This year’s Academy Awards were held on Sunday. As usual, below is my look at the 2025 animation-related Oscar winners. Animation-related nominees are in italics; winners are in bold. A full list of winners is available here.
Animated Feature Film
- Flow
- Inside Out 2
- Memoir of a Snail
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- The Wild Robot
Animated Short Film
- In the Shadow of the Cypress
- Beautiful Men
- Magic Candies
- Wander to Wonder
- Yuck!
Music (Original Score)
- The Brutalist
- The Wild Robot
- Conclave
- Emilia Perez
- Wicked
International Feature Film
- I’m Still Here
- Flow
- The Girl With the Needle
- Emilia Perez
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Sound
- Dune: Part Two
- The Wild Robot
- A Complete Unknown
- Emilia Perez
- Wicked
Hulu botches the Oscars live-stream
As usual, I didn’t watch the Oscars, as I only really care about the animation related nominees and the Best Picture category. That said, this year the Oscars were live streamed for the first time on a streaming service, Hulu. Unfortunately, Hulu viewers didn’t get to see the announcement of this year’s Best Picture, “Anora,” a romantic dramedy about a sex worker marrying the son of a Russian oligarch. Hulu cut off its live stream before the last two categories (Best Actress and Best Picture) were announced.
The Verge figures Disney (Hulu’s owner) set a hard cut-off time of 10:32 PM ET… which doesn’t account for the Oscars tending to, well, run long. I didn’t think Tubi of all streaming services would do a better job of live streaming a major event (the Super Bowl in Tubi’s case), but that’s apparently the case. Still, it’s a pretty big black mark for Hulu.
I note Hulu Live, Hulu’s cable TV replacement service, carried the Oscars just fine, since it carries local ABC affiliates. However, non-sports fans probably shouldn’t pay $83 a month just for over-the-air TV channels, or even television period. On-demand Hulu should offer ABC access at least as a premium ad-free tier feature, similar to Paramount+ (CBS) and Peacock (NBC), especially since it’s one of the most expensive streaming services (ad-free Hulu costs $19 a month).
“Flow” wins Animated Feature Oscar
In a surprising upset, an independent film from Latvia, “Flow,” is this year’s Animated Feature winner. The film is about a cat and other animals exploring a post-apocalyptic, flooded world.
Someone on Bluesky suggested that Oscar voters might’ve been annoyed about Disney’s regressive actions over the past year (laying off Pixar staff, etc.). That said, I figured the runner up to “Inside Out 2” (the “obvious” winner per Oscar voters’ usual tastes) would be “The Wild Robot,” versus the more obscure “Flow.”
The animated short film winner is “In the Shadow of the Cypress,” a film from Iran.
Where to watch the 2025 Oscar animated feature nominees
Below is where you can watch this year’s animated feature film nominees. As far as I can tell, all of the films are available on (or eventually will be released to) DVD/Blu-ray.
- Flow: Max
- Inside Out 2: Disney+
- Memoir of a Snail: AMC+
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: Netflix
- The Wild Robot: Peacock
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
