Since the category was first established in 2001, only three films have been nominated each year for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, thanks to a set of rules that determines the number of possible nominees based on how many eligible films come out in a given year. But this year that number might get pushed to five. The Academy has released their official list of films eligible for this year's prize, and with 20 films total on the list, it's now very possible that five films will be nominated for Best Animated Feature.
That doesn't mean that there will definitely be five, though. Kind of like the Best Original Song category, where they managed to only nominate three films last year, the voters in the Animated Feature category could still only pick three thanks to their ranked voting system (thanks to Kris Tapley of In Contention for clearing that up for me). Still, given how many strong animated films have come out this year, it seems entirely likely that five films will emerge, meaning that we could very well see likely Best Picture nominee Up competing against Monsters vs. Aliens for the prize.
Below is the list of the 20 eligible films as released by the Academy. It's too early to bet much of anything, of course, but I'd wager that Up, The Princess and the Frog, Coraline and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will definitely make it into the final five.
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”
“Astro Boy”
“Battle for Terra”
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Disney's A Christmas Carol”
“The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
“Mary and Max”
“The Missing Lynx”
“Monsters vs. Aliens”
“9”
“Planet 51”
“Ponyo”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
“A Town Called Panic”
“Up”
