Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
Awarded for	The best animated film with a running time of more than 40 minutes, a significant number of the major characters animated, and at least 75 percent of the picture's running time including animation.
Country	United States
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
First awarded	Shrek (2001)
Currently held by	Encanto (2021)
Most awards	Pixar (11) / Pete Docter (3)
Most nominations	Pixar (17) / Pete Docter (4)
Website	oscars.org

The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.

The entire AMPAS membership has been eligible to choose the winner since the award's inception. If there are sixteen or more films submitted for the category, the winner is voted from a shortlist of five films, which has happened nine times, otherwise there will only be three films on the shortlist.

History

For much of the Academy Awards' history, AMPAS was resistant to the idea of a regular award for animated features, considering there were simply too few produced to justify such consideration. Instead, the Academy occasionally bestowed special Oscars for exceptional productions, usually for Walt Disney Pictures, such as for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938, and the Special Achievement Academy Award for the live action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988 and Toy Story in 1995. In fact, prior to the award's creation, only one animated film was nominated for Best Picture: 1991's Beauty and the Beast, also by Disney.

By 2001, the rise of sustained competitors to Disney in the feature animated film market, such as DreamWorks Animation (founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg), created an increase of film releases of significant annual number enough for AMPAS to reconsider. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first given out at the 74th Academy Awards, held on March 24, 2002. The Academy included a rule that stated that the award would not be presented in a year in which fewer than eight eligible films opened in theaters. It dropped the rule on April 23, 2019, to make voting for animated films more acceptable. People in the animation industry, as well as fans, expressed hope that the prestige from this award and the resulting boost to the box office would encourage the increased production of animated features.

In 2009, when the nominee slots for Best Picture were doubled to ten, Up was nominated for both Animated Feature and Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards, the first to do so since the inception of the Animated Feature category. This feat was repeated the following year by Toy Story 3.

In 2022, it was unclear whether Marcel the Shell with Shoes On would be eligible for the award at the 95th Academy Awards due to being a live-action/stop-motion animated hybrid. Director Dean Fleischer Camp said that he and A24 films had to submit documentation in order to prove the film had enough animation to meet the award's minimum requirements Nonetheless, the AMPAS officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category.

Criticism and controversies

Best Picture criticism

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.

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. 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.

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.

Eligibility of motion capture films

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).

Remarks about animated films as children's genre

At 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" (ironically one of the nominees, Flee, was a documentary about a refugee fleeing the Soviet–Afghan War). 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." A week later, Lord and his producing partner Christopher 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.

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) was one of the eight categories that were not presented during the live broadcast. The winner for the Best Animated Short award was The Windshield Wiper, a multilingual Spanish-American film which is adult animated, while another nominee in three categories; Best Animated, Documentary, and International Feature, was Flee, a PG-13 rated animated documentary about an Afghan refugee. Alberto Mielgo, director of The Windshield Wiper, later gave an acceptance speech for the Oscar: “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.” Some speculations suggested that the speech played a role in the decision to not broadcast the award.

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

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, and the presentation is being used to rally the movement.

Winners and nominees

Hayao Miyazaki won in 2002 for Spirited Away.

Andrew Stanton won in 2003 for Finding Nemo and again in 2008 for WALL-E.

Brad Bird won in 2004 for The Incredibles and again in 2007 for Ratatouille.

Nick Park won in 2005 for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

George Miller won in 2006 for Happy Feet.

Pete Docter holds the record for most wins in this category, winning three times; for 2009's Up, 2015's Inside Out and 2020's Soul.

Lee Unkrich won in 2010 for Toy Story 3 and again in 2017 for Coco.

Gore Verbinski won in 2011 for Rango.

Chris Buck won in 2013 for Frozen.

Jonas Rivera won in 2015 for Inside Out and again in 2019 for Toy Story 4.

Byron Howard won in 2016 for Zootopia and again in 2021 for Encanto.

2000s

Year	Film	Nominees
2001 (74th)
	Shrek	Aron Warner
	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius	Steve Oedekerk & John A. Davis
	Monsters, Inc.	Pete Docter & John Lasseter
2002 (75th)
	Spirited Away	Hayao Miyazaki
	Ice Age	Chris Wedge
	Lilo & Stitch	Chris Sanders
	Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron	Jeffrey Katzenberg
	Treasure Planet	Ron Clements
2003 (76th)
	Finding Nemo	Andrew Stanton
	Brother Bear	Aaron Blaise & Robert Walker
	The Triplets of Belleville	Sylvain Chomet
2004 (77th)
	The Incredibles	Brad Bird
	Shark Tale	Bill Damaschke
	Shrek 2	Andrew Adamson
2005 (78th)
	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	Nick Park & Steve Box
	Corpse Bride	Mike Johnson & Tim Burton
	Howl's Moving Castle	Hayao Miyazaki
2006 (79th)
	Happy Feet	George Miller
	Cars	John Lasseter
	Monster House	Gil Kenan
2007 (80th)
	Ratatouille	Brad Bird
	Persepolis	Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud
	Surf's Up	Ash Brannon & Chris Buck
2008 (81st)
	WALL-E	Andrew Stanton
	Bolt	Chris Williams & Byron Howard
	Kung Fu Panda	John Stevenson & Mark Osborne
2009 (82nd)
	Up	Pete Docter
	Coraline	Henry Selick
	Fantastic Mr. Fox	Wes Anderson
	The Princess and the Frog	John Musker & Ron Clements
	The Secret of Kells	Tomm Moore

2010s

Year	Film	Nominees
2010 (83rd)
	Toy Story 3	Lee Unkrich
	How to Train Your Dragon	Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois
	The Illusionist	Sylvain Chomet
2011 (84th)
	Rango	Gore Verbinski
	A Cat in Paris	Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Felicioli
	Chico and Rita	Fernando Trueba & Javier Mariscal
	Kung Fu Panda 2	Jennifer Yuh Nelson
	Puss in Boots	Chris Miller
2012 (85th)
	Brave	Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman
	Frankenweenie	Tim Burton
	ParaNorman	Sam Fell & Chris Butler
	The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!	Peter Lord
	Wreck-It Ralph	Rich Moore
2013 (86th)
	Frozen	Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee & Peter Del Vecho
	The Croods	Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco & Kristine Belson
	Despicable Me 2	Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin & Chris Meledandri
	Ernest & Celestine	Benjamin Renner & Didier Brunner
	The Wind Rises	Hayao Miyazaki & Toshio Suzuki
2014 (87th)
	Big Hero 6	Don Hall, Chris Williams & Roy Conli
	The Boxtrolls	Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable & Travis Knight
	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Dean DeBlois & Bonnie Arnold
	Song of the Sea	Tomm Moore & Paul Young
	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	Isao Takahata & Yoshiaki Nishimura
2015 (88th)
	Inside Out	Pete Docter & Jonas Rivera
	Anomalisa	Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson & Rosa Tran
	Boy and the World	Alê Abreu
	Shaun the Sheep Movie	Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
	When Marnie Was There	Hiromasa Yonebayashi & Yoshiaki Nishimura
2016 (89th)
	Zootopia	Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Clark Spencer
	Kubo and the Two Strings	Travis Knight & Arianne Sutner
	Moana	John Musker, Ron Clements & Osnat Shurer
	My Life as a Courgette	Claude Barras & Max Karli
	The Red Turtle	Michaël Dudok de Wit & Toshio Suzuki
2017 (90th)
	Coco	Lee Unkrich & Darla K. Anderson
	The Boss Baby	Tom McGrath & Ramsey Naito
	The Breadwinner	Nora Twomey & Anthony Leo
	Ferdinand	Carlos Saldanha & Lori Forte
	Loving Vincent	Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman & Ivan Mactaggart
2018 (91st)
	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse	Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
	Incredibles 2	Brad Bird, John Walker & Nicole Paradis Grindle
	Isle of Dogs	Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales & Jeremy Dawson
	Mirai	Mamoru Hosoda & Yuichiro Saito
	Ralph Breaks the Internet	Rich Moore, Phil Johnston & Clark Spencer
2019 (92nd)
	Toy Story 4	Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen & Jonas Rivera
	How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World	Dean DeBlois, Bradford Lewis & Bonnie Arnold
	I Lost My Body	Jérémy Clapin & Marc du Pontavice
	Klaus	Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh & Marisa Román
	Missing Link	Chris Butler, Arianne Sutner & Travis Knight

2020s

Year	Film	Nominees
2020 (93rd)
	Soul	Pete Docter & Dana Murray
	Onward	Dan Scanlon & Kori Rae
	Over the Moon	Glen Keane, Gennie Rim & Peilin Chou
	A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon	Richard Phelan, Will Becher & Paul Kewley
	Wolfwalkers	Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young & Stéphan Roelants
2021 (94th)
	Encanto	Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino & Clark Spencer
	Flee	Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen & Charlotte de la Gournerie
	Luca	Enrico Casarosa & Andrea Warren
	The Mitchells vs. the Machines	Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller & Kurt Albrecht
	Raya and the Last Dragon	Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer & Peter Del Vecho
2022 (95th)
	Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio	Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Lisa Henson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley & Corey Campodonico
	Marcel the Shell with Shoes On	Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey, Jenny Slate & Terry Leonard
	Puss in Boots: The Last Wish	Joel Crawford & Mark Swift
	The Sea Beast	Chris Williams & Jed Schlanger
	Turning Red	Domee Shi & Lindsey Collins

Multiple wins

3 wins

• Pete Docter

2 wins

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

Multiple nominations

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
• Chris Williams

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
• Paul Young

Studios with multiple nominations

Studio	Wins	Nominations	Films
Pixar	11	17	Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Brave, Inside Out, Coco, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red
Walt Disney Animation Studios	4	13	Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto
DreamWorks Animation	2	14	Shrek, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Boss Baby, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Studio Ghibli	1	6	Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There, The Red Turtle
Aardman		4	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Shaun the Sheep Movie, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Sony			Surf's Up, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Nickelodeon		2	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rango
Laika	0	6	Corpse Bride, Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link
Netflix		5	Klaus, Over the Moon, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, The Sea Beast, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Cartoon Saloon		4	The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, Wolfwalkers
Les Armateurs		3	The Triplets of Belleville, The Secret of Kells, Ernest & Celestine
Blue Sky		2	Ice Age, Ferdinand
Tim Burton			Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie
American Empirical			Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs

Records

Studios and films

• Pixar has the most wins with eleven and the most nominations of any studio with seventeen.
  • They won the award in four consecutive years from 2007 to 2010.
• Laika has the most nominations without a win, with six films.
• Almost all the winners have been computer-animated; Spirited Away is the only Japanese, hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win the category, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the only stop motion animated film to win.
• Toy Story is the only franchise with multiple wins due to its third and fourth films.
• Shrek (with one win) is the most-nominated franchise with four films.
• Of the eleven adult animated films nominated, eight of them—The Triplets of Belleville, Persepolis, The Wind Rises, My Life as a Zucchini, The Breadwinner, Loving Vincent, Isle of Dogs, and Flee—were each rated PG-13. The only R-rated animated film to be nominated in this category is Anomalisa. The remaining two films, Chico and Rita and I Lost My Body, were not rated by the MPAA. No adult animated films has yet won.
• There have been years when multiple animated films from the same studio were nominated. They are:
  • 2002 – Disney's Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet
  • 2004 – DreamWorks Animation's Shrek 2 and Shark Tale
  • 2011 – DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots
  • 2016 – Disney's Zootopia and Moana
  • 2020 – Pixar's Onward and Soul
  • 2021 – Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto
  • 2022 – Netflix's The Sea Beast and Pinocchio
• Up and Toy Story 3 are the first two films to have won both Best Animated Feature and to have received Best Picture nominations. Their nominations after the Academy expanded the potential number of nominees for Best Picture from five to ten.
• Shrek is the only non-Disney/Pixar animated film to be nominated for a screenwriting category, Best Adapted Screenplay, while winning the inaugural Best Animated Feature film category.
• As of 2023, Shrek and WALL-E are the only winners that are inducted to the National Film Registry.
• Studio Ghibli (Japan) and Aardman (UK) have the most wins for a non-US studio with one win each.
• Studio Ghibli has the most nominations for a non-US studio with six films (winning one with Spirited Away).
• Flee has the most nominations (3) for both an adult animated and documentary film, and was the first film to be nominated in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature simultaneously.
• Two motion capture-related computer animated films were nominated before a rule change in 2010 disqualified such films: Monster House and Happy Feet (the latter won the award).

People

• In 2013, Brenda Chapman was the first woman to win.
• In 2019, Peter Ramsey was the first African-American to win.
• Pete Docter has the most wins and nominations of any individual, winning three awards for Up, Inside Out and Soul. His first nomination was for Monsters, Inc.
• Byron Howard has the most wins for a LGBT individual with two films.
• Dean DeBlois and Byron Howard have the most nominations for LGBT individuals with three films.
• Dean DeBlois (Canada) has the most nominations for a non-US individual with three films.
• Hayao Miyazaki (Japan), Nick Park & Steve Box (both UK), George Miller (Australia), and Yvett Merino (Mexico) have the most wins for non-US individuals with one film each.
• Ron Clements, Dean DeBlois, Travis Knight, Tomm Moore, and Chris Sanders are tied for receiving the most nominations without winning, with three each.

See also

• List of animation awards
• Lists of animated feature films
• List of animated feature films nominated for Academy Awards
• List of submissions for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
• List of animated feature films awards
• Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
• Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film
• Annie Award for Best Animated Feature
• Annie Award for Best Animated Feature — Independent
• Producers Guild of America Award for Best Animated Motion Picture
• Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Feature
• BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film
• Saturn Award for Best Animated Film
• Japan Media Arts Festival
• Animation Kobe
• Tokyo Anime Award

External links

• Academy Awards Database – AMPAS
• Academy Award WInning Feature FilmsArchived 2014-06-02 at archive.today at Big Cartoon Database
• Best Animated Picture Submissions for 2011 Oscars