2015 Award Season Tracker

Cartoon Brew will regularly update this page with information about the contenders for various end-of-year animation awards, including the animation categories of the 88th annual Academy Awards, which will be held on February 28, 2016.
(updated October 16, 2015)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

These films which have been (or will be) released in some form during 2014-’15 can be considered contenders for these 2015 feature animation awards:

• Oscars
• Golden Globes
• BAFTA Film Awards
• BAFTA Children’s Awards
• ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards
• VES Awards (Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture)
• New York Film Critics Circle
• Boston Society of Film Critics
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association
• European Film Award
• National Board of Review
• Critics’ Choice Movie Awards

The films, not all of which will qualify for every award listed above, are listed alphabetically:

• Adama

  Directed by Simon Rouby (Naïa/Pipangai)

• Anomalisa

  Directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman (Starburns Industries)

• Extraordinary Tales

  Directed by Raul Garcia (GKIDS/Mélusine Productions)

• Home

  Directed by Tim Johnson (DreamWorks Animation)

• Hotel Transylvania 2

  Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (Sony Pictures Animation)

• Inside Out

  Directed by Pete Docter (Pixar)

• Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

  Directed by Roger Allers (GKIDS)

• Little Door Gods

  Directed by Gary Wang (Light Chaser Animation/Alibaba Pictures)

• Long Way North

  Directed by Rémi Chayé (Sacrebleu Production)

• Minions

  Directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin (Illumination)

• Monkey King: Hero is Back

  Directed by Tian Xiao Peng (October Animation Studio)

• Mune

  Directed by Alexandre Heboyan and Benoît Philippon (Onyx Films/Mikros Image)

• The Boy and the Beast

  Directed by Mamoru Hosoda (NTV/Studio Chizu)

• The Boy and the World

  Directed by Alê Abreu (GKIDS/Filme de Papel)

• The Good Dinosaur

  Directed by Pete Sohn (Pixar)

• The Little Prince

  Directed by Mark Osborne (Onyx Films/Mikros Image)

• The Peanuts Movie

  Directed by Steve Martino (Blue Sky Studios

• Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai

  Directed by Keiichi Hara (Production I.G)

• Shaun the Sheep Movie

  Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak (Aardman Animations)

• When Marnie Was There

  Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Studio Ghibli)

ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015, there are three ways that a short film can qualify in the animated short category of the Oscars:

1. The film wins a qualifying award at a competitive film festival. The list of festivals (and the specific awards that have to be won at those festivals) can be found in this PDF.
2. The film has won a gold, silver or bronze medal in the Academy’s Student Academy Awards competition.
3. The film has been publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial theater in Los Angeles County for at least seven consecutive days with at least one screening per day. The picture also must appear in the theater listings along with the appropriate dates and screening times.

The films below, listed alphabetically, have fulfilled one of the requirements to qualify. (Note: We do not know the titles of the films that have qualified via theatrical runs in Los Angeles unless they have specifically told Cartoon Brew. If your film should be on the list, please let us know.)

• 9:30 am

  Directed by Alfonso de la Cruz (Mexico)
  Qualified at Morelia International Film Festival
  

• An Object at Rest

  Directed by Seth Boyden (USA)
  Qualified as winner of 2015 Student Academy Awards
  

• An Ode to Love

  Directed by Matthew Darragh (Ireland)
  Qualified at Foyle Film Festival
  

• Au fil de l’ eau

  Directed by Dominique Monfery (France)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Bear Story

  Directed by Gabriel Osorio (Chile)
  Qualified at Cleveland International Film Festival, Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest, Nashville Film Festival, Riverrun International Film Festival
  

• Between Times

  Directed by Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter (USA/Netherlands)
  Qualified at Austin Film Festival
  

• Carface

  Directed by Claude Cloutier (Canada)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Castillo y el Armado

  Directed by Pedro Harres (Brazil)
  Qualified at Guadalajara International Film Festival
  

• Chiaroscuro

  Directed by Daniel Drummond (USA)
  Qualified as winner of 2015 Student Academy Awards
  

• Citius, Altius, Fortius

  Directed by Felix Deimann (Germany)
  Qualified at SIGGRAPH
  

• Dinner for Few

  Directed by Nassos Vakalis (Greece/USA)
  Qualified at Odense Int’l Film Festival
  

• Dissonance

  Directed by Till Nowak (Germany)
  Qualified at Aspen Shortsfest, Anima Mundi
  

• Driving

  Directed by Nate Theis (USA)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Edmond

  Directed by Nina Gantz (UK)
  Qualified at Guanajuato International Film Festival
  

• German Shepherd

  Directed by Nils Bergendal (Sweden)
  Qualified at Cinequest Film Festival
  

• Grace Under Water

  Directed by Anthony Lawrence (Australia)
  Qualified at Sydney Film Festival
  

• If I was God

  Directed by Cordell Barker (Canada)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Johnny Express

  Directed by James (Kyungmin) Woo (South Korea)
  Qualified at New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival
  

• Juan y la Nube

  Directed by Giovanni Maccelli (Spain)
  Qualified at Goya Award for Best Animated Short Film
  

• Limbo Limbo Travel

  Directed by Zsuzsanna Kreif and Borbála Zétényi (France/Hungary)
  Qualified at Krakow Film Festival
  

• Load

  Directed by Niv Shpigel and Robert Moreno (Israel)
  Qualified at Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival
  

• Loop Ring Chop Drink

  Directed by Nicolas Ménard (UK)
  Qualified at Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival
  

• Love in the Time of March Madness

  Directed by Robertino Zambrano and Melissa Johnson (Australia)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Messages dans l’air

  Directed by Isabel Favez (Switzeralnd)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and The Rose

  Directed by Brendan Fletcher and Del Kathryn Barton (Australia)
  Qualified at Melbourne Int’l Film Festival
  

• (Otto)

  Directed by Job, Joris and Marieke (Netherlands)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Pineapple Calamari

  Directed by Kasia Nalewajka (UK)
  Qualified at Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival
  

• Prologue

  Directed by Richard Williams (UK)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Sanjay’s Super Team

  Directed by Sanjay Patel (USA)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Small People with Hats

  Directed by Sarina Nihei (UK)
  Qualified at Ottawa International Animation Festival
  

• Soar

  Directed by Alyce Tzue (USA)
  Qualified as winner of 2015 Student Academy Awards
  

• Soot (Fuligem)

  Directed by David Doutel and Vasco Sá (Portugal)
  Qualified at Cinanima Int’l Animated Film Festival
  

• Sound of My Soul

  Directed by Wojciech Bąkowski (Poland)
  Qualified at the Oberhausen Int’l Short Film Festival
  

• Snowfall

  Directed by Conor Whelan (Ireland)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Starlight

  Directed by Marisa Tontaveetong, Tamarind King, Yu Ueda, Shir Wen Sun (USA)
  Qualified at Atlanta Film Festival
  

• Still Born

  Directed by Åsa Sandzén (Sweden)
  Qualified at Dok Leipzig, Uppsala Int’l Short Film Festival
  

• Storm Hits Jacket

  Directed by Paul Cabon (France)
  Qualified at Sundance Film Festival
  

• Stripy

  Directed by Babak Nekooei, Behnoud Nekooei (Iran)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• The Loneliest Stoplight

  Directed by Bill Plympton (USA)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• The Master

  Directed by Riho Unt (Estonia)
  Qualified at Annecy
  

• The Mill at Calder’s End

  Directed by Kevin McTurk (USA)
  Qualified at the Seattle Int’l Film Festival
  

• The Night of the Elephant

  Directed by Sandra Schiessl (Germany)
  Qualified at the German Short Film Award
  

• Taking Flight

  Directed by Brandon Oldenburg (USA)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• Taking the Plunge

  Directed by Nicholas Manfredi, Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, Thaddaeus Andreades and Marie Raoult (USA)
  Qualified as winner of 2015 Student Academy Awards
  

• The Ballad of the Homeless

  Directed by Monica Manganelli (Italy)
  Qualified at LA Shorts Fest
  

• The Pride of Strathmoor

  Directed by Einar Baldvin (USA)
  Qualified at Slamdance, Florida Film Festival, and Nordisk Panorama Film Festival
  

• The Sense of Touch

  Directed by Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo (France)
  Qualified at Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film
  

• The Story of Percival Pilts

  Directed by Janette Goodey and John Lewis (Australia)
  Qualified through one-week Los Angeles theatrical run
  

• The Tide Keeper

  Directed by Alyx Duncan (New Zealand)
  Qualified at Warsaw Film Festival
  

• Violet

  Directed by Maurice Joyce (Ireland)
  Qualified at Galway Film Fleadh
  

• Walk the Dog (Dame mit Hund)

  Directed by Sonja Rohleder (Germany)
  Qualified at Leeds International Film Festival
  

• Waves ’98

  Directed by Ely Dagher (Lebanon/Qatar)
  Qualified at Cannes Film Festival
  

• We Can’t Live Without Cosmos

  Directed by Konstantin Bronzit (Russia)
  Qualified at Animafest Zagreb and Annecy
  

• World of Tomorrow

  Directed by Don Hertzfeldt (USA)
  Qualified at Sundance Film Festival and SXSW
  

• Zoe

  Directed by ChiHyun Lee (USA)
  Qualified as winner of 2015 Student Academy Awards
  

Award tracker illustration: Chris McDonnell