Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/GKids/Getty
If there’s any awards show categories to find disappointing, if not outright frustrating, it’s Best Animated Feature.
Historically speaking, it’s one of the most predictable competitions for the Academy Awards or Golden Globes. Since DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek received the first Oscar in the category in 2001, it’s received 14 more nods, yet with only one additional win. Instead, Pixar has taken the win nearly every year the studio has been nominated—17 times, with 11 wins. Pixar’s parent company, Disney, has collected the next-most awards, with 13 nods and 4 wins. But following Dreamworks’ pair of Oscars, no other animation studio has racked up more than one win—with many multiple nominees failing to win even once.
This predictability is not only boring for animation fans, but it also paints an inaccurate picture of the medium. Yes, animated films are most commercially successful in North America, and both the Oscars and Golden Globe are North American awards shows. But the Asian and European markets are similarly booming, with the East Asian audience for animation reportedly the fastest growing worldwide. But it’s not just about which audiences are attending these movies; European and Asian studios have been pumping out widely acclaimed, commercially successful animated films for decades.