Record 32 Animated Features Submitted For 2020 Oscars

A record thirty-two animated features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category of the 92nd Academy Awards.

The previous record was 27 features for the 2017 Academy Awards.

The full list is below:

• Abominable
• The Addams Family
• The Angry Birds Movie 2
• Another Day of Life
• Away
• Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
• Children of the Sea
• Dilili in Paris
• Frozen II
• Funan
• Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
• I Lost My Body
• Klaus
• The Last Fiction
• The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
• Marona’s Fantastic Tale
• Missing Link
• Ne Zha
• Okko’s Inn
• Pachamama
• Promare
• Rezo
• The Secret Life of Pets 2
• Spies in Disguise
• The Swallows of Kabul
• This Magnificent Cake!
• The Tower
• Toy Story 4
• Upin & Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris
• Weathering with You
• White Snake

Some initial observations:

• This year’s two highest-grossing international animated films — China’s Ne Zha and Japan’s Weathering with You — have two shots at a nomination, since they were also selected by their respective countries to compete for the International Feature Film Oscar (previously Foreign Language Film Oscar).
• Nearly one-third of the nominees in the category belong to indie distributor GKIDS, which has become a clearinghouse for foreign animated features. Already nominated 11 times in this category, GKIDS submitted at least ten films in the category: Another Day of Life, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Children of the Sea, Funan, Marona’s Fantastic Tale, Okko’s Inn, Promare, This Magnificent Cake!, Weathering with You, and White Snake. Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You may be their best bet for a nomination, though they have plenty of other strong contenders.
• Netflix is making its presence felt in the category for the first time this year by submitting three features: I Lost My Body, Klaus, and Pachamama. At least one of those films, Jérémy Clapin’s flawless I Lost My Body, is a no-brainer nominee for this category.
• In 2019, the Walt Disney Company set the record for the highest-grossing animated feature of all-time with its cgi version of The Lion King, yet it did not submit that film in the animation category. It’s an ugly attempt by Disney to create its own definition of animation, and an egregious omission that devalues the work of hundreds of animators and digital artists at MPC who worked on this milestone accomplishment in cg animation.
• As we speculated last month, the theatrical run of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Adult Swim series Primal was intended as a qualifying run for the Academy Awards. Tartakovsky, who has directed three animated features (all Hotel Transylvania films) has never been nominated for the feature Oscar.

The Academy points out that even though the films have been submitted doesn’t mean they’ve all qualified yet:

Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the nominations voting process.

To determine the five nominees, members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote in the category. Academy members outside of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are invited to opt-in to participate and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.

The nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020, and the Oscars will be presented on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California.