never heard animators described like this but it makes emotional sense:

Depending on the degree of freedom entrusted to them, story artists can exhibit qualities from both directors and writers. Truth is, they can be something like a cross between a second unit director and a script doctor. 

And the following, about artists who are part of "story teams" that most animated features employ, is the type of honesty you rarely get in such pieces...

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93rd Academy Awards: On the Best Animated Feature nominees

by Tim Brayton

With a day between us and the Oscar nominations announcement, it’s time to start digging into some of the categories that fly under the radar a little bit without the proper love and attention. For now, I’d like to walk you through the five films nominated for Best Animated Feature, ranked in order of how good I think their chances are of winning the big prize...

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