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NEWS: The Academy Opens Foreign Film Votes to All Members

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but depending on how it's released, some anime films could theoretically be eligible for either category.

*does some research*

Okay, here's how it works:

To be nominated for an Academy Award (any award), the following are the requirements:
1) Film must be 40 minutes or longer in length (except for short films)
2) Must be publicly exhibited in 35mm or 70mm film, or in 24- or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format with minimum resolution of 2048x1080 pixels (the rules further clarify audio, etc)
3) Have paid admission in a commercial movie theater in Los Angeles County, CA (exception for Foreign films)
4) Have a qualifying run of at least 7 consecutive days
5) Be "advertised and expoited" during the LA County run in print media
6) Be within the Awards year (January 1-December 31, excepf for foreign films)
7) Film may not have their first public exhibition or distribution other than through movie theater (TV, home video, internet, etc)

For Animated Films, they have additional rules:
1) Movement and characters' performances must be done using a frame-by-frame technique
2) Motion capture by itself is not considered an animation technique (this is to stop films like Avatar from being eligible)
3) A significant number of the major characters must be animated
4) Animation must figure into no less than 75% of the picture's running time.

For Foreign Language films, there are additional rules also:
1) Film must be released in submitting country first
2) Only one film per submitting country is allowed
3) The original dialogue must be predominantly in a language(s) other than English
4) Accurate English subtitles are required
5) Creative control of the film must have been largely in the hands of citizens or residents of that country.

There are also specific notes on eligibility in other categories. Basically, as long as it also fits the rules for another category, it can be nominated.

Of note, there are 2 animated films that have received dual nominations, and one that would have, if the Animated Film category existed at the time. Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture (Animated Film didn't exist until 2001, this was 1991). Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) were nominated in both Animated Film and Best Picture.

More to our interests here is Waltz with Bashir (2008), an Israeli documentary (animated) film, which is, to date, the only animated film to receive a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, but it did not get nominated for Best Animated Feature (from my brief research on Wikipedia on it, it doesn't appear to have had a LA County release, which would have made it ineligible in the first place).

So yes, the short answer is, it does appear that anime could potentially be nominated in both Best Animated Feature and Best Foreign Language Film, although it would likely be the dub nominated for the former and the sub for the latter (as the sub likely would not have a qualifying run for Best Animated Feature).

It would appear that it is possible for a foreign animated film to be nominated under both categories (Waltz with Bashir proves they can be nominated for and win a foreign film Oscar), provided the country has no other submission. This new information makes me kind of disappointed a Miyazaki film has never had dual nominations (Spirited Away may've been a contender, considering it won for the field it was nominated in).

For that matter, aren't SA and Howl's Moving Castle the only Ghibli films to get nominated? Was Mononoke snubbed (I can't imagine why)?

roseversailles wrote:

It would appear that it is possible for a foreign animated film to be nominated under both categories (Waltz with Bashir proves they can be nominated for and win a foreign film Oscar), provided the country has no other submission. This new information makes me kind of disappointed a Miyazaki film has never had dual nominations (Spirited Away may've been a contender, considering it won for the field it was nominated in).

In order for an animated film to be dual-nominated for Best Foreign Language and Best Animated Film, the foreign language film release in the foreign country and the animated film run in Los Angeles must be on the same year. In theory, an animated film can be nominated for Best Foreign Language in one year, then the domestic release can be nominated for Best Animated Film the next year (foreign animated films must be made within 2 years of the Award, instead of the customary 1-year window, provided the domestic release happens in the year for the Award).

roseversailles wrote:

For that matter, aren't SA and Howl's Moving Castle the only Ghibli films to get nominated? Was Mononoke snubbed (I can't imagine why)?

Princess Mononoke (1997) came out before the Best Animated Film Awards (2001).