Oscars Shortlists Announced: Animation Projects Compete In Record 7 Shortlist Categories

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its shortlists in 10 different categories, including animated short film and visual effects. It’s been an amazing year for animation, and animated projects can be found in at least five other shortlist categories besides animated short and vfx – a record for the art form as far as we know.

What follows is a rundown of all the shortlisted animated films announced today.

The animated short film category has a 15-film shortlist. The films that have already been profiled as part of our contenders series are linked to their director interviews. Here are the films:

• Au Revoir Mon Monde
• A Bear Named Wojtek
• Beautiful Men
• Bottle George
• A Crab in the Pool
• In the Shadow of the Cypress
• Magic Candies
• Maybe Elephants
• Me
• Origami
• Percebes
• The 21
• Wander to Wonder
• The Wild-Tempered Clavier
• Yuck!

The shortlisted films come from thirteen different countries, led by the France (5) and Japan (3). Other countries with multiple films on the shortlist are the United States (2), Canada (2), Netherlands (2), and Belgium (2). Countries with a single film apiece are Portugal, Poland, Scotland, Iran, Norway, U.K., and Germany. (Some films are co-productions, with multiple countries involved.)

It is difficult to talk about snubs in this category because this first stage can be a complete crapshoot. Eighty-eight films qualified in the category, and a number of fantastic films made it through, while other excellent films did not. Ultimately, like any judging process of creative work, it has less to do with the quality of the artwork than the personal tastes of the voting body. Overall, however, it is a solid list comprised of both younger filmmakers and established directors who have previously been nominated (Torill Kove, Don Hertzfeldt, Dice Tsutsumi).

If there’s any observation to be made, it’s that the Academy largely rejected the celebrification of the animated short category, a disturbing trend that in recent years had altered the spirit of the award. No film that had a strong celebrity component, such as An Almost Christmas Story or The Brown Dog, made it onto the shortlist this year, as did no film from a major American studio.

For the final nominations in the animated short category, Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

The vfx shortlist is comprised of just 10 films, and this year it includes one fully-animated feature: Mufasa: The Lion King. The shortlist was decided upon by the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 11, 2025, and they will determine the final five nominees. The shortlist is:

• Alien: Romulus
• Better Man
• Civil War
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Dune: Part Two
• Gladiator II
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Mufasa: The Lion King
• Twisters
• Wicked

Animation projects are additionally competing in five other shortlist categories announced today. In the international feature film category, Gints Zilbalodis’s remarkable Flow is among the fifteen shortlisted films. Already a key contender for animated feature, a nomination for international feature would make it the first-ever film from Latvia to be recognized in the category.

In the documentary feature category, two films that prominently feature animation are among the fifteen-film shortlist: The Porcelain War, which we profiled last summer, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, currently available on Netflix. The animated Pharrell Williams biopic Piece by Piece did not make the shortlist for the documentary category, and with its chances slipping away in the animated feature category, it would not appear that the film has much chance for any nomination outside of a possible original song nomination.

In the music (original score) category, twenty scores will advance, from 145 eligible scores, and two animated films are among the finalists: Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Dreamworks Animation’s The Wild Robot.

In the music (original song) category, fifteen songs will advance, from eighty-nine eligible songs, including four songs from animated features: “Beyond” from Moana 2, “Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King, “Piece By Piece” from Piece by Piece, and “Kiss The Sky” from The Wild Robot.

In the sound category, ten films will advance including one animated feature: The Wild Robot.

Final nomination voting will take place from January 8-12, 2025, with the nominees announced on Friday, January 17. The winners will be announced at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday, March 2, 2025.