2020 Oscars: 32 Animated Features Qualify

Time to dust off your tux or your fancy dress as it's time for another awards season to get underway. And while many feel they are sliding into irrelevancy with every passing year, it's still The Oscars that has the highest profile. We won't get the nominations for the 2020 ceremony until January, so there's still plenty of time to speculate wildly. Before that though, the Academy always releases lists of the entrants who are eligible for each category. The list of films in contention for 2020's Best Animated Feature Oscar is here

All the list shows is the films that have been entered for the category and have met the criteria to qualify. In some cases, the film has not yet opened but is expected to qualify by the end of the year. 32 features have qualified (or are expected to) in all- a new record for the category.

The list features all the major features we would expect to see- Toy Story 4, The Secret Life Of Pets 2, Frozen 2, Missing Link, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and so on. The list also confirms that Disney has decided not to submit the CG animated Lion King remake for the category. Which is hardly surprising in light of Disney's policy of trying to pretend it's not an animated film (even though it definitely is). If we were being generous, we could say that maybe Disney didn't want to eat their own lunch- and it will already be a strong competition with Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 in the mix. Also notable by its absence is Aardman Animation's Shaun The Sheep sequel Farmageddon.

Recent years have seen numerous lesser-known indie and international films make the shortlist. Vying for that spot this year are some strong contenders from GKIDS such as Funan, White Snake, Promare and Okko's Inn. And might the Academy make up for their failure to nominate Your Name by nominating Makoto Shinkai's follow up Weathering With You? If not, the film has another shot- it's also Japan's entry for the International category (formally Best Foreign Film).

Netflix are crashing the party too with Sergio Pablos's eagerly anticipated Klaus and festival favourite I Lost My Body both in with a shot. The biggest surprise to see here though is Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery, presumably a feature-length edit of Tartakovsky's Adult Swim series (this is the first we're hearing of it).

It's hard to make too many predictions at this stage. After last year's Spider-Verse upset, precedent suggests the winner will probably be the latest from either Pixar or Disney. Without knowing if Frozen 2 can recapture the magic, it's hard to see whether it can beat Toy Story's nostalgic power.

The category will be affected by a rule change this year. While previously all Academy members were eligible, now only members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically entitled to vote. Outside members must opt-in and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to participate. Hopefully, this will improve the category, as only people who actually care about animation will be voting.

The list is below for your perusal- let the rampant speculation begin!

THE FULL LIST

Abominable

The Addams Family

The Angry Birds Movie 2

Another Day of Life

Away

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

Children of the Sea

Dilili in Paris

Frozen II

Funan

Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

I Lost My Body

Klaus

The Last Fiction

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Marona’s Fantastic Tale

Missing Link

Ne Zha

Okko’s Inn

Pachamama

Promare

Rezo

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Spies in Disguise

The Swallows of Kabul

This Magnificent Cake!

The Tower

Toy Story 4

Upin & Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris

Weathering with You

White Snake

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