Best Animated Feature Oscar Shortlist Revealed For 2018

As the year enters its final stretch, conversation in the film world begins to turn to the awards race. And rightly or wrongly, the highest profile is always going to be the Oscars. Part of the annual ritual in the lead up is the announcement of the eligible contenders for each category.

This year's list of qualifying films for the Best Animated Feature award has now been revealed. This year a total of 26 features have qualified for nomination, of which between two and five will be selected to compete for the 2018 Academy Award.

All this list means is that these are the films that have been submitted for the category and have met the criteria for inclusion. Simply being on the list does not imply anything else.

Having said that.. it's not going to stop us having a bit of fun with some baseless speculation. So, who will get nominated?

This year's nominations will be the first to be impacted by recent changes to the way that the animation category is voted for. Many observers are assuming that this could change the way it has been for the past few years, where smaller, independent and foreign animated features have made the cut over some of the major studio Hollywood releases. But will it pan out this way? We'll find out in January.

The category has been dominated by Pixar and Disney over the years. There's no Disney release this year but Pixar has two. Coco is pretty much guaranteed a nomination (and will likely win). Cars 3 could go either way- it was better received than Cars 2 but it hardly set the world alight.

This year indie distributor GKIDS has an incredible seven films in contention. They have a fantastic record in getting nominations, but will this year's rule changes end that? Cartoon Saloon's The Breadwinner is their most likely contender this year- and probably their best chance at a win to date.  Mary and The Witch's Flower has that ex-Ghibli pedigree (it's written and directed by former Studio Ghibli staff) so it's probably their second best shot. The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales could also be a contender.

More Japanese films than ever before have been submitted- with five anime on this year's list. Aside from MATWF,  In This Corner Of The World and A Silent Voice are the most likely to be in with a shot.

There's been rumblings online that list is weak, particularly compared to last year,but there are many fantastic films here. Look beyond the mainstream and there are several films here that are among the best animated features of recent years. Considering past years have been so thin on the ground that Shark Tale, Brother Bear and Jimmy Neutron were nominated- not just on the short list, but actually nominated- we don't have much to complain about.

The nominations will be announced on January 23, 2018, and the awards themselves are taking place on March 4.


Here's this year's full list:


• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
• Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
• The Boss Baby
• The Breadwinner
• Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie
• Cars 3
• Cinderella the Cat
• Coco
• Despicable Me 3
• The Emoji Movie
• Ethel & Ernest
• Ferdinand
• The Girl Without Hands
• In This Corner of the World
• The Lego Batman Movie
• The Lego Ninjago Movie
• Loving Vincent
• Mary and the Witch’s Flower
• Moomins and the Winter Wonderland
• My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
• Napping Princess
• A Silent Voice
• Smurfs: The Lost Village
• The Star
• Sword Art Online: The Movie – Ordinal Scale
• Window Horses The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming

[source]