‘Coco’ Is Apparently So Amazing That It’s Winning Awards Before Even Premiering

Disney-Pixar completed production on Coco a little over two weeks ago – and now the film has won its first award.

The Hollywood Film Awards (HFA) announced yesterday that the Lee Unkrich-directed film, which world premieres next week at the Morelia Fest in Mexico, will receive its Hollywood Animation Award.

Even though the HFA is 21 years old, it is a complete mystery how its winners are selected. Dick Clark Productions, which produces the award, offers no information on which films were eligible for the award or who votes on the award. The only insight it offers on its decision-making process is this statement: “The recipients of the awards are selected by an Advisory Team for their body of work and/or a film(s) that is to be released during the calendar year.”

The HFAs benefits from being the first honor of Hollywood’s award season, but it’s questionable how much of an honor it actually is to receive the award. The awards are routinely mocked, even by those receiving them.

At last year’s ceremony, host James Corden joked about the lack of transparency in the selection of winners and how anyone who is well connected can receive the honor, telling the crowd, “If you haven’t won an award tonight and you’re here, you should fire your publicist.”

American audiences won’t be able to decide for themselves if Coco is the best animated film of the year for at least another month, but Disney’s marketing machine has already started its psychological campaign to convince people that no better animated film was produced this year. With the Disney Company having won the feature animation Oscar for nine out of the last ten years, they clearly understand how to create the perception that its animated films are the finest ones produced every year.

The HFAs will be presented at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday, November 5, 2017.

The last five HFA awards for animation have been won by Zootopia, Inside Out, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Monsters University, and Rise of the Guardians.