There are many criticisms levied toward the Academy Awards that remain consistent every time the nominations come out, for good reason when it comes to lack of diversity, elitism, and snubs that can range from baffling to insulting. One category that is met with a particular amount of frustration from both fans and creators alike is Best Animated Feature. Last year's Academy Awards were a special kind of disaster in this regard, not so much Encanto winning, but the treatment of animation as an art form through the opening speech by Halle Bailey, Lily James, and Naomi Scott. It framed animation as something that kids liked and adults endured, which displeased many in the industry, including The Lego Movie's Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
Does the Academy Care About the Best Animated Feature Category?
This mode of thinking is not new for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, this lack of respect has been there since the very beginning, with many believing this category was only made in 2001 to bar animated films from winning Best Picture. WALL-E was considered a huge snub for the big one back in 2009. In the process of choosing nominees and winners, audiences get the vibe that the voters in the Academy didn't watch all, or even any of the films or shorts nominated, and just chose the one their kids liked. Cartoon Brew released this damning piece of evidence of the fact back in 2015, an amazing year for animation.
Disney and Pixar dominate in this category, not to say they don't deserve the accolades, but it is concerning, to say the least, that winners outside one conglomerate are the exception, not the rule. Many films have gotten snubbed over the years which made a much wider impact than the winners, and animated films that are actually geared towards adults, such as Persepolis, Anomalisa, and Flee don't stand a chance. Because, after all, animation is for kids.
So, the nominations roll around every year, and many can't help feeling a sense of bitterness for how predictable things will be a couple of months later. We all know how it will go, some of the best animated films of the year will be completely passed over, and then Disney or Pixar will win again. Since 2001, they've won a combined 15 times out of 30 nominations, one or both of them getting at least nominated almost every year. So, we were all pretty sure about how things would go, but this year was a genuine surprise.
What Are This Year's Best Animated Feature Nominees?
The five films nominated for Best Animated Feature are as follows: Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, a stop-motion retelling of the classic story in a way that was existential, deeply moving, and staunchly anti-fascist. Turning Red, Pixar's entry this year, is a fun, vibrant movie that touches on themes of puberty and generational trauma. A24's Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, is based on a series of short mockumentaries and blends live-action with stop-motion animation to create a tiny, colorful world and a big adventure. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a surprisingly quite sensational, fast-paced, and tightly written sequel to the Dreamworks spin-off with incredible action and endless amounts of fun. The final nominee, The Sea Beast, is the other nominee, along with Pinocchio, that was released on Netflix alone. It's a high-seas adventure meets eat-the-rich epic from veterans of animation.
There is no uncanny outlier that makes you wonder how it made the list despite more suitable potential nominees, every film has a shot at winning without argument. There is a sense of diversity and maturity in each nomination which gives onlookers a newfound optimism that perhaps this year the medium was going to be taken seriously. After all, 2022 was a fantastic year for animation in both film and television, and five is certainly not enough to cover all that this year had to offer, but this is regarded to be a perfectly fair selection of films to represent it.
A Great Year for Animation Means a Great Amount of Snubs
That being said, no awards ceremony is free from its share of snubs, and given how jam-packed this year was for animated features, there only being five entries left a lot of incredibly deserving films without a nomination. Phil Tippet's Mad God was one that exhibits the Academy's neglect of both animation and horror, a thirty-year spanning Herculean effort to make a twisted epic of biblical proportions deserves at the very least a nomination. The House and Wendell & Wild add to the list of stop-motion horror that missed out. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood was another Netflix entry created by Richard Linklater, whose Waking Life was snubbed back in 2002.
Even big studios were snubbed this year, such as Disney's Strange World, and while that's kind of surprising, the abject lack of marketing and tepid release makes it less so, with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish being nominated over The Bad Guys. My Father's Dragon had nomination potential, though I don't know if I can stomach the amazing Cartoon Saloon losing to a larger company for the fifth time. Even this expansive list is barely scratching the surface of what missed out, and why animation deserves more attention during awards season.
Who Has the Best Chance of Taking the Oscar?
Everyone has their predictions for most likely Oscar winners, and I'm no different. Though I wouldn't put any money on it, Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio has the strongest chance of bringing home the gold. It comes from an Oscar-winning director and having been released after an extremely weak adaptation of the same material showed audiences how good this film was. The dark fantasy has gained a lot of attention and acclaim, which is more than earned. I have an even stronger feeling that people might be disappointed if Turning Red won, not to say the film wouldn't deserve it, but it would shatter any optimism about a possible shift in perspective, choosing the more child-friendly Pixar film, the safest option, for the twelfth time, despite an incredibly strong series of nominees.
Because there is optimism there, for many things toward how these elite industries view the medium of animation in all its forms. A hefty amount of attention was put on streaming this year, with two nominees exclusive to Netflix, there's a diverse array of both stories and talent here, which should be more natural considering how much of a team effort animation is. Perhaps they've learned from the ire they've received, and animation is finally being allowed to leave the kids table. We'll all just have to wait until March, and hope that this optimism translates to the ceremony. That a revolutionary, beautiful, time-consuming, and difficult art form is finally given the respect it deserves.