'Encanto' and 'The Windshield Wiper' Win Oscars

The Oscars are traditionally viewed as the climax of the annual awards season. Although they have seen declining viewer figures and have been struggling to remain relevant, there is still a certain prestige to winning an Academy Award. The 94th Academy Awards took place on March 27, 2022- somewhat later than normal due to ongoing concerns around the pandemic.

Unlike Chris Rock, we were not exactly gobsmacked to see Encanto take the Best Animated Feature award home. It was considered pretty much a two-horse race between it and The Mitchells Vs The Machines, with the latter claiming to be "the most awarded animated film of the year".Encanto was also nominated for Best Original Song and Best Score but did not win either. This took the film up to 35 wins out of 78 nominations.

It's tempting to think that if it had been just down to the animation branch, the Mitchells would have been the ones up on stage, as happened at the Annies earlier in the month. However, The Academy voters as a whole are notoriously not big on animation and more often than not vote for whatever Disney or Pixar film is biggest that year. This win is the 4th win for Walt Disney Animation Studios- add Disney Pixar's 11 wins. Only five non-Disney films have won in the category since it was first awarded in 2001.

The animated short category was always going to be more open. The winner was The Windshield Wiper from Director Albert Mielgo. Mielgo previously directed The Witness the Emmy-winning episode of Love Death and Robots and worked as Art Director on Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. Don't forget to listen to our interview with Alberto here.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee, which was the first film to be nominated in the Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature categories, ultimately went home empty-handed.

This year the Best Animated Short was one of several categories that were not included in the televised ceremony but were awarded earlier and included in a pre-recorded montage later on. This move was heavily criticised in the industry and in the critical community, so hopefully, the Academy will not do so again.