Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
Film award
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The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is an Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the best animated feature film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time.[1] The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.[2][3][4]
| Academy Award for Best Animated Feature | |
|---|---|
2026 co-recipients | |
| Awarded for | The best animated film with a running time of more than 40 minutes, a significant number of the major characters animated, and at least 75 percent of the picture's running time including animation. |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First award | Shrek (2001) |
| Most recent winner | KPop Demon Hunters (2025) |
| Most awards | Pixar (11) / Pete Docter (3) |
| Most nominations | Pixar (20) / Pete Docter, Byron Howard, Hayao Miyazaki, and Chris Sanders (4) |
| Website | oscars |
For much of the Academy Awards' history, AMPAS was resistant to the idea of a regular award for animated features, considering there were simply too few produced to justify such consideration.[5] Instead, the Academy occasionally bestowed special Oscars for exceptional productions, usually for Walt Disney Pictures, such as Academy Honorary Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938,[6] and the Special Achievement Academy Award for the live action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1989[7], and Toy Story in 1996.[8] Prior to the award's creation, only one animated film was nominated for Best Picture: 1991's Beauty and the Beast, also by Disney.[9][10]
By 2001, the rise of sustained competitors to Disney in the feature animated film market, such as DreamWorks Animation (founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg), created an increase of film releases of significant annual number enough for AMPAS to reconsider.[5] The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first given out at the 74th Academy Awards,[11] held on March 24, 2002.[12]
Winners and nominees
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When the category was first instated, the nomination went to the person(s) most involved in creating the film. This could be the producer, the director, or both. For the 76th Academy Awards in 2003, only the director(s) of the film received the nomination. For the 86th Academy Awards ten years later, this was amended to include one producer and up to two directors. For the 91st Academy Awards, this was amended once again to include up to four individuals, one of whom must be a director and one of whom must be a producer; an exception to this is that "[i]n the case of a TWO-PERSON TEAM with shared and equal director or producer credit, an additional statuette may be awarded."[13]
The Academy included a rule that stated that the award would not be presented in a year in which fewer than eight eligible films opened in theaters.[14] In regards of the Academy, it allows for all members to make voting for animated films more acceptable.[15]
At the same year, the Academy enacted a new rule regarding the motion capture technique employed in films such as A Christmas Carol (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011), directed by Academy Award for Best Director winners Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg respectively, and how they might not be eligible in this category in the future.[16] The new rule now reads "An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time."[16] This rule was possibly made to prevent nominations of live-action films that rely heavily on motion capture, such as Avatar (2009).[16]
Only three films (most are live-action/animation hybrid) have been disqualified for not meeting the 75 percent of animation threshold under submission. With exceptions, it was unclear whether Marcel the Shell with Shoes On would be eligible for the award at the 95th Academy Awards due to being a stop-motion animated film with the use of live-action elements. Director Dean Fleischer Camp said that he and A24 had to submit documentation in order to prove the film had enough animation to meet the award's minimum requirements.[17][1] The AMPAS officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category and was eventually nominated for said category.[18]
Indicates the winner |
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple wins and nominations
Nominees
Studios
Notes
- holds the record for most wins in this category
- Co-production between Aardman Animations and DreamWorks Animation
- Co-production between Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation
- Co-production between Laika and Tim Burton Productions
- Co-production between Cartoon Saloon and Les Armateurs
Franchises
Superlatives
Age
| Record | Recipient | Film | Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest winner | Hayao Miyazaki | The Boy and the Heron | 83 years, 65 days |
| Oldest nominee | 83 years, 18 days | ||
| Youngest winner | Matīss Kaža | Flow | 29 years, 183 days |
| Youngest nominee | 29 years, 145 days |
Length
| Record | Film | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Longest winner | Spirited Away | 125 minutes |
| Longest nominee | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | 140 minutes |
| Shortest winner | Flow | 84 minutes |
| Shortest nominee | A Cat in Paris | 65 minutes |
International films
A number of non-English-language or non-dialogue films have been nominated or won. Almost all non-English language films on this list have also been released with English-language dubbing. Winners are highlighted in bold below.
Japanese nominees
Studio Ghibli
Other films
French nominees
Les Armateurs
Other films
Other languages
- Chico and Rita (Spanish)
- Boy and the World (Portuguese)
- Flee (Danish)
Non-dialogue or fictional languages
Milestones and records
Films and production companies
- Pixar holds the most wins for a studio with 11, the most nominations with 20, and the most consecutive wins (4, between 2007 and 2010).
- Pixar, with 11 wins, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, with 4, are both owned by the Walt Disney Company, which has 15 wins for the category in total.
- Laika has the most nominations without a win, with 6 films.
- DreamWorks Animation has the most nominations after last win, with 10 films.
- Toy Story is the only franchise to win this award twice, for its third and fourth films. Additionally, the third and fourth films are so far the only two sequels to win this award.
- Shrek and Wallace & Gromit are the most-nominated franchise, with 4 (and having won once) each. Other franchises with three nominations include How to Train Your Dragon and Cartoon Saloon's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" (consisting of The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers); both hold the record as the most-nominated franchises without a win.
- Of the several adult animated films (judging from their MPAA ratings), The Triplets of Belleville was the first PG-13-rated nominee, Anomalisa and Memoir of a Snail[43] are so far the only R-rated animated films to be nominated, and The Boy and the Heron became the first PG-13-rated winner.[44]
- Studio Ghibli (Japan) has the most wins (two) and nominations (seven) for a non-US studio; Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron are the only non-English language films to win.[45][46][47][48]
- Flee is the first animated documentary film to be nominated.[49]
- Since 2019, each year has had at least one nominee that was mainly released via streaming, with three winners (denoted in bold): Klaus (Netflix) in 2019; Soul (Disney+) in 2020; Luca (Disney+) and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix) in 2021; Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Netflix), The Sea Beast (Netflix), and Turning Red (Disney+) in 2022; Nimona (Netflix) in 2023; Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix) in 2024; and KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) in 2025.
- 2005 and 2011 are the only years that did not have a Disney or Pixar film nominated in the category.
- Flow is the first independent film to win the award.[50]
- Due to being an independent film with a minimal budget, Flow is the only film with a seven-figure budget to win.[50]
- There were only six non-Disney/Pixar films to win the category until 2022. The consecutive wins of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, The Boy and the Heron, Flow, and KPop Demon Hunters between 2022 and 2025 marked the first time that a non-Disney/Pixar film won the award four years in a row.
- KPop Demon Hunters is the first non-Disney/Pixar film to win 2 Academy Awards.[51][52]
People
- Pete Docter has the most wins of any individual (3), and is tied with Hayao Miyazaki and Chris Sanders for the most nominations (4). Additionally, Miyazaki has the most wins and nominations for a non-US individual.
- Chris Sanders has the most nominations without winning (4).
- Hayao Miyazaki became the oldest winner in 2024 at the age of 83; he previously held the record between 2003 and 2023 (briefly being succeeded by Mark Gustafson for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio).
- Matīss Kaža became the youngest winner in 2025 at the age of 29, with Gints Zilbalodis also the second youngest winner at the age of 30, beating Andrew Stanton in a 21-year streak between 2004 (at the age of 38) and 2025.
- In diversity, Brenda Chapman was the first woman to win for Brave, Peter Ramsey was the first black director to win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Maggie Kang became the first Korean director to win for KPop Demon Hunters.
Legacy
The winners of non-Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks Animation films led its significant influence among animation studios for its aesthetics as well as displaying statuettes at museums, solidifying animation's recognition in mainstream cinema.
- On March 20, 2024, Studio Ghibli displayed Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar statuette for a limited time at Ghibli Park's "Ghibli's Grand Warehouse" in the Broadcast Room.[53]
- In 2025, after the success of Flow and its eventual win in the Best Animated Feature category, the statuette, along with the Golden Globe and the European Film Award, was later put on display at the Latvian National Museum of Art for a week.[54]
See also
- List of submissions for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
- Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature
- Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film
- Producers Guild of America Award for Best Animated Motion Picture
- BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film
- Lists of animated films
- List of animation awards
- List of animated feature films nominated for Academy Awards
- List of Academy Award–nominated films