Oscar Volley: Sobbing and Fuming at the "Best Animated Feature" nominees

Team Experience will be covering the various Oscar categories in the lead up to Oscar night. Here's Tim Brayton, Cláudio Alves, and Nathaniel R...

TIM BRAYTON: Hello Nathaniel and Cláudio! I'm thrilled to have the chance to discuss this year's slate of nominees for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars with you - animation is, I think it's fair to say, the most important form of filmmaking to me, and it's always fun to share it. Whether these exact five films represent animation at its peak, well, we'll just have to get into that as we go.

A quick recap for all of us and those of you reading, here are the five nominees: Encanto, a CGI feature produced by Walt Disney Animation; Raya and the Last Dragon, a CGI feature produced by Walt Disney Animation; Luca, a CGI feature produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by their corporate owners, the Walt Disney Company; The Mitchells vs the Machines, a CGI feature produced by Sony Animation, who sold it off to Netflix. And then literally on the other side of the world, Flee, a Danish documentary about politics and identity, largely consisting of interviews that were animated in a cartoony 2D style by Sun Creature Studio. So my point, obviously, is that this isn't exactly the most stylistically or industrially diverse set of nominees this category has ever produced...

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Oscar Volley: Is Best Animated Feature already wrapped up?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Abe Friedtanzer and Timothy Lyons on Best Animated Feature

My Sunny Maad, Belle, and Poupelle are all hoping to interrupt the Disney party in Best Animated Feature

ABE FRIEDTANZER: Most years after the Oscar nominations come out I have to play catch up on everything I've missed. That's not the case in a second consecutive season where the Oscars are later in the calendar. I have caught most of the contenders here. The mainstream American studio options are actually all great but of course I'd love to see some international choices make the cut. Belle seems like a decent bet to crack the list, and while it's a terrific film, I want to champion another Japanese movie, Poupelle of Chimney Town. I do worry that it's too under-the-radar to get enough votes, but it was the most visually striking animation I saw all year. I was also impressed by My Sunny Maad, which, like the much buzzier Flee, is about Afghanistan but is a very different experience. Maad has only been noticed by the Golden Globes, so I'm not sure what kind of buzz it has. What have you seen that you'd love to see nominated...

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ADG Nominations - Good news and bad news for presumed Oscar Contenders

by Nathaniel R

Adam Stockhausen scored a double nomination at the ADG (French Dispatch and West Side Story)

The Art Directors Guild of America has released its nominations for the 2021 film (and television) year offering some surprise omissions (no Power of the Dog in period) and some delightful inclusions (In the Heights and The Green Knight for contemporary and fantasy respectively). The nominations for guild awards (any kind of guild awards) generally suggest as much about what the industry is watching as they do about whatever craft the awards are for. This is particularly true in "contemporary" categories, where we see year in and year out that the films are usually the ones with buzz in Best Picture, whereas in the Period of Fantasy category that's less important presumably because the work is so much more noticeable.

Their nominations plus punditry notes after the jump... 

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Link Manuel Miranda

• Cartoon Brew details on Aardman Animation sequels to their most iconic properties, Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit
• AV Club 20 major stars that broke out at Sundance over the years from Parker Posey through Peter Dinklage and on to Jennifer Lawrence (and many more)
• Hollywood Reporter quotes from the Best Director roundtable
• In Session Film yours truly guest starred on their podcast to talk SAG nods / BAFTA longlist

More after the jump including Meat Loaf's passing, Nightmare Alley's streaming release, Anna Kendrick's boyfriend, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's EGOT dreams...

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Halfway Mark 2021 - Movie Achievements of the Year (Thus Far)

Okay, sooooo... The Oscars f***ed around with their eligibility calendar but we did not for our own annual prizes. Anything released after January 1st or on its way to release at the moment was eligible for this fluid keeping track list (unless it had a qualifying release in 2020 -- confusing, yes but please go see I Carry You With Me, one of 2020's best that only just surfaced for your viewing pleasure despite an Oscar qualifying release several months ago). It's just our way of jotting things down before the film year really gets crazyso that we don't forget about early releases. Still, there's no guarantee any of these accomplishments will show up in January for the offficial awards. Generally Hollywood backloads the film year, as you know. We'll do fav performances tomorrow but for now our 'cheat sheet' for everything else from the year's first half...

TEN BEST MOVIES (thus far alpha order)

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