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No Anime in Consideration for This Year's Animated Short Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday that 10 films have advanced to the voting process in the Animated Short Film category for the 89th Academy Awards to be held on February 26, 2017. No anime shorts are among the shortlisted films for the third year in a row.

The list of advancing titles is as follows:

• "Blind Vaysha," by Theodore Ushev and the National Film Board of Canada
• "Borrowed Time," by directors Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Quorum Films
• "Happy End," by director Jan Saska and the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU)
• "The Head Vanishes," by director Franck Dion, Papy3D Productions, the National Film Board of Canada and the ARTE France Cinema Department
• "Inner Workings," by director Leo Matsuda, producer Sean Lurie, and Walt Disney Animation Studios
• "Once upon a LINE," by director Alicja Jasina and University of Southern California
• "Pear Cider and Cigarettes," by director Robert Valley, producer Cara Speller, Massive Swerve Studios, and Passion Pictures Animation
• "Pearl," by director Patrick Osborne and Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures
• "Piper," by director Alan Barillaro, producer Marc Sondheimer, and Pixar Animation Studios
• "Sous Tes Doigts (Under Your Fingers)," by director Marie-Christine Courtès, art director Ludivine Berthouloux, Vivement Lundi!, and Novanima

Originally, 69 pictures qualified for the category. The list will be narrowed down to five films for the final nominees. The academy will announce its official slate of nominees on January 24, 2017.

The most recent anime short film shortlisted for the category was Shuhei Morita's "Possessions" for the 86th Academy Awards. The short received a nomination, but lost to Laurent Witz's "Mr. Hublot" in the final Oscar vote.

Kunio Katō's "La Maison en Petits Cubes" won in the Best Animated Short Film category at the 81st Annual Academy Awards in 2009.

The Academy announced earlier this month that a record 27 films had been submitted for consideration in the Best Animated Feature Film category, including Takeshi Nozue's Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV CG-animated film; Keiichi Hara's Miss Hokusai; Michael Dudok de Wit, Studio Ghibli, and Wild Bunch's The Red Turtle; and Makoto Shinkai's your name.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.