2021 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (November)
(NHK/NEP/Studio Ghibli)
A pretty immovable top 3 once again but new this month is the Studio Ghibli offering Earwig and the Witch form Gorô Miyazaki, son of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, himself an Oscar winner for Spirited Away, the second year of the category’s inception.
This year could find itself with all original films in the final lineup. While there are some sequels and existing IPs about, like the sequels to The Croods, Trolls and Shaun the Sheep that could break up the party, overall the contenders are fresher, newer material.
Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Animated Feature for November.
Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month
1. Soul (Pixar)
Pete Docter, Dana Murray
2. Wolfwalkers (Apple TV+/GKIDS)
Stéphan Roelants, Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young, Nora Twomey
3. Over the Moon (Netflix)
Glen Keane, Peilin Chou, Gennie Rim
4. Earwig and the Witch (Studio Ghibli)
Gorô Miyazaki
5. Onward (Pixar)
Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae
6. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix)
Richard Phelan, Will Becher
7. The Croods: A New Age (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation)
Mark Swift, Joel Crawford
8. Trolls: World Tour (Universal Pictures)
Walt Dohm, Gina Shay
9. The Willoughbys (Netflix)
Kris Pearn, Brenda Gilbert, Luke Carroll
10. Rumble (Paramount Pictures)
Hamish Grieve, Mark Bakshi, Brad Booker
Other Contenders
Brightheart (TriCoast Worldwide)
Weifeng Deng, Astrid Wang, Yunfei Wang, Brett Zharig
Lupin III: The First (GKIDS)
Takashi Yamazaki, Takeshi Ito, Naoaki Kitajima, Koji Nozaki
On-Gaku: Our Sound (GKIDS)
Kenji Iwaisawa
Ride Your Wave (GKIDS)
Masaaki Yuasa
Scoob! (Warner Bros)
Tony Cervone, Pam Coats, Allison Abbate
Wish Dragon (Sony Pictures)
Chris Appelhans, Chris Bremble, Aron Warner, Jackie Chan, Qi Jianhong
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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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