Leading into the Academy Awards, it seems that there is not much that stands in the way of Toy Story 3 capturing the Best Animated Film Oscar. Earlier tonight, the 64th Annual BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards took place and handed out the big animation prize to Pixar’s latest, further cementing the film’s status as the best animated film (and one of the best films) of the year.
The three categories in which Toy Story 3 was nominated follow:
Adapted Screenplay
- 127 Hours – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
- The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
- Toy Story 3 – Michael Arndt
- True Grit – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Animated Film
- Despicable Me
- How To Train Your Dragon
- Toy Story 3
Special Visual Effects
- Alice In Wonderland
- Black Swan
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
- Inception
- Toy Story 3
Aaron Sorkin took the Adapted Screenplay award for his writing duties on The Social Network (a great film), while Inception (another great film) took the prize for Special Visual Effects.
Lee Unkrich accepted the Animated Film BAFTA and gave the following acceptance speech:
“Ugh, my heart is pounding. I don’t think my heart has ever pounded this hard! I guess I don’t have to feel bad that I didn’t do my cardio this morning. (Laughs) Thank you to the British Academy for this award, shared (of course) with the legions of incredibly talented people on my crew, particularly my producer Darla Anderson and my screenwriter Michael Arndt; my incredible cast, anchored by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton, and Ned Beatty – they’re the heart and soul of this film, and they were an inspiration to me each and every day.
Thank you to everybody at Disney and Pixar, especially John Lasseter for trusting me with making a Toy Story film that hopefully is worthy of sitting alongside the first two films. Thank you to my beautiful wife and my three lovely children for being patient with me during the 4+ years that I spent making this film.
And finally, it’s an incredible honor for me to be standing here accepting this award in the U.K., where audiences came out in just staggering numbers and embraced a film about the joys of childhood and saying goodbye to childhood and…I just thank you all for embracing the film. It’s a real honor. Thank you very much.”
Toy Story 3 won best animated film in a very nice year for animation. With all the praise that the third Toy Story film and other animated films have been getting this year, the animation industry is sending a clear message that they feel their films deserve to be considered alongside their live-action brethren. The journey rages on!
Congratulations to Lee Unkrich and Pixar on winning the BAFTA award!
