Top Story: A Historic Box Office Weekend: Five Of The Top Ten Films Are Animated Features

This morning the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominations for its Golden Globes award. The 71st edition of the Golden Globes will be presented on Sunday, January 12.

The following three films were selected for the Best Animated Feature Film category:

  • The Croods
  • Despicable Me 2
  • Frozen

Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises also earned a nomination, however, its nod came in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The most notable thing about the Golden Globes animation category this year: Pixar can’t win the award. In the seven years that the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has handed out an animation award, Pixar has won the award 6 times. The only year that Pixar didn’t win was in 2011 when they released Cars 2; The Adventures of Tintin won that year. Also, this is the first time they’ve only nominated 3 films since 2008.

[UPDATE]: DreamWorks released the following statements from the directors and producers of The Croods:

From Writer/Director Kirk DeMicco: “Thanks, HFPA, for the best wake-up call ever! The Croods has been an eight-year labor of love and to be recognized with a Golden Globe nomination is pretty amazing. We set out to make a film that everyone in the family—especially fathers—can relate to: a story about the power of change. Creating an original film takes a village, and from the support of the studio leadership at DreamWorks Animation to everyone on our crew, we cannot say ‘thank you’ enough—and if cavemen knew what a Golden Globe was, they would thank you as well!”

From Writer/Director Chris Sanders: “Animated films are the most detailed, complex sorts of films you can possibly make—so we don’t take that task lightly. The Croods had a message we felt was worthy of that scale of effort, and anyone who has seen it has come away changed. We are immensely proud of it, and of the artists who devoted themselves to it. We, and they, thank the HFPA from the bottom of their very strong hearts.”

From Producers Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell: We are so incredibly honored that The Croods has been recognized by the HFPA. Our writer/directors Chris Sanders and Kirk Demicco created a truly universal story about change and the power of family that audiences around the world embraced as their own—making this nomination particularly meaningful to us.

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