Media news outlet The Wrap reported last week that of the 27 animated films submitted for consideration in this year’s “Animated Feature Film” category at the 2021 Oscars, 6 of them are anime films. For the category at the 93rd annual Academy Awards, only 5 of the 27 films can receive the nomination and go on to be judged by the academy proper.
The following anime films are submitted for nomination:
- Demon Slayer: Mugen Train based on manga by Koyoharu Gotouge
- Studio Ghibli and Goro Miyazaki’s Earwig and the Witch
- Lupin III THE FIRST based on manga series by Monkey Punch
- Kenji Iwaisawa’s ON-GAKU: Our Sound
- Masaaki Yuasa’s Ride Your Wave
- Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama’s A Whisker Away
The other films submitted for nomination include:
- Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus
- Bombay Rose
- Calamity
- The Croods: A New Age
- Dreambuilders
- Kill It and Leave This Town
- Mosley
- My Favorite War
- Nos Ili Zagoyor Ne Takikh
- No. 7 Cherry Lane
- Onward
- Over the Moon
- Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
- Scoob!
- A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Faramageddon
- Soul
- The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run
- Terra Willy
- Trolls World Tour
- The Willoughbys
- Wolfwalkers
The Academy will announce the full list of this year’s nominees on March 15th.
The 93rd iteration of the annual Academy Awards is to be delayed this year from its original ceremony date. The 2021 Oscars will be held on the 25th of April, pushed back two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year’s Academy Awards saw a record of 32 films that were submitted to the committee for the nomination of best animated feature. Among the 32 were Studio 4°C’s Children of the Sea, Kitaro Kousaka, DLE, Madhouse’s Okko’s Inn, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Trigger’s Promare, and Makoto Shinkai and CoMix Wave’s film Weathering With You. Unfortunately, none of the listed films received a nomination.
In 2019, the Academy relaxed their rules around the subject of eligibility for the Animated Feature Film category. Before that year, the requirement was that eight eligible animated features had to have theatrical releases in a single calendar year for the category to even be featured in the awards ceremony. Thankfully, now that rule has been lifted, giving the opportunity for more great animated work to be featured. Furthermore, voting for the shortlist of nominations is now automatically open to members in the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, while other members must opt in to participate in voting for nominations.
While last year’s anime films may not have made the shortlist, anime as a growing genre of animation in the west is certainly showing its rising influence. Notably, the first anime film to be nominated for the best animated feature category was also the first and only anime to win the award. That film was 2002’s Spirited Away. Other anime films that have been nominated include Howl’s Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There, and The Red Turtle. No anime film has been featured for the short list since 2016.
Which film would you like to take home an award at the 2021 Oscars? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter!
