In its storied history, Pixar has enjoyed incredible award seasons year after year. For years, the studio dominated the awards circuit, with Pixar films often capturing the highest honor for animated films. Up and Toy Story 3 even received Oscar nominations in the Best Picture category in back-to-back years. With Disney Animation and other major studios producing critically acclaimed animated films at a rate far higher than 15 years ago, the animation categories have experienced an explosive growth in competition. Finding Dory is currently making the rounds at award shows and today received nominations for several of them – find more details after the break!
BAFTAs
The EE British Film Academy Awards (BAFTAs – yes, the acronym is confusing) is the overseas counterpart of the Oscars. Today, they announced nominations for the show, which will be held on Sunday, February 12th at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Finding Dory earned one nomination:
Animated Film
- Finding Dory
- Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)
- Moana (Ron Clements, John Musker)
- Zootropolis (Byron Howard, Rich Moore) – Not a typo. Zootopia was titled Zootropolis in some countries
VES
The Visual Effects Society (VES) celebrates achievements in visual effects work throughout the media industry, including in film, T.V., video games, and commercials. Its awards will be given out at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Tuesday, February 7th. The group gave Finding Dory four nominations:
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature
- Finding Dory (Angus MacLane, Lindsey Collins, John Halstead, Chris J. Chapman)
- Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner, Steve Emerson, Brad Schiff)
- Moana (Kyle Odermatt, Nicole P. Hearon, Hank Driskill, Ian Gooding)
- The Little Prince (Mark Osborne, Jinko Gotoh, Pascal Bertrand, Jamie Caliri)
- Zootopia (Scott Kersavage, Bradford S. Simonsen, David Goetz, Ernest J. Petti)
Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature
- Finding Dory – Hank (Jonathan Hoffman, Steven Clay Hunter, Mark Piretti, Audrey Wong)
- Kubo and the Two Strings – Kubo (Jeff Riley, Ian Whitlock, Adam Lawthers, Jeremy Spake)
- Kubo and the Two Strings – Monkey (Andy Bailey, Dobrin Yanev, Kim Slate, Jessica Lynn)
- Moana – The Mighty Maui (Mack Kablan, Nikki Mull, Matthew Schiller, Marc Thyng)
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature
- Finding Dory – Open Ocean Exhibit (Stephen Gustafson, Jack Hattori, Jesse Hollander, Michael Rutter)
- Kubo and the Two Strings – Hanzo’s Fortress (Phil Brotherton, Nick Mariana, Emily Greene, Joe Strasser)
- Kubo and the Two Strings – Waves (David Horsley, Eric Wachtman, Daniel Leatherdale, Takashi Kuboto)
- Moana – Motonui Island (Rob Dressel, Andy Harkness, Brien Hindman, Larry Wu)
Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature
- Finding Dory (Stephen Gustafson, Allen Hemberger, Joshua Jenny, Matthew Kiyoshi Wong)
- Kubo and the Two Strings – Water (David Horsley, Peter Stuart, Timur Khodzhaev, Terrance Tornberg)
- Moana (Marc Henry Bryant, David Hutchins, John M. Kosnik, Dale Mayeda)
- Zootopia (Nicholas Burkard, Moe El-Ali, Claudia Chung Sanii, Thom Wickes)
Producer’s Guild Awards
The Producer’s Guild, which represents the large group of producers that work in film and T.V., as well as other forms of media, also announced their small list of nominations today. The awards, which will be given out at the Beverly Hilton Hotel (the place to be for awards shows, apparently) on Saturday, January 28th, consist of three categories, one of which comprise animated films. Producer Lindsey Collins earned a nomination for Finding Dory:
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
• Finding Dory Producer: Lindsey Collins
• Kubo and the Two Strings Producers: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight
• Moana Producer: Osnat Shurer
• The Secret Life of Pets Producers: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy
• Zootopia Producer: Clark Spencer
Finding Dory Concept Art
This past Sunday, Zootopia walked away with the highest animation prize at the Golden Globes. However, while the Globes can set the stage for which films will enjoy success at subsequent award shows, the small membership that makes up the Hollywood Foreign Press and votes for Globes winners has often been steeped in controversy. Still, Zootopia appears to be the animated film to beat this season (deservedly so – the film was incredible), although both Kubo and Moana are also great contenders. Finding Dory was definitely a solid film, but it has yet to build enough buzz and momentum to truly contend at upcoming award shows. We will have to wait and see. It is important to remember during the cut-throat and regularly controversial awards season that award shows do not make or break a film’s quality – how good a film is and whether you enjoy it is independent of its performance during awards season.
