The Best Animated Feature

Many people, including the two hosts of this website, believe that this award category is stupid because it does not award “Best Animation” – it awards “The Best Film That Happens To Be Animated.” Well… I suppose it depends on which Academy member you ask. There really are no specific criteria. Here are the rules for that particular award, as laid out by the Academy.

Feature films are those that are 40 minutes or longer. Less than 40 fall into the “Short” categories. Movement must be captured using a “frame-by-frame technique.” A “significant number of the major characters” must be animated, and the animation must account for “no less than 75% of the film.”

Every voting year, the Academy president appoints an “animation chairperson” to oversee that year’s competition. That chairperson is responsible for requesting the participation of an unnamed number of Academy members to serve on that year’s committee. In order to qualify for the committee, a member must see 80% of the eligible films either in a theatre or in a committee meeting. DVD screeners do not count.

If there are between 8 and 15 films submitted in a given year, the committee can nominate up to 3 films. If there are 16 or more films submitted in a given year, the committee can nominate up to 5 films.

Now it gets interesting. The committee members will rank each film after they view it. They can score it anywhere between a 6 and 10. If a movie gets an average score of 7.5 or higher, it is eligible for nomination. The highest scoring films are usually the ones to get the nominations, although there is no rule that says that has to be the case.

In the event that only 1 film gets a score of 7.5 or higher, the committee can ask the Board of Governors that a Special Achievement Award be given. If NO films get a 7.5 or higher, no award is given that year.

-Steve
12.10.2010