The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations for the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards early this morning. Toy Story 3 garnered a nomination for ‘Best Animated Feature,’ but was shut out of all other categories. What happened?
Over the years, Pixar has developed a stronghold on the animated category at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. Toy Story 3‘s Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Animated Feature’ was to be expected. The five nominees in the category are:
- Despicable Me
- How To Train Your Dragon
- The Illusionist
- Tangled
- Toy Story 3
However, the film was M.I.A. for the rest of the nominations. For the ‘Best Picture’ category, the Golden Globe Awards actually split genres into Drama and Comedy/Musical. Many saw the ‘Best Picture – Comedy/Musical’ category as a chance for Toy Story 3 to also receive a nomination for Best Picture, but alas, it was not meant to be. (EDIT: I have received official word that animated films are ineligible in the Best Picture categories, so Toy Story 3 could not have been nominated in this category. For those that remember, Toy Story 2 won ‘Best Picture – Comedy/Musical,’ but the ineligibility in the category for animated films became a rule after the ‘Best Animated Feature’ category was added.)
I am not here to bash the Hollywood Foreign Press or the films that received nominations. Congratulations are in order to all of the nominated films. It is just a bit frustrating for animated films to not receive their due because of the mode of delivery that they utilize.
Turning to the positive here, Toy Story 3‘s continued success in the animated category of all the different award shows and ‘Best of 2010’ lists represents the hard work of director Lee Unkrich, producer Darla K. Anderson, screenwriter Michael Arndt, and the rest of Pixar. The animators, writers, and directors at the studio are partly responsible for the revolution currently taking place in the animation industry. Before Beauty and the Beast and Pixar came along, animated films never really entered into the conversation of the greatest films of the year. My, how that has changed. Congratulations on a well-deserved nomination, Pixar!
To see the complete list of nominees, click here.
The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards air Sunday, January 16, 2011 on NBC at 8:00 pm EST.