Back in May, we wondered if there would be enough animated movies this year to justify the Academy widening the number of nominees from 3 to 5. We assembled a list 16 titles — apparently the magic number needed to trigger the expansion. Over the past couple of days, it’s been noted that we may have officially crossed that threshold.
With only a couple of revisions from our May 20th list, I think these might be this year’s qualifying Feature Animation contenders:
- 9
- Astro Boy
- Battle for Terra
- A Christmas Carol
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Coraline
- Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
- The Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
- Mary and Max
- Monsters Vs. Aliens
- Planet 51
- Ponyo
- The Princess and the Frog
- Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
- Up
With the possibility of broadened horizons on the animation front, the 16 movies above comprise a group that we can handily weigh for awards potential. I’ve highlighted seven — five that already look strong, and three more I have hopes for. What subset would you select for 5 ideal nominees?
