This morning, the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were announced at 5:30 by actors John Cho and Issa Rae in 24 categories. Here is the list of this year’s animation and vfx-related nominees:
Best Animated Feature:
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Directed by Dean DeBlois) DreamWorks/Universal
- I Lost My Body (Directed by Jeremy Clapin) (Xilam/Netflix)
- Klaus (Sergio Pablos) (SPA Studios, Netflix)
- Missing Link (Directed by Chris Butler) LAIKA/United Artists
- Toy Story 4 (Directed by Josh Cooley) Pixar/Disney
Best Animated Short:
- Dcera (Daughter) Daria Kashcheeva (Czech Republic)
- Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry, Everett Downing Jr., Bruce W. Smith) (USA)
- Kitbull (Rosana Sullivan) (USA) (watch online)
- Memorable (Bruno Collet) (France)
- Sister (Siqi Song) (USA)
Best Visual Effects:
- Avengers: Endgame
- The Irishman
- The Lion King
- 1917
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Original Song:
- “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from “Toy Story 4”
Music and Lyric by Randy Newman - “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
Music by Elton John; Lyric by Bernie Taupin - “I’m Standing With You” from “Breakthrough”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren - “Into The Unknown” from “Frozen II”
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez - “Stand Up” from “Harriet”
Music and Lyric by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo
Best Visual Effects
- Avengers: Endgame (Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken, Dan Sudick)
- The Irishman (Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli)
- The Lion King (Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Elliot Newman)
- 1917 (Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy)
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. (Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy)
Most awards watchers had predicted three of the contenders: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Missing Link (Golden Globe winner) and Disney/Pixar favorite Toy Story 4. However the sweet surprise was the appearance of the two Netflix contenders, I Lost My Body (Jeremy Clapin) and Klaus (Sergio Pablos) on the ballot. Also, the fact that Disney’s box-office winner Frozen 2 didn’t make the cut was quite the shocker.
Last year, Sony Pictures Animation’s critical and commercial success Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and the prize for Best Animated Short went to Domee Shi’s Bao (Pixar). Black Panther was the winner of the Best Visual Effects Oscar,
The 92nd Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
See oscars.org for additional category short lists and more information.