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Award Season Spotlight
The 2021 Award Season Dossier A Great Year for Wolves, Lost Souls, Lunar Trips and More By Michael Mallory
Z
oinks, what a year! COVID-19’s forced separation of studios and theaters during much of 2020 has meant that most of Hollywood got its action on the download, seriously affecting box-office returns. Despite changes in distribution, however, the year is a remarkably strong one for Oscar contenders, particularly among foreign films. In fact, 2020 might be the first year animated films from other countries outnumber American contenders. A major player in the animated feature sweepstakes this time around is Netflix, which in two years has gone from threatened exclusion from the Oscar table to serving as a lifeboat for the industry overall. Meanwhile, a subtle but potentially game-changing question looms in the Academy’s new diversity criterion for any Best Picture contender. Since animation traditionally has a better track record of diversity than live action, will this mandate make it easier for an animated feature to slide up into the top category? Conventional wisdom holds that the creation of the Best Animated Feature category in 2001 closed the door to a Best Picture nod for any animated film, though the 2021 ceremony might tell us a different story.
BEST BETS:
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Over the Moon
(Aardman Animations, Netflix) Directors: Richard Phelan, Will Becher Release Date: September 22, 2019 (U.K.) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96% Synopsis: The human and animal denizens of Mossy Bottom Farm discover a space alien, whom the sheep try to keep safe while Farmer John uses the opportunity to transform his struggling farm into a theme park. Director Talk: “As the first film was coming to an end, we started to have brainstorm meetings about what we could do next with Shaun the Sheep. Richard Starzak, who created Shaun the Sheep, said, ‘What if an alien crashed on the farm?’ And then everyone just lit up, because we realized we’d never made a sci-fi film at Aardman.” — Will Becher The Word: “It’s a very funny movie — and an endlessly, refreshingly cheerful one, which is just as rare.” — Jason Bailey, New York Times Nomination Chances: From the early days of Creature Comforts and Wallace & Gromit shorts, Aardman has had a history of being invited to the Oscar party — and the Bristolbased studio has a way of melting the hearts of animation lovers all over the world.
(Pearl Studio, Glen Keane Prods., Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix) Director: Glen Keane Release Date: October 23, 2020 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79% Synopsis: A young girl channels her grief over the death of her mother to create a rocketship, and flies it to the moon to meet the Moon Goddess. Director Talk: “I love characters that believe the impossible is possible … We all face impossible odds in our life, now more than ever, and nothing can stop a character that sees that goal.” — Glen Keane The Word: “It laudably strives to work many new elements into feature animation. Strange, then, how so much of it seems like someplace we’ve been to many times before.” — Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle Nomination Chances: Exquisite animation, heartfelt emotions and design overcome some convoluted storytelling, putting this in the good chance range.
www.animationmagazine.net 28
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february 21
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