Academy Reverses Stance, Says ‘Apollo 10 1/2’ Can Qualify For Best Animated Feature Oscar Race

Reversing a previous decision, the Academy has decided that Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood will be eligible for consideration in the animated feature category of the upcoming 95th Academy Awards.

In October, Linklater revealed that he’d been told Apollo would not be able to contend for this year’s Oscars. Speaking to Indiewire, he and producer Tommy Pallotta expressed their frustrations about the perceived injustice and an Academy bias against rotoscoping.

After hearing the news that the film is now eligible, Austin-based Minnow Mountain, which handled the film’s animation along with Submarine in the Netherlands, tweeted:

Apollo 10 1/2, the animated film, is officially an animated film. After demonstrating the fact that Apollo 10 1/2 meets the Academy’s qualifications as an animated feature film our appeal was successful.

We have so much freaking gratitude to the filmmakers who wrote letters to the Academy or made public statements in support of the film. Academy voters will now have a chance to consider Apollo 10 1/2 next to the other great animated films of the year.

The Academy has also confirmed that hybrid stop-motion/live-action feature Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Canada’s Eternal Spring will similarly be eligible for consideration. The decision came after the committee reviewed background materials submitted by the filmmakers.

Distributed by A24, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is based on a popular series of Youtube shorts. Special effects pioneer Stephen Chiodo (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Team America: World Police) took over as supervising animation director for the feature adaptation of the franchise, directed by co-creator Dean Fleischer-Camp and starring fellow co-creator Jenny Slate. Chiodo Bros. Productions handled the stop-motion animation for the film, with Edward Chiodo serving as the animation producer and Kirsten Lepore as animation director.

Already selected as Canada’s submission for the international feature Oscar, animated documentary Eternal Spring is directed by Jason Loftus. The film uses a blend of animation and live-action footage to revisit the March 2002 hacking of a Chinese television signal by the state-banned spiritual group Falun Gong on the 20th anniversary of the event. The story is centered around comic book illustrator Daxiong (Justice League, Star Wars) who, as a Falun Gong follower, was forced to flee China when the signal hack triggered police raids.