A short film from Pixar Animation Studios will be going up against a student project from CalArts and the winner of TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival in the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature, the Academy announced on Thursday.
Pixar, which has now received 11 nominations in the category (and has won three times), will be represented by “Sanjay’s Super Team,” directed by Sanjay Patel.
Its competitors include “”An Object at Rest,” a film from CalArts student Seth Boyden that won a silver medal at the Student Academy Awards in September, and Gabriel Osorio’s “Bear Story,” a film from Brazil’s Punkrobot Animation Studio that won both the jury and audience prizes at TheWrap’s Shortlist Film Festival in August.
The National Film Board of Canada, always a strong contender in the category, placed two films on the shortlist, “Carface” and “If I Was God…,” while veteran animator Don Hertzfeldt is represented by “World of Tomorrow.”
The 10 shortlisted films were chosen by members of the Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch from among 60 qualifying films.
Shorts can qualify for the award either by winning one of the top awards at an Oscar-certified film festival, or through a seven-day theatrical exhibition.
Beginning on Dec. 30, the branch will conduct a second round of voting to narrow the 10 films to five nominees. Those will be announced with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Thursday, Jan. 14.
Disney is by far the leader in wins in the category, and the company has won two of the last three years, with “Paperman” in 2013 and “Feast” earlier this year. It does not have an entry in the race this year.
The shortlisted films:
“Bear Story (Historia De Un Oso),” Gabriel Osorio, director, and Pato Escala, producer (Punkrobot Animation Studio)
“Carface (Autos Portraits),” Claude Cloutier, director (National Film Board of Canada)
“If I Was God…,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
“Love in the Time of March Madness,” Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, directors (High Hip Productions and KAPWA Studioworks)
“My Home,” Phuong Mai Nguyen, director (Papy3D Productions)
“An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, director (California Institute of the Arts)
“Prologue,” Richard Williams, director, and Imogen Sutton, producer (Animation Masterclass)
“Sanjay’s Super Team,” Sanjay Patel, director, and Nicole Grindle, producer (Pixar Animation Studios)
“We Can’t Live without Cosmos,” Konstantin Bronzit, director (Melnitsa Animation Studio)
“World of Tomorrow,” Don Hertzfeldt, director (Bitter Films)