Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
| Academy Award for Best Animated Feature | |
|---|---|
2025 co-recipients | |
| Awarded for | The best animated film with a running time of more than 40 minutes, a significant number of the major characters animated, and at least 75 percent of the picture's running time including animation. |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First award | Shrek (2001) |
| Most recent winner | Flow (2024) |
| Most awards | Pixar (11) / Pete Docter (3) |
| Most nominations | Pixar (19) / Pete Docter, Hayao Miyazaki, and Chris Sanders (4) |
| Website | oscars |
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The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is an Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the best animated feature film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time.[1] The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.[2][3][4]
For much of the Academy Awards' history, the AMPAS was resistant to the idea of a regular award for animated features, considering there were simply too few produced to justify such consideration.[5] Instead, the Academy occasionally bestowed special Oscars for exceptional productions, usually for Walt Disney Pictures, such as for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938,[6] and the Special Achievement Academy Award for the live action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1989[7] and Toy Story in 1996.[8] In fact, prior to the award's creation, only one animated film was nominated for Best Picture: 1991's Beauty and the Beast, also by Disney.[9][10]
By 2001, the rise of sustained competitors to Disney in the feature animated film market, such as DreamWorks Animation (founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg), created an increase of film releases of significant annual number enough for AMPAS to reconsider.[5] The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first given out at the 74th Academy Awards,[11] held on March 24, 2002.[12]
Winners and nominees
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When the category was first instated, the nomination went to the person(s) most involved in creating the film. This could be the producer, the director, or both. For the 76th Academy Awards in 2003, only the director(s) of the film received the nomination. For the 86th Academy Awards ten years later, this was amended to include one producer and up to two directors. For the 91st Academy Awards, this was amended once again to include up to four individuals, one of whom must be a director and one of whom must be a producer; an exception to this is that "[i]n the case of a TWO-PERSON TEAM with shared and equal director or producer credit, an additional statuette may be awarded."[13]
The Academy included a rule that stated that the award would not be presented in a year in which fewer than eight eligible films opened in theaters.[14] In regards of the Academy, it allows for all members to make voting for animated films more acceptable.[15]
At the same year, the Academy enacted a new rule regarding the motion capture technique employed in films such as A Christmas Carol (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011), directed by Academy Award for Best Director winners Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg respectively, and how they might not be eligible in this category in the future.[16] The new rule now reads "An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time."[16] This rule was possibly made to prevent nominations of live-action films that rely heavily on motion capture, such as Avatar (2009).[16]
Only four animated features with live-action elements are either disqualified or withdrawn for not meeting the 75 percent of animation threshold under submission. With exceptions, it was unclear whether Marcel the Shell with Shoes On would be eligible for the award at the 95th Academy Awards due to being a stop-motion animated film with the use of live-action elements. Director Dean Fleischer Camp said that he and A24 had to submit documentation in order to prove the film had enough animation to meet the award's minimum requirements.[17][1] The AMPAS officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category and was eventually nominated for said category.[18]
Indicates the winner
|
2000s
[edit]2010s
[edit]2020s
[edit]Multiple wins and nominations
[edit]Nominees
[edit]Studios
[edit]Notes
- ^ a b Co-production between Aardman Animations and DreamWorks Animation
- ^ a b c d Co-production between Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch
- ^ a b Co-production between Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation
- ^ a b Co-production between Laika and Tim Burton Productions
- ^ a b Co-production between Cartoon Saloon and Les Armateurs
- ^ Co-production between Annapurna Animation and Blue Sky Studios
Franchises
[edit]Superlatives
[edit]Age
[edit]| Record | Filmmaker | Film | Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest winner | Hayao Miyazaki | The Boy and the Heron | 83 years, 65 days |
| Oldest nominee | 83 years, 18 days | ||
| Youngest winner | Matīss Kaža | Flow | 29 years, 183 days |
| Youngest nominee | 29 years, 145 days |
Length
[edit]| Record | Film | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Longest winner | Spirited Away | 125 minutes |
| Longest nominee | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | 140 minutes |
| Shortest winner | Flow | 84 minutes |
| Shortest nominee | A Cat in Paris | 65 minutes |
International films
[edit]A number of non-English-language or non-dialogue films were nominated or won.
BOLD highlights the winner.
Japanese nominees
[edit]All the Japanese films on this list have also been released with English language dubbing.
Studio Ghibli
[edit]- Spirited Away
- Howl's Moving Castle
- The Wind Rises
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
- When Marnie Was There
- The Boy and the Heron
Other films
[edit]French nominees
[edit]Les Armateurs
[edit]Other films
[edit]Other languages
[edit]- Chico and Rita (Spanish)
- Boy and the World (Portuguese)
- Flee (Danish)
Non-dialogue or gibberish
[edit]Milestones and records
[edit]Films and production companies
[edit]- Pixar holds the most wins for a studio with 11, the most nominations with 19, and the most consecutive wins (4, between 2007 and 2010).
- Pixar, with 11 wins, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, with 4, are both owned by the Walt Disney Company, which has 15 wins for the category in total.
- Laika has the most nominations without a win, with 6 films.
- Toy Story is the only franchise to win this award twice, for its third and fourth films. Additionally, the third and fourth films are so far the only two sequels to win this award.
- Shrek and Wallace & Gromit are the most-nominated franchise, with 4 (and having won once) each. Other franchises with three nominations include How to Train Your Dragon and Cartoon Saloon's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" (consisting of The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers); both hold the record as the most-nominated franchises without a win.
- Of the several adult animated films (judging from their MPAA ratings), The Triplets of Belleville was the first PG-13-rated nominee, Anomalisa and Memoir of a Snail[42] are so far the only R-rated animated films to be nominated, and The Boy and the Heron became the first PG-13-rated winner.[43]
- Studio Ghibli (Japan) has the most wins (two) and nominations (seven) for a non-US studio; Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron are the only non-English language films to win.[44][45][46]
- Flee is the first animated documentary film to be nominated.[47]
- Since 2019, each year has had at least one nominee that was mainly released via streaming, with two winners (denoted in bold): Klaus (Netflix) in 2019; Soul (Disney+) in 2020; Luca (Disney+) and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix) in 2021; Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Netflix), The Sea Beast (Netflix) and Turning Red (Disney+) in 2022; Nimona (Netflix) in 2023, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix/BBC) in 2024.
- 2005 and 2011 are the only two-time years that Disney and Pixar films were completely shut out of the Best Animated Feature category.
- Since 2003, all years each one or two animated features are independent, Flow is the first independent film to win in 2024.[48] Only years (2001-2002, 2004-2006, 2008, and 2012) that independent animated films were not nominated.
- Only six non-Disney/Pixar films to win the category until 2022. Films between 2022 and 2024, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, The Boy and the Heron and Flow's win made history as the first time for these non-Disney films win the category in three consecutive years, breaking its winning streak from Disney and Pixar films.[49]
People
[edit]- Pete Docter has the most wins of any individual (3), and is tied with Hayao Miyazaki and Chris Sanders for the most nominations (4). Additionally, Miyazaki has the most wins and nominations for a non-US individual.
- Chris Sanders has the most nominations without winning (4).
- Hayao Miyazaki became the oldest winner in 2024 at the age of 83; he previously held the record between 2003 and 2023 (briefly being succeeded by Mark Gustafson for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio).
- Matīss Kaža became the youngest winner in 2025 at the age of 29, beating Andrew Stanton in a 21-year streak between 2004 and 2025.
- In diversity, Brenda Chapman was the first woman to win for Brave and Peter Ramsey was the first black director to win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Criticisms and controversies
[edit]Best Picture criticism
[edit]Some members and fans have criticized the award, however, saying it is only intended to prevent animated films from having a chance of winning Best Picture. DreamWorks had advertised heavily during the holiday 2001 season for Shrek, but was disappointed when the rumored Best Picture nomination did not materialize.[50] The criticism of Best Animated Feature was particularly prominent at the 81st Academy Awards, in which WALL-E won the award but was not nominated for Best Picture, despite receiving widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike and being generally considered one of the best films of 2008.[51][52][53][54] This led to controversy over whether the film was deliberately snubbed of the nomination by the Academy. Film critic Peter Travers commented that "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, it's WALL-E." However, official Academy Award regulations state that any movie nominated for this category can still be nominated for Best Picture.[55] In 2009, when the nominee slots for Best Picture were doubled to ten, Up was nominated for both Animated Feature and Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards, the first to do so since the inception of the Animated Feature category.[56] This feat was repeated the following year by Toy Story 3.[57]
Category bias
[edit]Many pundits were critical of its category for snubbing non-Disney/Pixar films animated films in favor of Disney and Pixar films as a perennial frontrunner of the award season dominance, with Academy voters occasionally being accused of ignorance about the animation medium. There have been complaints that the Best Animated Feature award is held in unfairly low regard by Academy members with many members refusing to vote for films they consider mere children's fare beneath them, or letting their own children see the films and go with their opinions instead. The dominance of Disney and Pixar allegedly as a result of this bias is suggested to be injuring the credibility of the award.[58]
Anonymous interviews with a selection of Academy voters in 2014 and 2015 revealed indifference towards the animation category, treating animation as being for children, and ignorance about foreign animations; one Academy voter, for example, referred to the Japanese film Tale of the Princess Kaguya and the Irish film Song of the Sea as "freakin ’Chinese fuckin’ things that nobody ever freakin’ saw."[59][60][61] The category has also been criticized for frequently snubbing critically acclaimed Japanese animated films (not from Studio Ghibli), such as Your Name, A Silent Voice and In This Corner of the World, for example.[62][63][64][65]
In 2017, a new rule allowed any Academy voters to vote in the category regardless of background or connection to animation, which led to the nominations of The Boss Baby and Ferdinand, a decision that received significant criticism from critics and audiences alike because of their lack of solid quality to make them worthy of being nominated, especially above snubbed, but better acclaimed films. Besides being viewed as highly ignorant of this category, it is seen as a move from the Academy to put aside small, foreign and/or independent movies in favor of mainstream ones to attract audiences to something they might know and to keep a Hollywood predominance.[66][67][68][69]
See also
[edit]- List of submissions for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
- Lists of animated films
- List of animation awards
- List of animated feature films nominated for Academy Awards
- List of Academy Award–nominated films
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Special rules for the Animated Feature Film Award" (PDF). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
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- ^ a b Osbourne 2013, p. 357
- ^ Osbourne 2013, p. 58
- ^ Osbourne 2013, p. 298
- ^ Osbourne 2013, p. 327
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- ^ "History of the Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 6, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
- ^ a b "The 74th Academy Awards (2002) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/91aa_rules.pdf
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- ^ a b c Kay, Jeremy (July 8, 2010). "Academy revises rules on effects nominees, animation length". Archived from the original on February 7, 2025. Retrieved February 7, 2025 – via Screen Daily.
- ^ Fleischer Camp, Dean (July 19, 2022). "We're eligible but may have to submit documentation. Here's the Academy's eligibility requirements..." Retrieved July 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ Giardina Camp, Carolyn (November 9, 2022). "'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On' Qualifies for Oscars' Animated Feature Race (Exclusive)". Archived from the original on November 12, 2024. Retrieved November 9, 2022 – via The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ "The 75th Academy Awards (2003) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
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- ^ "The 80th Academy Awards (2008) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ "The 81st Academy Awards (2009) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
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- ^ "The 86th Academy Awards (2014) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
- ^ "The 87th Academy Awards (2015) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
- ^ "The 88th Academy Awards (2016) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
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- ^ "The 90th Academy Awards (2018) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ "The 91st Academy Awards (2019) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ "The 92nd Academy Awards (2020) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ "The 93rd Academy Awards (2021) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
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- ^ Amidi, Amid (March 11, 2024). "'Boy And The Heron' Is The First Hand-Drawn Animated Feature To Win Oscar In 21 Years". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
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- ^ "Why 'The Boy and the Heron' feels like a goodbye". TomasinoWeb. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
- ^ "Japan's Hayao Miyazaki wins award for The Boy and The Heron". March 11, 2024. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
- ^ Amidi, Amid (February 8, 2022). "'Flee' Makes Oscar History With Nominations For Animated Feature, Documentary and International Feature". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ Blauvelt, Christian (March 2, 2025). "'Flow' Wins Best Animated Feature Oscar, the First Indie Film to Do So". IndieWire. Archived from the original on March 3, 2025.
- ^ Stevens, Abigail (March 5, 2025). "Disney's Best Animated Movie Dominance Is Officially Over As It Hits Record-Long Oscars Losing Streak". ScreenRant. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
- ^ "15 Amazing Animated Movies That Were Snubbed By The Oscars". February 7, 2017.
- ^ "The 2008 Top Tens". Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
- ^ Keegan Winters, Rebecca (July 7, 2008). "Can WALL-E Win Best Picture?". Time. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ^ Bandyk, Matthew (January 22, 2009). "Academy Awards Controversy: Wall-E Gets Snubbed For Best Picture Oscar". US News. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
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- ^ "Rule Seven: Special Rules for the Animated Feature Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ Cieply, Michael (February 2, 2010). "'Avatar' and 'Hurt Locker' Lead the Oscar Field". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2014. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
- ^ Venutolo, Anthony (February 27, 2011). "Oscars 2011: 'Toy Story 3' wins Best Animated Feature". The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
- ^ Amidi, Amid. "Academy Members Don't Care About Animation: 2017 Edition". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
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- ^ "Proof That Oscar Voters Are Clueless About Animation". Cartoon Brew. February 22, 2015.
- ^ "Academy Member's NSFW Response to Anime Has Fans Fuming". ComicBook.com. January 26, 2018.
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Bibliography
[edit]- Osbourne, Robert (2013). 85 Years of the Oscar. Abberville Press. ISBN 978-0-7892-1142-2.
External links
[edit]- Oscars.org (official Academy site)
- The Academy Awards Database (official site)
- Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)
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