Every year when the Oscars rolls around, the categories and films that get the most attention are for live action works, so this year, I decided to focus on the animated categories, writing down my thoughts as I watched each film.
Friday, Feb. 28: I went to DeBartolo Performing Arts Center to watch all the Oscar-nominated animated shorts. My favourites are “In the Shadow of the Cypress” for its beautiful art style and amazing wordless storytelling and “Magic Candies” for its overall story and lighthearted but heartwarming tone. While I think “In the Shadow of the Cypress” is a strong candidate to win, “Wander to Wonder” is quite complex, strange and striking, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it won in this category.
Saturday, March 1: For the feature films, “Inside Out 2” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” are the least likely contenders to win in my opinion. “Wallace & Gromit” was fun and comedic, especially with the character Feathers McGraw, but I don’t think it did enough with its story or animation to win. “Inside Out 2” is more likely to win but because of the other three really strong films, I don’t think it will. “Flow” has been a standout. It is the only dialogue-less film nominated and had an extremely low budget. Its creation showed how much animation can achieve with such little resources, so its nomination is well-deserved. With all this said, I think the film was somewhat weakened by its story. My favorites in this category are “Memoir of a Snail” and “The Wild Robot.” Both these films were animated beautifully, destroyed me emotionally and featured so many characters that felt well-rounded, relatable and truly human — even if they were not actually humans.
“The Wild Robot” is also up for best original score and best sound, and “Flow” is up for best international film. I always count it as a win when animated movies get more than one nomination. While I want either “The Wild Robot” or “Memoir of a Snail” to triumph, I suspect the Academy will decide on “Flow”.
Sunday, March 2, 2025: I hate being right. Best Animated Feature Film went to “Flow,” which marks the first win for Latvia, and “In the Shadow of the Cypress” won Best Animated Short Film. Looking at reviews from critics online, it’s hard to separate if they feel that “Flow” is good because it’s a low-budget independent project or because it is a good film in and of itself. In either case, “Memoir of a Snail” also had a relatively small budget. “Flow” has been commended for winning against big studios like Pixar and DreamWorks, but DreamWorks has not actually won since 2005 and has only won three Oscars since 1998 despite regularly producing visually stunning stories. The studio can be hit or miss with its movies but the best of DreamWorks rivals even larger animation studios like Disney. Maybe this is my bias towards DreamWorks showing, but I still think that other films within this category were stronger, especially in terms of their story, but I will make peace with this win.
Unfortunately, “The Wild Robot” took home no Oscars despite it being nominated in two other categories, and “Flow” did not win the International film category. It’s one thing to be nominated outside of the animated category; it’s another thing to win.
Instead of just looking up the winners and watching highlights on YouTube, I watched this year’s Oscars for the first time — well, I watched most of it; Hulu crashed right before the last two winners were announced. I still have hope that animation will continue to garner respect and recognition not only in award shows but also in the public eye. The medium has given birth to some of the most spectacular forms of cinema and it will continue to do so whether people notice or not.
But you should still pay attention. And who knows? Maybe someday an animated feature will win Best Picture. Or maybe I’m just delusional.
