2021 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (February)

With Golden Globe nominations, Critics Choice and BAFTA longlists in place, the top 5 for Animated Feature is looking clearer.

While this category hasn’t always been friendly to sequels, the dearth of options will probably be enough earn The Croods: A New Age a spot. Its Golden Globe nomination and BAFTA longlist placement definitely help. This is going to make it much harder for non-American/English and non-traditional contenders to find a path to a nomination. Gorô Miyazaki, the son of legendary animation director Hayao Miyazaki has Earwig and the Witch but it’s so far from the traditional style of Studio Ghibli that animation branch voters may be turned off by it. GKIDS has a host of other possibilities, with Lupin III: The First and On-Gaku: Our Sound among them. Netflix also has more than enough features in play here. After the obvious choice of Over the Moon they have BAFTA longlist contender The Willoughbys and BFCA nominee A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.

Critics Choice already announced Soul as their animated feature winner in their so-called ‘Super Awards’ and the BAFTA nominations, which will only select three films from a longlist of six, will be announced on March 9.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Animated Feature for February.

Green – moves up ↑; Red – moves down ↓; Blue – new entry this month +; Black – no change ↔

1. Soul ↔ (Disney/Pixar) – GG, BFCA, BAFTA longlist

Pete Docter, Dana Murray

2. Wolfwalkers ↔ (Apple TV+) – GG, BFCA, BAFTA longlist
Stéphan Roelants, Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young, Nora Twomey

3. Over the Moon ↔ (Netflix) – GG, BFCA, BAFTA longlist
Glen Keane, Peilin Chou, Gennie Rim

4. Onward ↔ (Pixar) – GG, BFCA, BAFTA longlist
Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae

5. The Croods: A New Age ↑ (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation) – GG, BAFTA longlist

Mark Swift, Joel Crawford 

6. No. 7 Cherry Lane ↓ (Far Sun Films)

Yonfan, Monica Chau

7.  Earwig and the Witch ↓ (Studio Ghibli)

Gorô Miyazaki

8. Trolls: World Tour ↓ (Universal Pictures)

Walt Dohm and Gina Shay

9. Lupin III: The First ↔ (GKIDS)

Takashi Yamazaki, Takeshi Ito, Naoaki Kitajima, Koji Nozaki

10. Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train ↔ (Funimation)

Haruo Sotozaki

Other Contenders

Bombay Rose ↔ (Netflix)
Gitanjali Rao

Brightheart ↔ (TriCoast Worldwide)
Weifeng Deng, Astrid Wang, Yunfei Wang, Brett Zharig

On-Gaku: Our Sound ↔ (GKIDS)
Kenji Iwaisawa

Ride Your Wave ↔ (GKIDS)

Masaaki Yuasa

Scoob! ↔ (Warner Bros)

Tony Cervone, Pam Coats, Allison Abbate

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon ↔ (Netflix) – BFCA
Richard Phelan, Will Becher

A Whisker Away ↔ (Netflix)
Satô Jun’ichi, Shibayama Tomotaka

The Willoughbys ↔ (Netflix) – BFCA, BAFTA longlist
Kris Pearn, Brenda Gilbert, Luke Carroll

Photo credit: DreamWorks Animation LLC

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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