‘Zootopia’ Named Best Animated Film of 2016 by New York Film Critics Circle

Zootopia, directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, has been named the best animated film of 2016 by the New York Film Critics Circle.

Earlier this week, the Disney film topped the ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award nominations with 11 nods. Meanwhile, another New York film group, the National Board of Review, chose Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings as its top animated feature pick of the year.

Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is comprised of film reviewers from New York-based publications. The group considers itself a “principled alternative to the Oscars, honoring aesthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial and political pressures.”

Although the Film Critics Circle chose Pixar’s Inside Out as its best animated feature last year, the group’s winners have traditionally not been a harbinger of the Oscar animated feature winner. Other recent Film Critics Circle winners have included The Lego Movie, The Wind Rises, Frankenweenie, The Illusionist, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Persepolis. In every single one of those years, the Academy Award was presented to a film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar.