Oscar reactions Oscar reactions

There’s a lot of happy animation folks this morning – and for good reason. Animation turned up big at this year’s Academy Awards.

Below, we’re sharing statements from this year’s Oscar-nominated filmmakers and producers.

We’ll continue to update this story throughout the day as new statements come in from the nominees.

Animated Feature Reactions

Encanto
Directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush, and producers Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer

We are incredibly grateful to the Academy for this nomination and so honored to be recognized with our fellow nominees in such a strong year for animation. Huge thank you to our cast, our crew, and our musical partners, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Germaine Franco, for making miracles and bringing the world of Encanto to life.

Flee

Reaction video

Luca
Director Enrico Casarosa and producer Andrea Warren

We are incredibly honored and grateful to the Academy for this nomination. Luca began as a personal story inspired by a life changing friendship and nostalgia for summers spent on the Italian Riviera – and we were delighted that the universal message of accepting those in any way different from us resonated with audiences around the world. We would like to thank everyone at Pixar who helped bring this story to life. Grazie mille!

The Mitchells vs The Machines
Director Mike Rianda, and producers Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Kurt Albrecht

We’d like to THANK THE ACADEMY (WHAT IS HAPPENING!??!?!?) for this nomination.

We’re so happy that our amazing team of artists and filmmakers are getting recognized for this film. Our family of hundreds of crew set out to make the most original, heartwarming, funny, surprising and groundbreaking film we could make, and to do it with the love and enthusiasm of a movie lover making her first film.

Our art team constantly proved that you could break formulas and invent new tools to have CG animation reveal our artists’ humanity instead of hiding it. Our LGBTQ+ teammates helped us make our main character authentically queer. And all our artists infused every shot with the love and passion and infectious joy of our fellow first time filmmaker main character: Katie Mitchell.

This movie is a celebration of humanity, and we’re so grateful to the humans who made it, and just as grateful to the humans who loved it.

Mitchells reaction video:

Raya and the Last Dragon
Director Don Hall, co-director Carlos López Estrada, and producers Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho

On behalf of the amazing cast and crew of Raya and the the Last Dragon, we’d like to express our sheer joy and deep appreciation to the Academy for nominating our film. We’d also like to congratulate our fellow nominees. We’re honored to be in your company.


Animated Short Filmmaker Reactions

Affairs of the Art
Director Joanna Quinn and writer/producer Les Mills

We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to hear that our film has got a nomination — it’s the fulfillment of a dream that we’ve had since we first started making films. We are especially grateful to our Canadian co-producers at the NFB for their unstinting support, professionalism, and expertise throughout the whole production process — a million thanks to them and, of course, to all of our fantastic production crew in Wales.

Robin Robin

Director Dan Ojari and Mikey Please:

On behalf of the incredible team that brought this little bird and her world to life, we’re completely thrilled with the news of the Academy nomination. The shorts on the long list were made by some of our favorite artists and we feel very fortunate to have made it through to this next round. Wishing the other nominees the best of luck and whatever happens on the night, we’ll see you on the dance floor, where the real competition begins.

Windshield Wiper

Director Alberto Mielgo:

As a filmmaker, I can’t think of anything more fulfilling and satisfying than your film getting nominated for an Oscar. I’m not going to lie, but this is something I fantasized about many times, always distant as a real possibility. Film is my favorite of the arts BY FAR. I love animation as an art and as a tool, and I have spent what I lived so far experimenting, studying, honoring and enhancing an art form that fascinates me. I am very happy to witness that my fellow animated short nominees are films that do not necessarily meet the requirements of what is mainstream or commercial. What happened today is extremely important for the industry of animation because the Academy is also honoring this art by selecting these new narratives. I consider animation the winner today.

Producer Leo Sanchez:

Wow, we are so overwhelmed by this honor. This is all totally surreal, I am so happy, it’s hard to find the words. The Windshield Wiper was a passion project for the past seven years that we worked hard to keep on track in between life and work. We are so thankful to all of our friends in the industry who jumped on board and believed in the film from the start. They helped us take it to the finish line to a point where we could share it with the world. We are so excited to see what comes next with this amazing recognition!


Visual Effects Nominee Reactions

No Time to Die
Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, Chris Corbould
(statement from Fiona Walkinshaw, Framestore global managing director, film)

No Time To Die was a real labor of love for Jonathan and his team, and their fandom shines through in their pixel-perfect vfx work. While we’re frequently charged with conjuring the otherworldy or the fantastical at Framestore, this film was firmly grounded in reality – something that’s a considerable vfx challenge in its own right. From frenetic action to matching director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s stylish vision for what a Bond film should look like, Jonathan and his team carried the work off with aplomb – we look forward to seeing him in his tuxedo, martini in hand, at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony.