by 
Updated on February 25, 2023
The 2020 Academy Award nominations were announced this week. Below are my thoughts on this year’s batch of animation-related nominees (plus the usual general Oscars thoughts). Variety has a full list of all the nominees.
The 2020 Oscars ceremony will air on Sunday, February 9 at 8 PM ET on ABC.
Animated Feature Film
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- I Lost My Body
- Klaus
- Missing Link
- Toy Story 4
Animated Short Film
Visual Effects
- The Lion King
- Avengers: Endgame
- The Irishman
- 1917
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Original Song
- “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” Toy Story 4
- “Into the Unknown,” Frozen 2
- “I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” Rocketman
- “I’m Standing With You,” Breakthrough
- “Stand Up,” Harriet
Comments
Like last year, there’ll be no host for this year’s ceremony (which might say a lot).
Also like last year (and the years before that), there’s a lot of questionable choices—a lack of diversity in nominees, “Joker” earning a whopping 11(!) nominations (including best picture), etc.—which the Oscars are once again taking heat over. Admit I could just watch the Oscars for the animation and (out of eye-rolling curiosity) best picture nominees, and skip the rest of the ceremony.
On a brighter (and animated) note
On the animation side of things, I’ve not seen the animated feature nominees yet. In the animated shorts category, I have seen “Kitbull” and “Hair Love,” and enjoyed both.
There’s two songs from animated films nominated for the Original Song category. However, I assume the winner will be “Rocketman”—older Oscar judges nostalgic for Elton John winning out?
Meanwhile, “Frozen 2” surprisingly got shut out of the animated feature category. It seemed like it’d be a shoe-in for a nomination, but apparently not.
Finally, “The Lion King” is up for “visual effects,” adding further fuel to discussion of it being a photorealistic animated film.
Greg in Hollywood (Greg Hernandez), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped from original)
