2026 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (December)

With Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations in it’s time to reevaluate the animated feature race. Or is it?

With five films grabbing nominations from both groups–KPop Demon Hunters, Zootopia 2, Elio, Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain–I’m not sure if I’m inclined to make any changes there. As both groups have six spots, the remaining one-offs were In Your Dreams at Critics Choice and Demon Slayer at the Globes. Is there room for one or the other to break into that five? Possibly. I’d stay leaning to In Your Dreams being the one that does but I don’t see it knocking out Arco or Little Amélie. Is Pixar vulnerable with Elio? A giant box office flop and a film that was met with loads of controversy over softening out the queer elements of its lead character might be enough for some voters to not check that box.

I am keeping an eye for Endless Cookie, a Canadian animated documentary that has made some waves with critics after winning Boston and Toronto as well as being a Spirit Awards nominee.

Here are my 2026 Oscar nomination predictions in Animated Feature for December.

Other contenders: Dog of God (Cartuna), Endless Cookie (Mongrel Media) ↑, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (Paramount Pictures) ↓, The Twits (Netflix)

Here is the full list of eligible films:

All Operators Are Currently Unavailable
Arco
The Bad Guys 2
Black Butterflies
Boys Go to Jupiter
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
ChaO
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
David
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Dog Man
Dog of God
Dragon Heart – Adventures Beyond This World
Elio
Fixed
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
In Your Dreams
KPop Demon Hunters
The Legend of Hei 2
Light of the World
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Lost in Starlight
A Magnificent Life
Mahavatar Narsimha
Night of the Zoopocalypse
Olivia & las Nubes
100 Meters
Out of the Nest
Scarlet
Slide
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Stitch Head
The Twits
Zootopia 2

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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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