Cartoon Brew Launches 2015 Animation Oscar Tracker [UPDATED]

Cartoon Brew relaunches its Animation Oscar Tracker today, aiming to provide the most comprehensive source of information about possible nominees in the animated short (and soon, animated feature) category of the Academy Awards. [UPDATE: The tracker now includes the animated feature contenders.]

Our tracker will especially aid members of the Academy’s animated short film reviewing committee who must attend selection screenings blind with no idea of what films have fulfilled eligibility or experienced success on the festival circuit. This situation runs contrary to the other major Academy Award categories in which the contenders are discussed and scrutinized for months prior to the nomination period. With the heightened profile of animated shorts amongst the general public, this first-of-its-kind resource will help both voters and audiences understand the breadth and scope of the animated short category.

There are multiple paths to qualifying a short for the Academy Awards, but the only public way of doing so is to win a specific award at one of the Academy’s qualifying festivals (see PDF). The qualifying period to win an award at one of these festivals runs between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. The first round of voting in the animated short category will begin in October.

Last year, by examining the list of qualified festival winners, Cartoon Brew was able to identify four of the five eventual short category nominees in October, three months before the nominations were announced. While the tracker will never be 100% complete due to the possibility of privately qualifying a short, it should still provide a solid overview of who’s eligible in the current year.

If you have qualified your film privately and would like to be included on the list, or if you spot any errors on the current list, please drop us a line.