Go stop-motion!

Best picture nom: Up!

Fantastic to see Secret Of Kells in there. Well done, Mr.Moore and co. And just following that Irish animation boom article too.

UP! UP! and away…..
I’m so proud of MR. Docter and the staff at Pixar. We didi it! I am so happy to see that animated features are being taken serious. In the words of the great Brad Bird:

“People think of animation only doing things where people are dancing around and doing a lot of histrionics, but animation is not a genre. And people keep saying, “The animation genre.” It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. But it doesn’t do one thing. And, next time I hear, “What’s it like working in the animation genre?” I’m going to punch that person!”

wORK_

I’m of the mindset that either AVATAR or HURT LOCKER is going to win “Best Picture” — my preference being for the latter. So although it’s great to see an animated film make it to such a level, competition is immensely steep.

Although all of the films in the “Best Animated Feature” category are really good, I’m still pro-Coraline.

Congratulations to Pixar and the talented artists and crew of UP. This is great news, and I’m rooting for you all!

Cordell Barker’s was the only excellent short (and he hasn’t won yet!), but I really am not a fan of most of those. Supposedly, a lot of people dislike Nick Park’s latest, too. Peculiar.

Out of the 5 noms, I think the Secret of Kells is getting most of the buzzes with everyone going “wtf” so far on Twitter search. Great result for Cartoon Saloon and hopefully this may result in not-so-limited North America release. Also, with the studio now getting the attention, could this mean the Song of the Sea will get properly funded and eventually made?

Grats to all the noms (and especially to Up in Best Picture). 5 is just too little for such a vintage year of feature animation, but to anyone made it to that final 5… they’re all cream of the crop, and no one deserves to lose!

Finally! :D

Congratulations for yet another breakthrough to everyone at Pixar.

Pretty strong list for the Animated Feature category.

Good selection and a good year for animation, makes me sniffle a little though that Mary and Max wasn’t amongst the nominees as I absolutely loved it.

M+M was probably a little dark for typical Oscar fare but then again that is why I liked it so much and what made it such an original when compared to the kid friendly prerequisite that seems to dominate mainstream films categorised as ‘animation’.

Way too many adults still seem to think that the word ‘animation’ is synonymous with the word ‘children’.

At least we had a few films this year that tried to break this mould and cater to both adults and children.
Kudos to them and the rest of the nominees this year!

Absolutely amazing to see the fantastic Secret of Kells up there, and I’m really pleased Princess and the Frog and Fantastic Mr Fox also got recognition! Thrilled for the Brown Bag Films team too - hope Grannny O’Grimm does the business for them!

Great list! I feel Up has the Oscar momentum though. Many may over look it as a serious Best picture contender since it is competing in the best animated category as well…Nice to see Secret of the Kells in there. This may help it get the wider audience it deserves.
Would have loved to see Mary and Max up there!

Finally, the whole notion of the animation ghetto in Oscar nominations can be put to rest! An animated film has been nominated for Best Picture! Great news!

Go Coraline!!!!!

First, here’s hoping that James Cameron is the next person to say “Animation Genre” to Brad Bird.

I’m rooting for Up as Best Picture, it deserves the nom, and it’s up there with some deserving competition as well. Congratulations to all the exceedingly hard working folks at Pixar!

Very excited about The Secret of the Kells being nominated for Best Animated Feature, a wider release in the States would be very welcome, at the very least a decent DVD release. Can’t wait to see it, it looks gorgeous!

Congratulations to all involved in these outstanding films, what an amazing year to be an animation fan!

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatball’s exclusion is egregious. I guess the Academy still doesn’t respect cartoony animation. So what else is new.

Actually, UP was nominated for both Best Picture AND Best Animated Feature.

Still, kudos Pixar for their continued innovation for this medium. And congrads Disney for gaining some recognition for The Princess and the Frog.

Up for best picture! That’s great. Shame avatar will win everything. The only thing i don’t like is no ponyo. Why is anime shut out this year? Secret of the kells looks good. I would like to see it one day.

Congratulations to the folks at Pixar. I certainly respect their work, but my gut feeling is that, at its core, UP is a mediocre, muddled film that blinds people with ten minutes of well-orchestrated heartstring tugging.

Here’s to the creative folks behind Mary & Max, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 9. Your films moved and thrilled this audience member, and you deserve recognition.

Serious props to Pixar for the double nomination! That’s amazing and well deserved! :D

Are foreign nominations allowed for the feature if they weren’t released domestically? Summer Wars is easily the best animated feature this year, but it will only get a DVD release here (as the superior The Girl Who Leapt Through Time did).

There should be a rule that says a film can’t be nominated for both best film AND best animated film.

Whoa! Congrats to The Secret of Kell!! I mean there’s no way it’ll win, (only cause it’s against Pixar, not cause its not deserving) but maybe this will mean distribution over here so I can see it! Very cool!

Also, note that Fantastic Mr. Fox got a score nomination.

Good set of nominations but it is dissapointing that Ponyo or Cloudy got a nod as they are both fantastic films.

Wait… Cordell Barker’s “Runaway” WASN’T nominated??

That’s not right…

—

The animated feature nominations are good enough. My personal favourite animated feature from the past year was “Panique au village” (A Town Called Panic), but it was too obscure to ever stand a chance.

I’ve got to agree with Jorge here. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was by far the funniest animated film of the year and really pushed the limits of how cartoony you are able go with CG. At the very least it should have got a nomination. The Academy really does hate the funny.

On a non-animation note, the fact that The Hangover didn’t recieve a single nomination, despite being nominated at nearly every other awards ceremony, is further proof that the academy looks down on comedy. I wonder if any of them have ever known what it’s like to laugh?

I checked out Amazon.com and “The Secret of the Kells” is not available in the USA on DVD. I would like to see the film before the Oscar telecast but I am surprised that a film that has had very limited release and that is not currently available on home video can have any chance of winning this category. I do not understand why it was nominated when very few people in the USA have had the opportunity to see it. I thought the Oscars are a reflection on films released in America with outside films that have not been released here not being able to participate. If a foreign film does get released in the USA, then it can qualify, whether in the Foreign Films categories or any other suitable category.

I am not saying that it does not deserve the nomination, but with such a wide selection of animated films available this year, how did this one get through?

Congratulations to all the nominees! Everyone worked so hard on these fantastic films, short and long, and the work has definitely paid off. :)

I too am sad for the lack of nods for Cloudy, Mary & Max, & Runaway (and The Hangover, for that matter). But I guess you can’t win ‘em all (or even be nominated!).

As thrilled as I am that Up got a Best Picture nomination I doubt that it would have gotten one if the field had only five films. Still, the fact that it got nominated and the fact that five animated films are in the Best Animated Picture category are great things.

Too bad Up will probably lose to Avatar….then again if I had a vote I’d pick Inglourious Basterds as my Best Picture.

@Ben,

I would have been surprised if I _saw_ “The Hangover” on the nominations list. I went to see that picture and didn’t laugh once. I grimaced a lot, however. A lot of people seemed to find it absolutely hysterical, I found it odd and flat. But that’s my opinion of it.

and @Greg,

Obscure films are nominated for Oscars all the time. A film’s run needn’t be longer than seven days in Los Angeles to be eligible for nomination.

@ Greg Chenoweth…

Why “Secret of the Kells”? It had a qualifying run in L.A. per the Academy rules.

Probably in hopes of getting a nom so it could go on to a wide release now with some buzz or at least a successful DVD release.

The rules set the fairly low bar so that other than big studio films have a chance.

Oscar has a long history of films not widely seen getting nominations. It’s not like the “People’s Choice” awards that are based on a popularity survey.

Kudos to the lobbyists, a job well done !

Well, of course my faves Astro Boy and Ponyo got snubbed. What, is the Academy trying to get even for Pearl Harbor? ;)

Except for “Kells” - which I haven’t seen, and frankly can’t even FIND anywhere in my neck of the woods - the rest of the noms were expected. So expected I damn near fell asleep when the noms were read. HO hum, “Fox” got nommed, even though it’s a dud at the box office and UNLIKE Astro Boy, it’s hardly a crowd-pleaser. Usual snobbery at work here.

Nice that “Almost There” got a song nom. The moment in the film where that song appeared was easily the film’s bright spot. Tiana rules in that number.

“Up”…ehhhhh. I respect it a HECK of a lot more than I liked it. My sister’s kids were bored silly by it. But whatever…

Hope Coraline will win! (let alone UP if it will take the Oscar too for Best Picture, but I highly doubt it)

Didn’t surprise me if “Logorama” was nominated as well. Saw someplace online that had this short included and it let a smile on my face to see the logo of a defunct local supermarket in my hometown 39 seconds into the film!

What a wonderful ‘best animated feature’ list! If only ‘Cloudy’ were in there, I’d be even more thrilled. Congrats to all that were nominated, each film nominated is an amazing piece of art and film making in itself, I can’t even say which film I’m rooting for! Nonetheless, I’ll be cheering for whoever takes home the Oscar that night.

Also, a huge congrats to Pixar for ‘UP’ being nominated for best picture. They’ve deserved a best picture nom for a long, long time.

Great to hear about UP’s nominations!

How ironic is it that Michael Giacchino’s score for the film is nominated, yet it’s not good enough to warrant a CD release?

It’s a real shame “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “Mary and Max” didn’t get nominated. Both were clearly labors of love, and really, really great films. All five nominees are also deserving, but I enjoyed Cloudy more than any other movie this year, and was surprised by how moving Mary and Max was.

Guess it’s just goes to show what a strong state feature animation is in right now. That’s a pretty great the silver lining.

The fact that Princess and the Frog is up for a nom is an obvious insider handjob to get people ‘excited about 2D (drawn) animation again’, the nod should have absolutely gone to Mary and Max or Ponyo, oh wait.. they aren’t American.. Shame they’re not willing to celebrate ‘diversity’ as much as they think they do.

condolences to anyone who has not looked “The Secret of the Kells” .

@Hellohue

You do realise that an Irish hand-drawn film got nominated, right?

Finally! Disney is back on the best song list. Its been a while.

I consider my self VERY lucky to see Secret of Kells at the LA Irish FF. Congrats to Tomm Moore & Cartoon Saloon. Can’t wait for the DVD. This was the most visceral, impactful film I saw out of the bunch. UP had soul, Coraline made me weep for the effort but Kells renewed my faith (NPI) in hand-drawn art. Go Irish!

How many people have seen Secret of Kells? Outside a few minor festivals, NOBODY!!!! There’s ONE showing in NYC on the 27th.

Grrr!!!!

I’m surprised that Up is nominated for Best Picture.

It’s kind of relieving to know that the Best Animated Feature category is not a disqualification for animated features to win Best Picture, but at the same time, I’m wondering why this particular Pixar film was nominated.

Pixar, in my opinion, did better, more entertaining movies in the past, like The Incredibles, or Ratatouille, and they didn’t get the nomination.

I’m guessing that 2009 was just an off year for film in general.

Here’s a website about “Kells”’s distribution.

http://www.gkids.tv/kells/

But it doesn’t have any dates yet.

Here in Canada, I’ve seen Mongrel Media say it has local distribution rights for The Secret of Kells ….

“Kells” is supposed to see more US release dates in March. I caught the final showing in Burbank back in December. BEAUTIFUL film. The story probably wasn’t as tight as it could’ve been, but the visuals more than make up for any shortcomings on that front.

Kudos to UP! Though I imagine it wouldn’t have made the Best Picture nomination if the category wasn’t expanded to 10 films this year. But who knows? Maybe it would!

Kells is a work of art, with love and care in every shot. Definitely deserved its nomination.

…Mary and Max had any chance ?
i mean .. it fitted the academy critery for election ?

I agree with all of those nominations. Good job, members of the Academy.

Hope the academy recognizes the ART behind Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

If UP wins it will be a sour victory for PIXAR/Disney because they know UP is no match to the fore mentioned films.

And we can argue for hours and never ever UP will be the best animation film no matter the arguments.

Let’s wait and see.

How the HECK did Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs not make the top five animated flicks? It was terrific!

While I’m happy to see Princess & The Frog,Up,Coraline,and Fantastic Mr.Fox nominated(I haven’t seen Secret of Kelis),I’m rather sad that Ponyo isn’t there. I was hoping and hoping it would get a Best Animated Feature nomination. Oh well,you can’t have everything.

In My Book Kells already won this.

Not sure why on earth UP got best picture nomination but it’s great to see an animated feature in the catagory again.
Sad not to see the incredible Mary And Max nominated anywhere…

I’ll never understand the hate for PRINCESS AND THE FROG. It was not without flaws, but they were minor. I think it ranks up there with “The Second Coming” of Disney in the 1990s. In fact, I’d say it’s a better and more-enjoyable film than all of those films save for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and LITTLE MERMAID.

I can’t believe that I forgot about the expanded Best Picture Nominations.

No wonder Up was nominated.

Congrats to Pixar and Pete Docter, most definitely.

That being said, “Up” confounded, frustrated and bored me greatly…almost as much as “Wall•E” and “Cars”.

Go figure.

Henry Selick’s stop-motion efforts can’t overcome the lame story of Coraline. Gaiman’s soulless, morally bankrupt stories are best suited to disaffected youths, who lack the depth or wisdom to realize their emperor has no clothes. Gaiman’s stories are tossed together with little thought. Despite all of the amazing visuals, Gaiman manages to bore the audience. His half-assed story weights down the project. Beowulf, Mirrormask, Coraline, are all awful and depressing. A film made from a Gaiman story is like a brightly wrapped package with a lump of coal inside, disappointing.