2021 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (December)

Not much change this month with so much up in the air in terms of in a category that is dependent on the number of official eligible submissions.

While a nearly three-year old stop motion film named The Wolf House picked up an animated feature win from Boston, the first group to announce this season, because the film was previously released on MUBI, it is ineligible this year.

Pixar’s Soul and Apple’s Wolfwalkers will likely be locked in battle all the way to the end but after Toy Story 4‘s win last season I’m not going to count out the animation studio’s dominance with voters.

Two new entries this month with Funimation’s Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugan Train and Bombay Rose, one of Netflix’s many possibilities.

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

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

1. Soul (Pixar)
Pete Docter, Dana Murray

2. Wolfwalkers (Apple TV+/Cartoon Saloon/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. Trolls: World Tour (Universal Pictures)
Walt Dohm and Gina Shay

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

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

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

Other Contenders (alphabetical by film)

Bombay Rose (Netflix)
Gitanjali Rao

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

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

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

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

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

Image of Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugan Train courtesy of Aniplex

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2026 Tribeca Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary with World Premieres of ‘Hadestown: The Musical,’ ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ Doc - April 16, 2026
• ‘Beef’ Season 2 Review: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton Sink Their Teeth Into Lee Sung Jin’s Meaty Morality Tale [A-] - April 16, 2026
• George Clooney to be Honored at 51st Chaplin Award Gala by Stephen Colbert, Sam Rockwell and More - April 15, 2026