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Anime Eligible for Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that 11 animated films are eligible for the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 2004 Academy Award.

Among the 11 films is Production I.G's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Innocence is the only Japanese animation to be deemed eligible, but two well known asian animations were also given the nod; The Legend of Buddha from India, and the Korean anime feature, Sky Blue (aka Wonderful Days).

The Legend of Buddha is Inidia's first full length 2D animated feature, and is reported to have been entirely hand animated.

Wonderful Days is a combined 2D foreground, 3D background animated feature and was produced by the same studio (Tin House) that did the 3D animation for Macross Zero. The films budget was US$10 million, making its 7-year production Korea's most expensive animated production ever.

The other eligible titles are, The Incredibles (Pixar), Shrek 2 (DreamWorks), Shark Tale (DreamWorks), Home on the Range (Disney), Teacher's Pet (Disney), The Polar Express (Warner Bros.) and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Paramount) and Clifford's Really Big Movie (Scolastic).

DreamWorks, which distributes Innocence in North America, and Disney, which distributes The Incredibles, are both tied for the most eligible titles (3).

None of these titles have yet been nominated for the Oscar, they are merely eligible. A maximum of 3 films can be nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Nominations will be announced on January 25th, and the awards will be announced on February 27th.

Past Winners of the Best Animated Feature Oscar:
2003: Finding Nemo (no anime was nominated)
2002: Spirited Away
2001: Shrek (First year this Oscar was awarded, no anime was nominated)