21 animated films in different categories have been submitted for Oscar consideration, according to an article in the Hollywood Reporter. The offerings include computer generated, hand drawn, and stop motion productions from a variety of sources, which pretty much covers your choices of how to create animations. The Short Animated Films category alone had 56 works being looked at, which was narrowed down to a short list 10 films long, and will probably be trimmed further to result in 3 to 5 actual nominees in that category. I haven’t seen many of them at all, except for John Kahrs’ Paperman which impressed me no end. It was the short piece just before Wreck-It Ralph in the theaters, which is itself under consideration. Other contenders include Studio Ghibli’s Up on Poppy Hill, Disney’s Brave, and Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians. The number of quality animation pieces just keeps growing year after year, and there are some wonderful films in the race this time around; I can’t wait to see who gets to take home the statues.
