16 Animated Features Submitted for 2015 Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced today that 16 animated features have been submitted for Oscar consideration in the 2015 feature category.

Here is the list of films, in alphabetical order:

• Anomalisa
• Home
• Hotel Transylvania 2
• Inside Out
• Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
• Minions
• Moomins on the Riviera
• Regular Show: The Movie
• Shaun the Sheep Movie
• The Boy and the Beast
• The Boy and the World
• The Good Dinosaur
• The Laws of the Universe – Part 0
• The Peanuts Movie
• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water
• When Marnie Was There

Though all of these films have submitted their paperwork, several of the films have not yet fulfilled the Los Angeles theatrical release requirement that would allow them to advance in the voting process. Here’s why that matters: To have five nominees in the category, the Academy requires a minimum of 16 films to qualify. That means if one of these films doesn’t complete the qualification process, the entire field would drop down to 15 films, and the Academy rules would force them to scale back to just four nominees, rather than five.

That would be especially tough for the other films because it’s an extremely strong pack of contenders this year with much-admired films like Anomalisa, The Boy and the Beast, The Boy and the World, Inside Out, and Shaun the Sheep Movie contending for the prize. Other potential contenders like The Peanuts Movie and The Good Dinosaur haven’t even been released yet.

It’s also remarkable that so few films qualified this year considering that over 150 animated features were released theatrically around the globe this year. The number of submissions in the feature animation category represents a 20% drop-off from last year when 20 features were submitted.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 14, 2016.