92nd Academy Award Nominations Announced – Animation Categories

13 January 2020 // News

Steve Henderson

Editor

The nominations for this years Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have been announced and, with this being an animation website, we’re sticking with what we know and love by announcing the Animation categories.

Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Dean DeBlois, Bradford Lewis and Bonnie Arnold

Klaus  – Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh, Marisa Román

Missing Link – Chris Butler, Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight

Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen, Jonas Rivera

I Lost My Body – Jerémy Clapin, Marc du Pontavice

A lot of excitement surrounds the best feature category as the usual suspects have been given short shrift with Disney receiving a single nomination for the Pixar sequel Toy Story 4 with Frozen 2 fans being given the cold shoulder. Stepping up to the dual nomination plate is Netflix which this year released its first two feature films and has received a nomination for both, an incredible achievement for the streaming service. Klaus director Sergio Pablos had this to say about the nomination.

We are extremely honored to be nominated for an Oscar.  Many thanks to the members of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science.  Klaus would not be here without our relentless crew of 260-plus talented artists and technicians representing 22 countries, and of course without ATRESMedia and Netflix, who believed in our vision to take traditional animation forward. We hope others will continue to innovate and diversify the animation medium.

The crew behind Klaus also released this emotional video of them receiving the nomination.

The incredible moment when @TheAcademy announces that we are nominated. No words can describe it, better just watch it. pic.twitter.com/BujEyOIMoO

— The SPA Studios (@TheSPAStudios) January 13, 2020

Director of I Lost My Body Jérémy Clapin and producer Marc du Pontavice were equally celebratory releasing statements about a film that has surprised film fans worldwide. Clapin said

What a dream come true for myself and the whole crew! Who would have thought that an adult animated film, a bit weird and melancholic, about a severed hand and titled ‘I Lost My Body’ could one day be Oscar nominated? It’s proof that a film made with limited funds and not playing by the usual rules can still achieve the highest artistic recognition. What an honor! Thank you to Guillaume Laurant who wrote the book this film is based on. Thank you to my producer Marc du Pontavice who never ceased to believe in me. Thank you to my voice cast, my composer Dan Levy and the whole crew at Xilam Studio.

Producer Marc du Pontavice had this to say.

I feel extremely proud and grateful for this nomination. Proud because this is celebrating an immense effort to cross the boundaries that are usually assigned to animation, to claim the right to draw adult stories that are complex and demanding. And grateful to the academy for demonstrating its love for diversity. It’s never been so urgent that the heart of the world entertainment industry encourages different voices, different art of storytelling. My admiration and thanks goes to the brilliant vision of film director Jérémy Clapin and to the talent and devotion of the artists at Xilam Animation Studio.

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World marks the third time the franchise has been nominated, a fantastic achievement for director Dean DeBlois. DreamWorks have only ever received one award for Animated Feature, in spite of scoring plenty of nominations. Fresh from a surprise victory at the Golden Globes Laika have a fifth nomination in a row with Missing Link in the category.

 Loading ...

Animated Short

Dcera (Daughter) – Daria Kashcheeva

Hair Love – Matthew A. Cherry & Karen Rupert Toliver

Kitbull – Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson

Memorable – Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corre

Sister – Siqi Song

An interesting year for the animated shorts with a rather even spread of festival films in competition against some of L.A’s finest. After debuting at Annecy, winning the Student Academy Award and scooping hundreds of awards over the festival circuit the team behind Daughter had this to say about their nomination.

Our Daughter is a dream of every parent. She is well turned out, doing great and making her parents proud. And considering her modest background, she went into the big wide world early, with full self-confidence. Her spiritual mother is a great person and film artist, and that must be the dream of every film producer, too. Daria created an exceptional film. I am happy that I could be at its birth and I am already looking forward to the new film that Daria is beginning to prepare with us,

– Martin Vandas, MAUR film producer.

The team behind Hair Love took to twitter to share an excited response to their nomination. The film is something of a labour of love for the films director and funded by Kickstarter backers so already has a large following of fans.

Wow! And to have @IssaRae announce it! It feels like a dream. Huge thanks to our great team @BruceAlmighteee @Mr_Scribbles @KDRupe @Monica_aYoung @DanielDCrawford @LionForgeDave @CarlForge @lionforge our kickstarter backers & @SonyAnimation for believing in us. @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/2sVn7LqWk9

— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) January 13, 2020

Kitbull is on the list also, notable for being the first original Pixar short to be released using traditional 2D animation as part of the Sparkshorts programme. Bruno Collet’s Memorable wowed audiences at Annecy and throughout the globe also, screening its heartfelt story to an internationally appreciative audience. The director of fellow stop motion film Sister also released a statement after the success of her film, like with Daughter has seen her go from student to internationally recognised filmmaker.

Sister is a very special and personal film for me. When I started to make this film, I simply wanted to make a film to reflect on my childhood and tell the story of our generation that nobody has ever told before, never really thinking about how the film would eventually be received. It has been a fantastic journey to create SISTER and to see her being embraced by audiences around the world. And today I’m extremely grateful to see SISTER being nominated for an Oscar among this group of amazing films! I want to share the joy with my CalArts mentors and student volunteers who helped on the production, I could not have created this film without their guidance and support. And thank you to the Academy for this nomination, it means the world to us!  When I left China six years ago to pursue my dream as a filmmaker, my parents told me: “Go explore the world.” They probably didn’t see this coming.

-Siqi Song, Writer/Director, Sister

 Loading ...

Visual Effects

Avengers Endgame – Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitkin, Dan Sudick

The Irishman – Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Stephane Grabli

The Lion King – Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, Elliot Newman

1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, Dominic Tuohy

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, Dominic Tuohy

 Loading ...

The Awards will be revealed on 9 February 2020.