A couple of big announcements from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences concerning the Best Animated Feature category. First, the length a film needs to be to be eligible for an Oscar nomination has been shortened from 70-minutes to only 40-minutes. This means the upcoming “Winnie the Pooh” will have a chance to get an Oscar nomination even though it’s only 63-minutes. Hopefully this will also mean that enough films will be eligible so that there will be a full 5 nominees in the Best Animated Feature category next year (as there should be every year).
However, the Academy has also ruled that it is no longer accepting motion capture films, such as “Mars Needs Moms” (which had no chance of getting a nomination anyway), as animated films, meaning they won’t be eligible for the award. That means two late year releases – “The Adventures of Tintin” and “Happy Feet 2” are out. I wish this rule was in place back in 2007, when “Happy Feet” won the Oscar (which it didn’t deserve, and “Cars” did).
I agree with both new rules. 40-minutes is a bit short for a feature, but under the old rules 69-minutes was a “short” and that didn’t make any sense either.