2015 Animated Oscar Long-List Announced... Plus Our Predictions.

Around this time of year, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (i.e. the Oscar people) releases longlists of the films and people who qualify for nomination the various awards categories at next year's ceremony. So it was that a couple of days back the list for the film's eligible for the Best Animated Feature award for the 2015 Oscars made it's way online.  20 films in total have met the criteria in order to be submitted, but come nomination time this will be whittled down to a list of five. In years where under 16 films qualify, the shortlist will comprise of just three- so 2014 was a boom year for animation.

While The Lego Movie seems to be the favourite at this point, it will face some strong competition from Disney's Big Hero 6,  Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Studio Ghibli's Princess Kaguya. We're thrilled to see some representation outside the big studios too, with Song Of The Sea, Giovanni's Island and Rocks In My Pockets. The full list is as follows (via Slash Film).

• Big Hero 6
• The Book of Life
• The Boxtrolls
• Cheatin
• Giovanni’s Island
• Henry and Me
• The Hero of Color City
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
• Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
• The Lego Movie
• Minuscule – Valley of the Lost Ants
• Mr. Peabody and Sherman
• Penguins of Madagascar
• The Pirate Fairy
• Planes: Fire and Rescue
• Rio 2
• Rocks in My Pockets
• Song of the Sea
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

What fun would all this be without some completely baseless speculation? We'd expect to see Big Hero 6 and Lego Movie on the final list, and at least one Dreamworks feature (most likely HTTYD 2). Studio Ghibli is usually a shoe-in if it's Miyazaki, not so much if it's not. Princess Kaguya has been playing to extremely strong reviews, but we're not convinced it'll make the cut. Laika, meanwhile have scored nominations for their previous two features Coraline and Paranorman, so The Boxtrolls is our fourth pick. The fifth pick is often a bit of a wild-card, the outsider, and generally a non-Hollywood effort that probably doesn't stand much of a chance- but we're glad to see recognised all the same. In previous years they have picked Ernest & Celestine and A Cat In Paris. We're going for Tomm Moore's Song Of The Sea for this final pick. The buzz has been nothing short of fantastic, and Cartoon Saloon and Moore have form- scoring a nod for their previous feature Secret of Kells.  The ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on February 22nd 2015, with the nominations being revealed some weeks before that. Why not come back then and laugh at how very wrong we were/marvel at our prescience?

The Official AFA 2015 best Animated Feature Predictions: (our predicted winner in red)

• Big Hero 6
• The Boxtrolls
• How To Train Your Dragon 2
• The Lego Movie
• Song Of The Sea