Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

Some members and fans have criticized the award, however, saying it is only intended to prevent animated films from having a chance of winning Best Picture. DreamWorks had advertised heavily during the holiday 2001 season for Shrek, but was disappointed when the rumored Best Picture nomination did not materialize, though it was nominated for and ultimately won the inaugural Best Animated Feature award.[1]

The criticism surrounding the Best Animated Feature category was particularly prominent at the 81st Academy Awards, in which WALL-E won the award but was not nominated for Best Picture, despite receiving widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike and being generally considered to be one of the best films of 2008.[16][17][18][19] This sparked controversy over whether the film was deliberately snubbed of such nomination by the Academy. Film critic Peter Travers commented that "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, it's WALL-E." However, official Academy Award regulations state that any film nominated for this category can still be nominated for Best Picture.[4]

From 2010 onward, with the increasing competitiveness of the Animated Feature category, Pixar (a perennial nominee) did not receive nominations for several recent films due to the more mixed critical response and comparatively low box-office receipts, while Pixar's sister studio Disney Animation won their first three awards.[20]

In 2010, the Academy enacted a new rule regarding the motion capture technique employed in films such as A Christmas Carol (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011), each directed by Academy Award for Best Director winners Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, and how they might not be eligible in this category in the future. This rule was possibly made to prevent nominations of live-action films that rely heavily on motion capture, such as Avatar (2009).

On the 94th Academy Awards, the award for Best Animated Feature was presented by three actresses who portrayed as Disney princess characters in live-action remakes of their respective animated films: Lily James (Cinderella), Naomi Scott (Aladdin), and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid). While introducing the category, Bailey stated that animated films are "formative experiences as kids who watch them", as James put it, "So many kids watch these movies over and over, over and over again". Scott added: "I see some parents who know exactly what we're talking about."[21] The remarks were heavily criticized by those working in the animation industry as perpetuating the stigma that animated works are strictly for children, especially since the industry was credited with sustaining the flow of Hollywood content and revenue during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Phil Lord, co-producer of one of the nominated films, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, tweeted that it was "Super cool to position animation as something that kids watch and adults have to endure". The film's official social media accounts responded to the joke with an image reading: "Animation IS cinema".[22][23] A week later, Lord and his producing partner Chris Miller wrote a guest column in Variety criticizing the Academy for the joke and how Hollywood has been treating animation writing that "no one set out to diminish animated films, but it's high time we set out to elevate them". They also suggested to the Academy that the category should be presented by a filmmaker who respects the art of animation as cinema.[24]

Adding to the controversy was the fact that the award for Best Animated Short Film (the nominees for which were mostly made up of shorts not aimed at children without Disney and Pixar nominees) was one of the eight aforementioned categories that were not presented during the live broadcast.[25] The winner for the Best Animated Short award was The Windshield Wiper, a Spanish-American film which is adult animated with some foreign languages, while the nominee for three categories; Best Animated, Documentary, and International Feature, was Neon's Flee, an animated documentary about an Afghan refugee, which the film is PG-13 rating. Alberto Mielgo, director of The Windshield Wiper, gives an acceptance speech to the Oscars: “Animation is an art that includes every single art that you can imagine. Animation for adults is a fact. It’s happening. Let’s call it cinema. I’m very honored because this is just the beginning of what we can do with animation.”[26]

Another factor is that numerous animated films have been made for mature audiences, with a few of them, Persepolis, Waltz With Bashir, Anomalisa, I Lost My Body, and Flee, having been nominated in this category, though none have won.[27][28]

These comments came as #NewDeal4Animation, a movement of animation workers demanding equal pay, treatment and recognition alongside their contemporaries working in live-action, was picking up momentum during negotiations for a new contract between The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839/SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers,[29] and the presentation is being used to rally the movement.

3 wins

• Pete Docter

2 wins

• Brad Bird
• Byron Howard
• Jonas Rivera
• Clark Spencer
• Andrew Stanton
• Lee Unkrich

4 nominations

• Pete Docter

3 nominations

• Brad Bird
• Ron Clements
• Dean DeBlois
• Byron Howard
• Travis Knight
• Hayao Miyazaki
• Rich Moore
• Tomm Moore
• Chris Sanders
• Clark Spencer

2 nominations

• Wes Anderson
• Bonnie Arnold
• Chris Buck
• Tim Burton
• Chris Butler
• Sylvain Chomet
• Don Hall
• John Lasseter
• Phil Lord
• Christopher Miller
• John Musker
• Yoshiaki Nishimura
• Jonas Rivera
• Osnat Shurer
• Andrew Stanton
• Arianne Sutner
• Toshio Suzuki
• Lee Unkrich
• Peter Del Vecho
• Chris Williams
• Paul Young