Academy Awards shortlist for Best Animated Feature reveals a shift in perspective

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just released a 16-strong shortlist for possible contenders for Best Animated Feature at next year’s awards. It’s a list that mirrors most critics’ and audiences’ tastes, and reveals what is possibly a shift in attitude from the Academy as to what should end up getting nominated.

The last ceremony infamously left out The LEGO Movie from its nominations for Best Animated Feature, despite the film hitting big at the box office, and winning over almost every critic out there. Perhaps this early list, which includes titles which will be eligible for nominations, is to show us that yes, they’ve learned from that mistake. The shortlist for the 2016 Oscars is:

  1. Anomalisa
  2. The Boy And The Beast
  3. Boy And The World
  4. The Good Dinosaur
  5. Home
  6. Hotel Transylvania 2
  7. Inside Out
  8. Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
  9. The Laws Of The Universe – Part 0
  10. Minions
  11. Moomins On The Riviera
  12. The Peanuts Movie
  13. Regular Show: The Movie
  14. Shaun The Sheep Movie
  15. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water
  16. When Marnie Was There

As you may have noticed, some of these movies aren’t even released yet – most noticeably Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur. Our money for Best Animated Feature, however, is on this year’s other Pixar outing, Inside Out. It’ll probably be a tight race between that and Anomalisa – but we’re thinking as that’s directly adult-oriented fare, it may even have more chance of winning as it could very well get nominated for Best Picture, too. Either way, looking at this list, it’s an exciting time to be a fan of animation – and it’s about time the Academy acknowledged that burgeoning audience a little more.