Jan 23, 2024

Academy Announces 2024 Animation and VFX Oscar Nominees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, which will be held on March 10.

The animated feature category is difficult to predict this year, with only a few films nominated. It also had the most nominations in Academy Awards history, with 33 films up for awards.

Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Hare" became the first foreign film to win the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and is now in the pack for the Academy Awards. The film was overwhelmingly received by critics and audiences came out to see it in droves. It is the highest-grossing original animated film in U.S. box office history.

Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" was another strong contender, winning the Critics' Choice Award for Best Animated Feature earlier this month. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, "Across the Spider-Verse" is the sequel to "Into the Spider-Verse," which won Best Animated Feature in 2019. The film was a huge success with critics and audiences alike, becoming the second highest grossing animated feature film released in 2023.

Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quayne, Netflix and Annapurna's "Nimona" was a streaming hit for the platform and wowed critics when it was released last summer. consecutive year that a Netflix film has been nominated in the animated feature film category. Before being picked up by Annapurna, "Nimona" was a Disney film produced at Blue Sky Studios, but the film was destroyed when Blue Sky Studios was shut down by Disney.

Peter Sohn's "Elemental" was always considered a likely nominee. Despite a disappointing start at the box office, the Pixar film made an impressive comeback, becoming the third highest grossing animated feature film released in the world in 2023. When it had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it was met with mixed reviews, but as time went on, critics loved the film. Audiences loved it, too, and "Elemental" became the most-watched premiere film of 2023 on Disney+, entering the platform's top 10 all-time in just the first five days of streaming.

Undoubtedly, the big surprise of the year in animation, but also very welcome, was the Academy's decision to nominate Pablo Berger's animated Spanish feature Robot Dreams. The film made a big splash at the Cannes Film Festival, where the major indie company Neon was the first to feature the film extensively at the Marché du Film. However, many people know little, if anything, about the film if they have heard of it, as the company had planned only a small release of the film in the United States in 2023 for Oscar consideration, with a wider release in 2024. Now that the film has been nominated for an Academy Award and has become a household name, the strategy appears to be genius.

This year's animated short film category is fresh as an independent, with no major studio films among the nominees. We have covered this year's animated short film race extensively, including features on this year's nominees: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, directed by Dave Mullins; Ninety-Five Senses ( (directed by Jared & Jerusha Hess), "Letter to a Pig" (directed by Tal Kanter), "Our Uniform" (directed by Yegane Moghadam), and "Pachyderme" (directed by Stephanie Kleman).

Animated films nominated for this year's Academy Awards include. Unfortunately, no animated films were nominated in non-animated categories.

The 96th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 10 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.