There’s quite a bit of discussion today regarding today’s Oscar nominations (I remain very sad for Ava DuVernay’s snub in the Best Director category), but let’s talk about the stuff that’s collectively of greater interest to the readership of The Beat, because there’s great work to celebrate there too!
Here are the nominations that include films that are based on comics, or have some kind of comics/cartooning based slant:
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“Interstellar”
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”
“Big Hero 6″
“The Boxtrolls”
“How to Train Your Dragon 2″
“Song of the Sea”
“The Tale of Princess Kaguya”
The lack of a nod for The Lego Movie is surprising given the critical and popular acclaim, but if I had to bet money on one, it’d be The Tale of Princess Kaguya. But, Big Hero 6 may surprise here, given that it was a huge hit and perhaps may have engendered more screener viewings from members of the Academy.
Best Short Film (Animated)
“The Bigger Picture”
“The Dam Keeper”
“Feast”
“Me and My Moulton”
“A Single Life”
And regarding this category, it’s sadly one of my big blind spots. Feast, being under the Disney brand, seems a likely choice as any.
Time to get your betting pools together, the 2015 Academy Awards will be held on February 22nd.
[…] out Heidi at The Beat for a rundown of the rest of the nerd-friendly categories (spoiler: they’re all the visual […]
I’ll wait for the Shorts HD anthology to hit the screen before judging the shorts.
I was let down by “Feast”. There was great press, but the film failed to resonate with me.
The secret story? The success of GKIDS as a distributor, second only to Disney for recent nomination success. (They have two films on the BAFF list.)
According to Rule 7, the films are viewed by members of the Animated Feature Film Award Screening Committee, which is composed of members of the Academy. Number? Unknown, but the Academy requires 200 copies of screeners to be submitted. Members must watch 66% of submitted eligible films.
From what I’ve seen from animators on-line, they love love love “Song of the Sea.” I wouldn’t rule that one out just yet. And “Dragon 2″ just won the Golden Globes. So everything is up in the air on that category, still, I think.
Torsten,
I’m sure they *must* watch 66%, but do they really? I’d be surprised. How would they ever keep track?