Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

The only question in this race is Frozen 2. Unless it's a giant disappointment, I would imagine it's going to win. Toy Story 4 was greeted with a sort of "muted" universal acclaim (if there is such a thing). In terms of reception, it seems like it has more in common with Incredibles 2 than Toy Story 3. Nobody has seen Frozen 2 yet but the first film means A LOT to people. The makers of this film have to know that and did their due diligence to make it some kind of competent. There's something about Toy Story 4 that feels rather ancillary and not terribly emotional. I have a hard time imagining Frozen 2 will suffer from the same issues. Additionally, the trailer for Frozen 2 looks GORGEOUS. Toy Story 4 doesn't really offer anything new in terms of visual imagination.

Having anonymous1980 said about the difficulty that Frozen 2 and Toy Story 4 face, it seems logical to add to that list HTTYD3.

An avalanche of French productions, a Chinese movie, a Norwegian feature film... there are more opportunities for international productions to get in this category than in any other except of course for Best International Film.
 
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles is one of the three films that were shortlisted by the Spanish Academy of Cinema to represent Spain for Best International Feature Film, before Dolor and Gloria was officially selected, so the prestige already precedes it, and considering that this category is not shy when nominating foreign feature films, it would not be unusual to see it landing a nomination here.

Dilili in Paris won the César for Best Animated Film in the last edition of the award. What can be seen in the trailer in terms of aesthetics is very interesting.
 
Funan is another French film and has an interesting premise, but I can´t help wondering why they choose the animation medium to portray a drama like this one: a woman in Cambodia looks for her missing son who was forcibly taken from her, during the beginning of the Khmer Rouge revolution in April 1975. Oscar nominee Berenice Bejó gives voice to the main character. In 2018 the film won big time at the Annecy Festival.

I Lost my Body, another French film, is the most recent winner at the Annecy Festival and comes from getting an award in Cannes.

Spies in Disguise, not being from Disney, will be distributed by the mouse studio. It seems to have more commercial aspirations than critical appeal. With the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland, it will certainly will aspire for commercial success but it is difficult to see it as a contender.

The Tower, from Norway, seems to be another heavy drama. The film tells the story of a Palestinian girl in a refugee camp who learns her family's story through stories told by other refugees. The aesthetics (from the trailer) and the story have already won me over. It comes from winning at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

Weathering with You is the selected film from Japan in the Best International Feature Film category. Will it be able to nominate in both categories? Neither Waltz with Bashir nor Persepolis could do it. Of all the Japanese entries it seems to be the most likely to get in this category.

Once again, HTTYD3 may have a chance to get a nomination considering the acceptance and pedigree of the previous titles from the trilogy, but criticism has not been benevolent. If it manages to be nominated, I believe it will be the first trilogy to nominate in this category.

White Snake, from China, has been lukewarmly received by critics.

Finally, I mention Promare. It has a respected director in the world of anime and is distributed by GKIDS. GKIDS is a such a big player, a monster indeed, in distributing independent animated films, and has consistently achieved Oscar nominations year after year since it did so for the first time with The Secrets of Kells. Take this quote from Wikipedia:

The company attained national recognition with the 2010 release of The Secret of Kells, the debut film by Irish animator Tomm Moore, which received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards. This surprise nomination was followed by two more Best Animated Feature nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, Spanish-language Chico and Rita and French-language A Cat in Paris. Both nominations were considered highly surprising by film insiders, beating out such notables as The Adventures of Tintin and Cars 2 (...) In January 2018, The Breadwinner became the tenth GKIDS film to receive an Oscar nomination. In January 2019, Mirai became their eleventh.

So, here you have the responsible for all those obscure entries (most of which I am grateful for) in this category over the last few years. My point is that Promare should be really taken seriously.

My choices without having seen them all:
- Frozen 2
- Missing Link (???)
- Toy Story 4
- Promare
- Weathering with You

Real possibilities:
- Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
- Funa
- HTTYD3
- I Lost my Body

32 films qualify:

“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”

I honestly don't know what to do with this category. The biggest, most acclaimed animated film is a sequel, Toy Story 4 and the only film here that COULD supersede it in the box-office and in popularity is also a sequel, Frozen II. The Academy has shown that it doesn't like to award sequels in this category. They seldom nominate them and the only sequel that won is Toy Story 3 but technically that was a belated Oscar for the previous two films which was released before category was instituted.

It's too bad Missing Link turned out to be kind of disappointing both in reception and in the box-office since it would've been the perfect opportunity to finally give an Oscar to LAIKA, who has made some good work in the past (They SHOULD have won for Kubo and the Two Strings).

Perhaps the critics can push some of the artsier fare to the forefront. I heard good things about I Lost My Body,