Oscar Volley: Animated Feature Film

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Juan Carlos Ojano.

ABE: It's always a pleasure to talk awards with you, and I'm excited to dive in to the Animated Feature race this year. While I wish that we could have been discussing out-of-the-box choices like Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Eternal Spring, or Little Nicholas, Happy as Can Be or even mainstream fare that for some reason didn't click like Lightyear and The Bad Guys, there are five worthwhile nominees that did make the cut. I know that I had to seek out The Sea Beast once nominations were announced since I hadn't yet streamed that title, while the other four didn't come as much of a surprise. Going into this race, it feels like Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is the clear favorite. But it didn't net any other Oscar nominations, which many thought it would. Neither did any of the other nominees, however, so maybe we're back to square one...

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Awards Season Catchup: The Bad Guys

By Abe Friedtanzer

One of this year’s most successful contenders for Best Animated Feature was released way back in April. It hasn't been as present on the awards circuit as its success and generally positive reviews would suggest. Whatever prizes it ultimately wins would only add to the fact that this family-friendly caper comedy, based on Aaron Blabey’s book series, is highly enjoyable and very much worth seeking out.

Wolf introduces audiences to his team of notorious thieves, who commit major heists and other crimes as regularly as possible. They do it partly for the big takes, but also for the specific joy from getting away with it...

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Team Experience Predix - Round 2: Doc, International & Animation

Every other week, we’re polling The Film Experience Writers on where the Oscar race stands. These predictions were done just a day before the Golden Globes announcement. Most of the Best Picture contenders were cited by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (except for Women Talking) but this set of predictions does not account for The Banshees of Inisherin suddenly leading the pack at the Globes.

BEST PICTURE
Yes, The Fabelmans continues to sit on top of most people’s predictions. Still, the only place to go is down...

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27 Films Eligible for Best Animated Feature for the 95th Oscars

by Nathaniel R

APOLLO 10 1/2: A SPACE AGE CHILDHOOD

Better late the never the Academy has finally released the names of the eligible lists in their three specialty movie categories (Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Animated Feature). We've already discussed the Best International Feature lists which we've known for some time, so let's talk animation.

There will be 5 nominees this year (as per usual since the threshold to make that happen is so low). Read on for the list of eligible titles and where you can watch the films. Half of the films are easily accessible right now...

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Where is the buzz for "My Father's Dragon"?

by Nathaniel R

"Too much of a good thing" sounds like an oxymoron but it's something that can happen. It's difficult to look at this year's Best Animated Feature Race for instance and not wonder whether Netflix's endless supply of movies is not totally working. This year alone they have enough contenders to fill up literally that entire Oscar category all by themselves and all of them come from previous Oscar nominees: Richard Linklater's nostalgia piece Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Chris Williams' animated adventure The Sea Beast, Henry Selick's horror-comedy Wendell & Wild and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio next month.

Somehow Netflix's fifth contender, Cartoon Saloon's My Father's Dragon (which began streaming this month) has generated little press despite being quite charming, beautiful to look at, and also arriving with a ready made Oscar pedigree...

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