2021 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (October)

While Disney/Pixar’s Soul is the sure-fire frontrunner, Apple is going to give serious chase with Wolfwalkers (with GKIDS) and Netflix, who came close to winning here last season, will try to topple the Mouse House once again, this time with Over the Moon.

At the moment, we have 16 contenders, which would give us five nominees. All would need to hit the eligibility requirement for that to happen; if any fails to we’ll be back to a three-nomination year here for the first time in 10 years.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar prediction in Animated Feature for October.

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. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix)
Richard Phelan, Will Becher

5. Onward (Pixar)
Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae

Other Contenders

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

Connected (Sony Pictures Animation)
Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Mike Rianda

The Croods: A New Age (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation)
Mark Swift, Joel Crawford

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

Rumble (Paramount Pictures)
Hamish Grieve, Mark Bakshi, Brad Booker

Scoob! (Warner Bros)
Tony Cervone, Pam Coats, Allison Abbate

Trolls: World Tour (Universal Pictures)
Walt Dohm, Gina Shay

The Willoughbys (Netflix)
Kris Pearn, Brenda Gilbert, Luke Carroll

Wish Dragon (Sony Pictures)
Chris Appelhans, Chris Bremble, Aron Warner, Jackie Chan, Qi Jianhong

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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), 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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