How did the 2025 Oscars make animation history?

The Oscars (and awards ceremonies in general) have a big problem with animation. For many of the Oscars’ historical animated films, they were excluded from nominations, with only animated shorts having their own category. Then, once the Best Animated Feature category was created in 2001, it was quickly dominated by Disney films and children’s films in general. It didn’t take long for the Academy to consider the entire medium nothing more than an annual celebration of Disney’s marketing prowess, and that was the end of it. Endless stupid jokes about how tiring it is to watch cartoons with your kids.

There have certainly been surprises, like Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” taking home after winning in 2022, or when Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” won last year. However, the award has historically remained somewhat predictable: a simple battle between the major American studios, and an award given simply to the highest-grossing animated film of that year.

Fortunately, the 2025 Oscars appear to be doing something right – Despite many mistakes. The Academy came to its senses this year and realized that animated films are also films, and that they deserve consideration in multiple categories, as they have different production departments that excel at what they do, just like live-action films.

It’s a small gesture, of course, and not at all a sign that the party will be different in the years to come. But at least this year, it’s a refreshing change.

It’s been more than 20 years since the Academy introduced the Best Animated Feature category, however The medium is still an afterthought They are not given the same consideration as live-action films. Just as any live-action film can be nominated for several technical categories in addition to Best Picture, so animated films are the result of many different departments doing equally hard and impressive work. Take the “Snail Diary”. As a stop-motion film, it makes effective use of live-action sets, with costumes, set pieces and lighting just like a live-action production. Director of “Ultraman: Rising.” Shannon Tindell Variety was recently accused of not including animation directors in their roundtables, and they were right. Animation directors are still directors, so why aren’t they counted as such this awards season?

Fortunately, 2025 will change things a bit. “Flow,” one of the best films of the year and one of the best Great disaster movienot only received a nomination for Best Animated Feature, but also an award for Best International Film as the film is primarily a Latvian production. Meanwhile, DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot” took home a Best Original Score nod and even a nomination for Best Soundtrack. The latter is important because, along with Best Original Score and Best Original Song, animated films managed to get Best Sound nods decades before they received their own category, with “Bambi” receiving a nomination back in 1942.

In a better schedule, we’d have animated films competing in every category alongside live-action films. Take a visual effects class. Why did only three animated films get nods in this category, considering how visual effects-heavy films like “Across the Spider-Verse” are? Many Pixar films have been nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but why not for the director?

One of the most curious developments in the last couple of years when it comes to the Oscars is the decline in Disney films receiving nominations. This is the fourth year in a row where No Disney animated film has received a nomination for Best Animated Feature (It’s true that Pixar films still get nominations, but that’s technically a separate studio.) This has allowed smaller films to get nominations and the spotlight.

This year we have not one but two nominees from small distributors with no real Oscar campaign history. “Flow” (distributed by Janus Films) and “Memoir of a Snail” (distributed by IFC Films) don’t have the manpower or budget of big studios like Pixar or DreamWorks, nor even the resources and track record of a company like GKIDS or Neon. However, both films managed to receive Oscar nominations, which is a tremendous achievement. Things aren’t great at all when it comes to animation and the Oscars, but this is arguably the most diverse list of animation nominees in years.