Annie Award nominations: It's "Soul" vs "Wolfwalkers" again

by Nathaniel R

This just in: Soul and Wolfwalkers are tied for most nominations (10) for the 48th annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animated entertainment. Onward is in a distant third place with 7 nominations. The Annie  ceremony will be virtual event this year, streamed live on April 16th at 7 PM PST. 

The full list of nominations and some commentary after the jump...

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Top Ten: Greatest Onscreen Pigs

Did you know that it's National Pig Day? Now you do! The day was created back in 1972. To celebrate we thought we'd list the ten best screen pigs of all time with apologies to Pua from Moana and more. If we've forgotten an essential pig, we trust you'll let us know in the comments.

TEN BEST SCREEN PIGS

Let's start with a beauty from a doomed production...

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Sundance: "Flee" beautifully animates a family's struggle

by Eurocheese

As the first acquisition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Flee made headlines as an early success story. To anyone who attended the premiere screening, it was no surprise that the film was snapped up so quickly. Between its lovely animation and personal message, it speaks to a refugee’s journey in a heartfelt way. I shed tears at several points during the film, and based on the reactions I heard during the Q&A afterwards, we’ll be hearing much more about its emotional impact in the future.

The story begins as a conversation between two friends, one of whom (Amin) seems to be hesitating when considering marriage to his longtime boyfriend...

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Animated Feature - what will be nominated?

by Nathaniel R

Studio Ghibli's "Earwig and the Witch"

We really do not approve of the Academy's new shyness in telling the public which films are competing for the specialty categories. They didn't announce the animated feature eligibiility until TODAY. But here are the 27 features competing for Best Animated Feature, though the Academy has not made them official. We've helpfully divided them into categories for you after the jump...

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Animated Shorts - The Oscar Long List ?

by Nathaniel R

Since the Academy doesn't always release the longlists for their short film categories (why did they stop doing this?) we have to rely on other sources. The following list is not "official" but thanks to Cartoon Brew we have an approximation of what the Oscar's qualifying long list looks like in Best Animated Short. Cartoon Brew thinks it's about 96 films long with the following titles having had either "Oscar-qualifying" wins at approved festivals, public exhibition (this is how big studio shorts often qualify since they play before movies), or honors from BAFTA or the Student Academy Awards.

The longlist, where to screen the contenders, predictions, and a few notes after the jump...

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