The 2024 Academy Awards (aka the Oscars) were held this Sunday. Below, I take my annual look at the animation-related Oscar winners, plus other Oscar thoughts.
Animated Feature Film
- The Boy and The Heron (winner)
- Elemental
- Nimona
- Robot Dreams
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Animated Short Film
- War Is Over: Inspired By The Music of John and Yoko (winner)
- Letter to a Pig
- Ninety Five Senses
- Our Uniform
- Pachyderme
My thoughts
As usual, I didn’t bother tuning in for the Oscars. To summarize from last year’s post the reasons why:
- I’m only really interested in the animation-related and best picture nominees.
- Annoying hosts (Seth MacFarlane? Jimmy Kimmel?).
- Some embarrassing blunders (the botched “Moonlight” announcement?).
- Problems with diverse representation (see the “#OscarsSoWhite” social media hashtag).
- Questionable choices, such as awarding “Green Book” and “Crash” Best Picture (the latter over “Brokeback Mountain” or… anything else). Or the Academy snubbing the late Chadwick Boseman for what would’ve been his final Oscar.
Thus, it’s easier to just look up the relevant winners and write this up afterwards.
“The Boy and the Heron” is the (supposedly) final film by famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. He’s retired before, but would end up coming out of retirement. Though given he’s 83, maybe his retiring will actually stick this time?
The animated short winner is “War Is Over: Inspired By The Music of John and Yoko,” a film based on a John Lennon song. On a related note, pro-Palestine protests took place near the Academy Awards ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Best Picture winner is “Oppenheimer.” “Oppenheimer,” along with “Barbie,” saw a lot of hype last year, thanks to the “Barbenheimer” “double feature” phenomenon.
Where to watch the 2024 Oscar animation nominees/winners
Below is where you can watch the Oscar animation nominees/winners, at least as of this writing. As recent events have shown, if you really have a favorite you want to rewatch indefinitely, you might want to buy the film on DVD/Blu-ray (or a digital copy, albeit with the usual caveats).
Feature films
- The Boy and The Heron: currently only in theaters, though will appear on Max in June 2024
- Elemental: Disney+, DVD/Blu-ray
- Nimona: Netflix
- Robot Dreams: none
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Netflix, DVD/Blu-ray
Shorts
- War Is Over: Inspired By The Music of John and Yoko: none
- Letter to a Pig: none
- Ninety Five Senses: on the website Documentary+
- Our Uniform: for rent via Vimeo
- Pachyderme: for rent via Vimeo
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
I saw the Oscar-nominated Animated Short Films in the the theatre this year. I’d have to say that “War Is Over” was my favorite. Mostly by process of elimination. The other films were a bit dark for my taste.
Out of this year’s nominees/winners, I’ve seen “Nimona” (enjoyable film; appreciate the LGBTQ representation; haven’t read the original graphic novel, though) and “Elemental” (which was OK). Should get around to watching “Across the Spider-Verse” at some point…