There has always been a disconnect between the levels of recognition given to live-action and animated films. Especially in the West, animation in general is considered to be reserved for children’s films. Many people find it hard to take animated films seriously, or at least to consider them on the same level as other live-action cinematic experiences. Director Guillermo del Toro has been speaking out about this issue a lot recently, as his passion project, a stop-motion animated adaptation of Pinocchio, was finally released after years of development. The film was one of the best-reviewed films of 2022, as its stunning animation and meticulously crafted story balanced a sense of wonder and maturity. However, there’s a small chance that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will receive a nomination for Best Picture at the 2023 Academy Awards, though it would be very much deserved.
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Throughout the long history of the Oscars, there have only ever been three animated films to receive a nomination for Best Picture. While those three films undoubtedly deserved their nominations, there are many other animated films that also deserved that recognition but were unfortunately overlooked. The medium of animation allows for an entirely different kind of visual storytelling that is hard to achieve through live-action films. Below we have listed the three animated films that managed to earn a Best Picture nomination, as well as three others that we believe should have received the same recognition.
Was Nominated: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The very first animated film to receive a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars was Disney’s 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast. The movie was released in the midst of the Disney Renaissance of the ‘90s, and it is still today considered to be one of the best animated films of all time. When Beauty and the Beast was released, it received similar levels of acclaim. In addition to a Best Picture nomination, the film was also nominated for five other awards at the Oscars that year. Those were for original score, sound and original song, of which three of its songs received nominations: “Be Our Guest,” “Belle” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
One detail that sets Beauty and the Beast’s Best Picture nomination apart from the rest of this list is the fact that it received that recognition at a time when only five films were nominated for the award every year. It was also before the existence of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, which wasn’t added to the awards until 2002. Beauty and the Beast was nominated alongside films such as The Silence of the Lambs (which won the top award), JFK, Bugsy, and The Prince of Tides. Beyond that, it managed to beat out the likes of Boyz n the Hood, Thelma & Louise, and Cape Fear for a nomination. Though Beauty and the Beast didn’t win Best Picture, the filmmakers didn’t walk home empty-handed, as the song “Beauty and the Beast” did win the award for original song.
Was Nominated: Up (2009)
Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures
There was a major shakeup in the Best Picture landscape for the Oscars in 2010 (recognizing films from 2009), as the list of nominees was expanded from five to ten. This came after years of discussion about not enough films being recognized, and it immediately followed the backlash from The Dark Knight being snubbed for a Best Picture nomination in 2009. This expansion of the nominee count resulted in a wider variety of Best Picture nominees, with the likes of Avatar, Inglorious Basterds and District 9 making the cut. It also resulted in the second animated film to ever receive a Best Picture nomination: Pixar’s Up.
Up is considered to be one of Pixar’s best movies, and that has been true essentially since the film was released. So it’s really not that big a surprise that the film received a Best Picture nomination. In total, the film was nominated for five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Original Score, Original Screenplay, and Sound Editing. It won two of those awards, with those being Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score (composer Michael Giacchino’s one Oscar win out of only two nominations). The Hurt Locker was the Best Picture recipient that year. Up is a truly special film, and it’s one of Pixar’s most personable and emotional films to date. Its nomination for Best Picture was well-deserved.
Was Nominated: Toy Story 3 (2010)
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The following year saw the third animated film nominated for Best Picture; another Pixar movie, Toy Story 3. The expansion to ten nominees was still showing promising results, with other genre films such as Inception and True Grit receiving nominations as well. The hype around Toy Story 3 in 2009/2010 was pretty unparalleled. It’s no secret that the Toy Story series is Pixar’s crown jewel, and it had been nearly a decade since the release of Toy Story 2. The third film in the series was seen as the perfect ending for the trilogy of animated flicks. It packed an immense emotional wallop while maintaining the clever story and lovable characters that are still so adored today.
Like Up, Toy Story 3 was also nominated for five Oscars that in its year. Those were for: Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Original Song with “We Belong Together," Sound Editing, and Adapted Screenplay. It ended up winning both the animated feature and original song awards. The King’s Speech went on to win Best Picture. Though many believed Toy Story 3 to be a flawless ending to the series, Toy Story 4 ended up being released a decade later, which earned it two Oscar nominations. Toy Story 3 remains the film in the series with the most Oscar nominations, though, as the first received three nominations and the second only one.
Also of note, it was after the 2010 Oscars that the number of Best Picture nominees was adjusted again. The Academy made the strange decision to have the number of nominees lie somewhere between five and ten, with the final number being the result of an algorithm that took into account the number of films released that year and the total votes cast. This system was in place for a whole decade, before it was eventually abandoned. In 2022 (for 2021 films), the Oscars returned to the static number of ten nominees for Best Picture. While no animated films were nominated that year, perhaps this return to the solid ten nominees could result in more animated films receiving that recognition sooner than later (we’ve still got our fingers crossed for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio).
Should’ve Been Nominated: The Wind Rises
Toho
There is an argument to be made that pretty much every one of director Hayao Miyazaki’s films should have received a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Over the course of his esteemed career, he has only received three nominations, and each was for Best Animated Feature. The nominated films were Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and, the film we’re discussing here, The Wind Rises. While many people would argue that Spirited Away would be most deserving of a Best Picture nomination, as it’s widely believed to be Miyazaki’s best film, The Wind Rises is a much more personal and understated film that showcases the immense strengths and prowess of Miyazaki’s storytelling abilities.
The Wind Rises is undoubtedly Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli at their best. The visuals are as breathtaking as ever, and the story about the fragility of life and the pursuit of one’s dreams despite the warlike nature of humanity, is one of the most powerful Miyazaki has produced yet. The film did receive one Oscar nomination, for Best Animated Feature, but it was beaten out for the win by Disney’s Frozen (sigh). There were only nine Best Picture nominations at the 2014 Academy Awards, with the likes of 12 Years A Slave, Her, Gravity, The Wolf of Wall Street and Nebraska receiving nominations. The Wind Rises was certainly deserving of a nomination among that group. Instead, we’ll just have to stay hopeful that Miyazaki’s next film, How Do You Live?, will make the cut for the 2024 Oscars.
Should’ve Been Nominated: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
20th Century Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is frequently considered to be one of director Wes Anderson’s best films. The stop-motion animated adventure was adapted from a Roald Dahl novel of the same name, and Anderson’s creative style proved to be a perfect match for the immense color and aesthetic of Dahl’s story. Considering the sheer amount of praise that has been heaped on this film over the years, and Anderson’s consistent track record with the Oscars (seven total nominations across six films), it’s genuinely surprising to see that Fantastic Mr. Fox did not receive a Best Picture nomination. Much further, it didn’t even win either of the two Oscars it was nominated for (animated feature and original score).
The lack of recognition for Fantastic Mr. Fox might just be an unfortunate consequence of the year it was released. While it did come out at a time when there were ten Best Picture nominations, it was the very first year (at least in the 21st century) that this was done. It was the same year as Up. The iconic Pixar film undercut Fantastic Mr. Fox at nearly every crossing. It filled in one of the Best Picture spots, and there was a next-to-zero percent chance of two animated films receiving a nomination for the top award. As for the two awards Fantastic Mr. Fox was nominated for, it lost both of them to Up. Had Fantastic Mr. Fox been released a couple of years later, it might’ve had a better chance.
Should’ve Been Nominated: Flee (2021)
Neon
Flee is a film that you’re more likely not to have heard of. It doesn’t have the same widespread appeal as every other film discussed on this list, nor does it have a particularly passionate fan base to give it a cult following. That’s because Flee just isn’t that kind of movie. It’s a documentary. It tells an incredible true story of a man, Amin, who was forced to flee from his home country of Afghanistan. He shares his story of being both a refugee and a gay man at a point in time in which he was discriminated against for both. It’s a powerful story, and it’s animated to protect the real identity of Amin. Flee was one of the best films of 2021, and as such, it was more than deserving of a Best Picture nomination, especially with the nominee count returning to ten.
Though Flee didn’t receive a Best Picture nomination, it did receive three other Oscar nominations. It was nominated for Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature. The movie made headlines for being the first film in the history of the Oscars to be nominated in all three of those categories at the same time. Unfortunately, it lost out on winning any of them. Summer of Soul won Best Documentary, Encanto won Best Animated Feature and Drive My Car won Best International Feature, all while CODA went on to win Best Picture. Flee ended up being left in the dust at last year’s Oscars, but it’s still a phenomenal film that is a must-watch for pretty much everyone.
