Best Picture criticism

Some members and fans have criticized the award, however, saying it is only intended to prevent animated films from having a chance of winning Best Picture. DreamWorks had advertised heavily during the holiday 2001 season for Shrek, but was disappointed when the rumored Best Picture nomination did not materialize, though it was nominated for and ultimately won the inaugural Best Animated Feature award.^[1]

The criticism surrounding the Best Animated Feature category was particularly prominent at the 81st Academy Awards, in which WALL-E won the award but was not nominated for Best Picture, despite receiving widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike and being generally considered to be one of the best films of 2008.^{[18][19][20][21]} This sparked controversy over whether the film was deliberately snubbed of such nomination by the academy. Film critic Peter Travers commented that "if there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, it's WALL-E." However, official Academy Award regulations state that any film nominated for this category can still be nominated for Best Picture.^[4] This, as well as more backlash that The Dark Knight was also not another Best Picture nominee meant that next year, the academy expanded the Best Picture category.^[22] After the expansion, two animated films—Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010)—were nominated for Best Picture.^[23]

From 2010 onward, with the increasing competitiveness of the Animated Feature category, Pixar (a perennial nominee) did not receive nominations for several recent films due to the more mixed critical response and comparatively low box-office receipts, while Pixar's sister studio Disney Animation won their first three awards.^[24]

2000s

2010s

2020s

Studios

Franchises

Notes

Studios and films

• Pixar has the most wins with 11 and the most nominations of any studio with 18.
  • They won the award in four years in a row with their film released between 2007 and 2010.
• Laika has the most nominations without a win, with 6 films.
• Almost all the winners have been computer-animated films. The exceptions are Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron, which are the only hand-drawn animated films, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, the only stop motion animated films to win.
• Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron (each from Japan) are the first and second non-English language films, respectively, to win. They are also the only two anime films to win.
• Toy Story is the only franchise with multiple wins, for its third and fourth films.
• Shrek (with one win) is the most-nominated franchise with four nominations.
  • How to Train Your Dragon and Cartoon Saloon's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" (consisting of The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers) are the most-nominated franchises without a win (three nominations each).
• Of the 12 adult animated films nominated, nine of them —The Triplets of Belleville, Persepolis, The Wind Rises, My Life as a Courgette, The Breadwinner, Loving Vincent, Isle of Dogs, Flee and The Boy and the Heron were each rated PG-13, Anomalisa is the only R-rated animated film to be nominated in this category, and Chico and Rita and I Lost My Body were not rated by the MPAA. The Boy and The Heron became the first animated film for adults (in this case, PG-13-rated) winner.
• There have been years when multiple animated films from the same studio were nominated. They are:
  • 2002 – Disney's Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet
  • 2004 – DreamWorks' Shrek 2 and Shark Tale
  • 2011 – DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots
  • 2016 – Disney's Zootopia and Moana
  • 2020 – Pixar's Onward and Soul^[47]
  • 2021 – Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto
  • 2022 – Netflix's The Sea Beast and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
• Up and Toy Story 3 are the first two films to have won both Best Animated Feature and to have received Best Picture nominations. Their nominations after the Academy expanded the potential number of nominees for Best Picture from 5 to 10.
• Shrek is the only non-Disney and/or Pixar animated film to be nominated for a screenwriting category, Best Adapted Screenplay, while winning the inaugural Best Animated Feature category.^[12][48]
• As of 2024, Shrek and WALL-E are the only winners that are inducted in the National Film Registry.^[49][50]
• Studio Ghibli (Japan) has the most wins for a non-US studio with two wins.
• Studio Ghibli has the most nominations for a non-US studio with seven films (winning twice for Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron).
• Flee has the most nominations (3) for both an adult animated and documentary film, and was the first film to be nominated in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature Film simultaneously.^[51]
• Two motion capture-related computer-animated films were nominated before a rule change in 2010 disqualified such films: Monster House and Happy Feet (the latter won the award).

People

• In 2013, Brenda Chapman was the first woman to win for Brave.
• After his win in 2023, Guillermo del Toro was the first filmmaker to win both the Best Animated Picture (for his adaptation of Pinocchio) and Best Picture (for 2017's The Shape of Water).^[52]
• Pete Docter has the most wins of any individual, winning three awards for Up, Inside Out and Soul.
• Hayao Miyazaki has the most nominations for a non-US individual, with four films (tied with Pete Docter).
• Hayao Miyazaki (Japan) has the most wins for a non-US individual with two.
• Ron Clements, Dean DeBlois, Travis Knight, Tomm Moore, and Chris Sanders are tied for receiving the most nominations without winning, with three each.