Best Animation is a Valid Category

Recently, the award lineup received a new addition: the Best Animated Feature category. I expressed my disagreement with this change at the time, and, when Up was nominated in both the Best Animated Feature and Best Picture categories last year, my opinion was justified.

I have no problem with animation being recognized by the Academy. In fact, I applaud whoever finally thought to do so. However, I believe that the category, as defined, fails to fulfill this objective. 

If the intent is to recognize the art of animation, as I believe it should be, the category should be Best Animation. This would require voters to select the film they felt represented the most skillful or creative animation techniques. 

By asking voters to include other features of the film, like screenplay, voice acting, song writing, etc., the category becomes redundant. If this category only recognized animation technique, rather than the overall film, an additional nomination in the Best Picture category would actually hold some weight.

-Kristin