‘The Mitchells Vs. The Machines’ And ‘Flee’ Own The Critics’ Awards

Where animated features are concerned, awards season so far is playing out as a two-horse race — and Disney isn’t involved.

Critics’ associations around the U.S., whose awards help shape momentum in the run-up to the major ceremonies, have almost-exclusively honored Netflix’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines and the European documentary Flee (released in the country by Neon and Participant). Mitchells has won twelve animation film awards, Flee six. The latter has also won eight times in documentary or international film categories; in seven of those cases, it lost the animation award to Mitchells.

This an extraordinarily consistent set of results. The focus on these two films so far has squeezed out other hopefuls, including Disney’s Encanto and Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney-Pixar’s Luca, GKIDS’s Belle, and Netflix’s The Summit of the Gods. These films have won only a single critics’ award among them.

Critics organizations’ tastes do tend to be more eclectic (read: less Disney-centric) than those of the Oscars, Golden Globes, etc. Last year, for instance, Apple and Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers did very well with these groups, before losing to Pixar’s Soul at the majors.

When it comes to those awards, Disney is forever the favorite — especially when it has three high-profile films in contention, as it does this year. All three have been nominated for the Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, both of which will announce winners on January 9. As we enter 2022, Disney will probably start catching up in this race.

But this is not a given. In 2018, many critics’ associations picked Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, setting it up as a frontrunner for the Oscar. The film — which, like Mitchells, was produced by Sony Pictures Animation — went on to win.

Here’s the list of U.S. critics’ associations and their animation winners:

• Chicago Film Critics Circle: Flee
• Philadelphia Film Critics Circle: Flee
• Boston Society of Film Critics: Flee
• Indiana Film Journalists Association: Flee
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Flee
• Utah Film Critics Association: Flee (animation and non-English-language film)
• Phoenix Film Critics Society: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Phoenix Critics Circle: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Washington DC Area Film Critics Association: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Southeastern Film Critics Association Association: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Portland Critics Association: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (international film)
• Boston Online Film Critics: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (documentary)
• Atlanta Film Critics Circle: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (documentary)
• Detroit Film Critics Society: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (documentary)
• New York Film Critics Circle: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (non-fiction film)
• New York Film Critics Online: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (documentary)
• St. Louis Critics Film Association: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (animation)
  Flee (documentary)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association: Encanto