AMPAS announces eligible films for 2023 Animated, Documentary and International Feature Oscar races

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced the list of eligible films for the animated, documentary and international feature categories for this year’s 95th Academy Awards.

Fifteen shortlisted films in each category will be announced on Wednesday, December 21, along with the shortlists for makeup and hairstyling, sound, visual effects, original score, original song, international feature, animated short film, documentary short subject and live action short.

Unlike recent years, no films showed up on more than one list. Last year, NEON’s Flee made Oscar history when it was nominated for Animated Feature, International Feature Film (Denmark) and Documentary Feature.

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All animated and documentary features are eligible in other categories, including Best Picture, but to date only three animated films have ever made the cut (1991’s Beauty and the Beast in the 5-nominee era, 2009’s Up and 2010’s Toy Story 3, both in the first two years of the expanded lineup) but no doc has accomplished that yet.

Animated Feature

There are 27 films in the running for the animated feature Oscar, some of which still need have their official qualifying release. While there were no major surprise snubs, the inclusion of Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood marked a successful appeal to the Academy that its rotoscoping style of animation qualified.

The shortlist and ultimately the five Oscar nominees are determined by the massive 867 Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members (the second largest group after the acting branch) and any Academy members outside the branch who opt-in. 

The shortlist of 15 films that will advance to Oscar nomination voting stage will be announced on Wednesday, December 21. Here is the list of eligible animated features.

• “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” (Netflix)
• “The Bad Guys” (Universal Pictures)
• “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” (20th Century Studios)
• “Charlotte” (Good Deed Entertainment)
• “DC League of Super-Pets” (Warner Bros.)
• “Drifting Home” (GKids)
• “Eternal Spring” (Lofty Sky Distribution)
• “Goodbye, Don Glees!” (GKIDS)
• “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (Netflix)
• “Inu-Oh” (GKids)
• “Lamya’s Poem” (Phoenicia Pictures)
• “Lightyear” (Pixar)
• “Little Nicholas, Happy as Can Be” (Buffalo 8)
• “Luck” (Apple Original Films/Skydance)
• “Mad God” (IFC Midnight/Shudder)
• “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” (A24)
• “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (Universal Pictures)
• “My Father’s Dragon” (Netflix)
• “New Gods: Yang Jian” (GKids)
• “Oink” (Synergetic Distribution)
• “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” (Paramount Pictures)
• “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (DreamWorks Animation)
• “Run, Tiger Run!” (Soular Animation)
• “The Sea Beast” (Netflix)
• “Strange World” (Walt Disney Pictures)
• “Turning Red” (Pixar)
• “Wendell & Wild” (Netflix)

International Feature

There are 92 countries in the running for International Feature Film, just missing the high of 93 last year. The only submitted film by a country that was missing from the list was Malta’s Carmen by director Valerie Buhagiar. It is unclear yet why it missed out but hitting a 7-day theatrical run by the November 30 deadline is the most likely reason. The list includes Cannes winners Belgium’s Close, Denmark’s Holy Spider, Poland’s EO and Venice winner Saint Omer from France.

For the next stage, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate in the preliminary round of voting. Members who opt-in must meet a minimum viewing requirement, which they are assigned depending on their group, to be eligible to vote. But, members can watch and vote for any of the 92 films that are submitted.

The shortlist of 15 films that will advance to Oscar nomination voting stage will be announced on Wednesday, December 21.

Here is the list of international feature films and their countries.

• Albania, “A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On”
• Algeria, “Our Brothers”
• Argentina, “Argentina, 1985”
• Armenia, “Aurora’s Sunrise”
• Australia, “You Won’t Be Alone”
• Austria, “Corsage”
• Azerbaijan, “Creators”
• Bangladesh, “Hawa”
• Belgium, “Close”
• Bolivia, “Utama”
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, “A Ballad”
• Brazil, “Mars One”
• Bulgaria, “In the Heart of the Machine”
• Cambodia, “Return to Seoul”
• Cameroon, “The Planters Plantation”
• Canada, “Eternal Spring”
• Chile, “Blanquita”
• China, “Nice View”
• Colombia, “The Kings of the World”
• Costa Rica, “Domingo and the Mist”
• Croatia, “Safe Place”
• Czech Republic, “Il Boemo”
• Denmark, “Holy Spider”
• Dominican Republic, “Bantú Mama”
• Ecuador, “Lo Invisible”
• Estonia, “Kalev”
• Finland, “Girl Picture”
• France, “Saint Omer”
• Georgia, “A Long Break”
• Germany, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
• Greece, “Magnetic Fields”
• Guatemala, “The Silence of the Mole”
• Hong Kong, “Where the Wind Blows”
• Hungary, “Blockade”
• Iceland, “Beautiful Beings”
• India, “Last Film Show”
• Indonesia, “Missing Home”
• Iran, “World War III”
• Iraq, “The Exam”
• Ireland, “The Quiet Girl”
• Israel, “Cinema Sabaya”
• Italy, “Nostalgia”
• Japan, “Plan 75”
• Jordan, “Farha”
• Kazakhstan, “Life”
• Kenya, “TeraStorm”
• Kosovo, “Looking for Venera”
• Kyrgyzstan, “Home for Sale”
• Latvia, “January”
• Lebanon, “Memory Box”
• Lithuania, “Pilgrims”
• Luxembourg, “Icarus”
• Mexico, “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”
• Moldova, “Carbon”
• Mongolia, “Harvest Moon”
• Montenegro, “The Elegy of Laurel”
• Morocco, “The Blue Caftan”
• Nepal, “Butterfly on a Windowpane”
• Netherlands, “Narcosis”
• New Zealand, “Muru”
• North Macedonia, “The Happiest Man in the World”
• Norway, “War Sailor”
• Pakistan, “Joyland”
• Palestine, “Mediterranean Fever”
• Panama, “Birthday Boy”
• Paraguay, “Eami”
• Peru, “Moon Heart”
• Philippines, “On the Job: The Missing 8”
• Poland, “EO”
• Portugal, “Alma Viva”
• Romania, “Imaculat”
• Saudi Arabia, “Raven Song”
• Senegal, “Xalé”
• Serbia, “Darkling”
• Singapore, “Ajoomma”
• Slovakia, “Victim”
• Slovenia, “Orchestra”
• South Korea, “Decision to Leave”
• Spain, “Alcarràs”
• Sweden, “Cairo Conspiracy”
• Switzerland, “A Piece of Sky”
• Taiwan, “Goddamned Asura”
• Tanzania, “Tug of War”
• Thailand, “One for the Road”
• Tunisia, “Under the Fig Trees”
• Turkey, “Kerr”
• Uganda, “Tembele”
• Ukraine, “Klondike”
• United Kingdom, “Winners”
• Uruguay, “The Employer and the Employee”
• Venezuela, “The Box”
• Vietnam, “578: Magnum”

Documentary Feature

144 docs are eligible this year for Documentary Feature Oscar consideration, and like animated feature, with many yet to fulfill their required qualifying release. Documentaries that have won a qualifying film festival award or have been submitted in the international feature category as its country’s official selection are also eligible for this category.

651 members of the Documentary Branch will vote to determine the shortlist of nominees and the list of fifteen films will be announced on Wednesday, December 21.

Interestingly, Icarus: The Aftermath, the sequel to the Netflix Oscar-winner Icarus by Bryan Fogel has yet to pick up U.S. distribution and therefore missed the cut for this year.

Here is the list of the eligible docs.

• “2nd Chance”
• “752 Is Not a Number”
• “A House Made of Splinters”
• “A Star Without a Star”
• “Aftershock”
• “All That Breathes”
• “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
• “America Boxed In”
• “Anonymous Club”
• “Art & Krimes by Krimes”
• “At Home Walking”
• “Bad Axe”
• “Battleground”
• “Beba”
• “Bitterbrush”
• “Black Ice”
• “Black Notebooks – Ronit”
• “Blue Island”
• “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power”
• “Breaking Bread”
• “Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche”
• “Calendar Girls”
• “Cat Daddies”
• “Children of the Mist”
• “Civil”
• “Claydream”
• “Cow”
• “Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story”
• “Descendant”
• “Disturbed Earth”
• “Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel”
• “Eami”
• “Eternal Spring”
• “Exposure”
• “Fanny: The Right to Rock”
• “Father”
• “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen”
• “Fire of Love”
• “Four Winters”
• “Framing Agnes”
• “Free Chol Soo Lee”
• “Free Puppies!”
• “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”
• “From the Hood to the Holler”
• “Gabby Giffords; Won’t Back Down”
• “Gamestop: Rise of the Players”
• “Girl, Taken”
• “Good Night Oppy”
• “Gratitude Revealed”
• “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song”
• “Hello, Bookstore”
• “Hidden Letters”
• “Hold Your Fire”
• “How to Survive a Pandemic”
• “I Am Here”
• “I Didn’t See You There”
• “I’m Wanita”
• “In Her Hands”
• “Invisible Demons”
• “Is That Black Enough for You?”
• “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story”
• “Katrina Babies”
• “Keep Stepping”
• “Killing Me Softly with His Songs”
• “Las Hostilidades”
• “Last Flight Home”
• “Leave No Trace”
• “Let Me Be Me”
• “Let the Little Light Shine”
• “Life & Life”
• “Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege”
• “Look at Me: XXXtentacion”
• “Loudmouth”
• “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues”
• “Loving Highsmith”
• “Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power”
• “Master of Light”
• “Midwives”
• “Mija”
• “Moonage Daydream”
• “Motherland”
• “Mr. Landsbergis”
• “My Old School”
• “Myanmar Diaries”
• “Navalny”
• “Nelly & Nadine”
• “Nothing Compares”
• “Nothing Lasts Forever”
• “Oleg”
• “Only in Theaters”
• “Our American Family”
• “Out of Breath”
• “Project Iceman”
• “Punch 9 for Harold Washington”
• “Retrograde”
• “Riotsville, U.S.A.”
• “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams”
• “Sansón and Me”
• “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me”
• “Send Me”
• “Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic”
• “Sidney”
• “Sirens”
• “Souls in Transit”
• “Sr.”
• “Stutz”
• “Surviving Sex Trafficking”
• “Tantura”
• “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales”
• “The Automat”
• “The Balcony Movie”
• “The Bengali
• “The Book Keepers”
• “The Camera of Doctor Morris”
• “The Cathedral”
• “The Corridors of Powers”
• “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie”
• “The Eclipse”
• “The Exiles”
• “The Human Trial”
• “The Janes”
• “The Last of the Winthrops”
• “The New Abolitionists”
• “The Princess”
• “The Quiet Epidemic”
• “The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile”
• “The Silence of the Mole”
• “The Story Won’t Die”
• “The Territory”
• “The Unredacted (Jihad Rehab)”
• “The Voice of Dust and Ash”
• “The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari”
• “The Will to See”
• “The Wind Blows the Border”
• “Three Minutes — A Lengthening”
• “Tiger 24”
• “To the End”
• “Trenches”
• “Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb”
• “Users”
• “We Are Art Through the Eyes of Annalaura”
• “What We Leave Behind”
• “Wildcat”
• “Young Plato”
• “¡Viva Maestro!”

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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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