15 films qualify for Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination

This year, only fifteen films qualified for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) released their list of qualifying films today, and the list did not reach the magic number of 16. According to Academy regulations, if there are 16 or more qualifying films, then there will be five nominees as was the case last year. If there are only 15 or fewer films, then the number of nominees is limited to three.

This is causing some angst in Hollywood, since it's assumed by many that Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon are shoo-ins. That leaves one spot left for some other heavy-hitters including Despicable Me, Shrek Forever After, Megamind, The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, L'illusionniste (The Illusionist) and Tangled.  Personally, I'm hoping one of the hand-drawn films gets selected, especially L'illusionniste, Sylvain Chomet's follow-up to his Academy-Award nominated Les triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville). The other hand-drawn films are the Chinese feature The Dreams of Jinsha, Bill Plympton's Idiots and Angels, Summer Wars and My Dog Tulip. This year lacks the good number of stop-motion animated films that last year had.

The mixed live-action/animated film Yogi Bear was submitted and would have put the number of qualifying films over the top, but it was not selected by the Academy. They did, however, select Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, which also blends live action with animation. According to the Academy rules, "a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture's running time."

The films The Dreams of Jinsha, L'illusionniste, Summer Wars and Tangled have yet to have their required qualifying run in Los Angeles, and would have to do so before advancing further.

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List of qualifying films for the Best Animated Feature category of the 2011 Academy Awards

Alpha and Omega
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Despicable Me
The Dreams of Jinsha
How to Train Your Dragon
Idiots and Angels
The Illusionist
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Megamind
My Dog Tulip
Shrek Forever After
Summer Wars
Tangled
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
Toy Story 3