A Tribute to the Best Animated Feature Oscars

In recognition of the 2025 Oscar nominees announced last Thursday, I would like to acknowledge one of my personal favorite categories: The Best Animated Feature. This first award of this kind was presented at the 74th Annual Academy Awards in 2002, with Dreamworks’ Animation’s Shrek (2001) beating Disney/Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. (2001) and DNA Productions’ Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001). In today’s blog, I thought I would acknowledge this year’s nominated films, who directed them, and their connections to the Oscars.

• Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (dir. Kelsey Mann): Kelsey Mann directed the “Monsters, Inc.,” short film Party Central (2013), though he made his feature film debut directing “Inside Out 2.” The first Inside Out (2015), was written and directed by Pete Docter, current CEO of Pixar Animation. He won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for the film and Executive Produced the sequel. (Docter also won Best Animated Feature Oscars for Up (2009) and Soul (2020), and was nominated for “Monsters, Inc.”). Kelsey Mann co-wrote the film with Dave Holstein and Meg LeFauve, who received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar Nomination for writing the first “Inside Out.” The film’s music was composed by Andrea Datzman who composed music for Disney+ “Up-themed” short films Dug Days (2021) and Carl’s Date (2023).
• Netflix’s Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (dirs. Merlin Crossingham and Nick Park): Nick Park first created the British-produced “Wallace and Gromit” series, co-writing and directing the short film A Grand Day Out (1989), which received a Best Animated Short Film Oscar Nomination. Park later co-wrote and directed the Wallace and Gromit short films The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), (both of which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar). Park later brought Wallace and Gromit to the big screen in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, co-directing with Steve Box. Park received yet another Best Animated Short Film Nomination for the next Wallace and Gromit short film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, released in 2008.
• Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot (dir. Chris Sanders): In addition to Best Animated Feature, “Wild Robot” is also nominated for Best Sound and Best Original Score. “Wild Robot” is directed by Chris Sanders, who previously received Best Animated Feature Oscar Nominations for directing Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (2002), as well as Dreamworks’s How to Train Your Dragon (2002) and The Croods (2014). Sanders also co-wrote “Lilo & Stitch,” voiced Stitch in the movie, and is currently set to reprise the character in Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch to be released May 23rd, 2025. That remake will be directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, who received a Best Animated Feature Oscar Nomination for directing the film Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2023).
• Memoir of a Snail (dir. Adam Elliot): “Memoir of a Snail” is the second R-rated animated feature to be nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar. (The first was Anomalisa (2015), which was beaten by “Inside Out.”) It’s written and directed by Adam Elliot who previously wrote and directed the short film Harvie Krumpet (2004), which previously won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar. The film is produced by Madman Entertainment, which also produced this year’s The Substance, Sing Sing, The Apprentice, Black Box Diaries, Soundtrack to a Coup d’stat, and Flow, all of which are Oscar contenders. The film was produced in Australia, takes place in Melbourne, and consists of a voice cast of all Aussie actors including Eric Bana and Two-Time Oscar Nominee Jacki Weaver. If this film wins the Best Animated Feature Oscar, it will be the second time an Australia-produced feature film has won a Best Animated Feature Oscar. The first was Happy Feet (2006), directed by George Miller.
• Flow (dir. Gints Zibalodis): In addition to a nomination for Best Animated Feature, “Flow” is also an Oscar Nominee for Best International Feature Film, having been produced by the country of Latvia. “Flow” was this year’s recipient for the Best Animated Feature Golden Globe and was directed by Gints Zibalodis who previously directed the animated film Away (2019), which was also produced in Latvia. Neither movie had any talking and although “Flow,” consists of cartoon animals, their noises were recorded by real animals. If “Flow” receives the Oscar, it will be the first Oscar win for Zibalodis, as well as the very first Oscar given to Latvian-produced movie.