Much like last year’s race between The Boy and the Heron and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the battle for Best Animated Feature is a close two-horse race where neither The Wild Robot nor Flow have landed a killer blow this season to stamp their claim as the undeniable frontrunner. You can make a good case for either contender, so let’s dive in.
The Wild Robot scored the lion’s share of the prizes from the critics groups, but Flow earned plenty of wins too including victories with more prestigious groups like Los Angeles, New York, and the National Board of Review. Both films earned their respective top category prizes at the Annie Awards. The Wild Robot won at the Critics Choice Awards. Flow scored the Golden Globe. Unsurprisingly, neither could topple Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl on home soil at the BAFTAs.
But there are two key stats in favour of The Wild Robot that are hard to ignore; the fact it won at PGA and its success in earning additional Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and Best Sound. Yes, Flow also landed an extra nod for Best International Feature, but that doesn’t hold as much weight. If Flow had won another major prize like BAFTA or PGA, you’d see it following the same trajectory to The Boy and the Heron last year. But it wasn’t to be.
Another key factor in this race is the fact that DreamWorks Animation hasn’t won this category since 2005 (ironically, for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; its co-production with Aardman Animations). Since the start of the season, it’s felt like The Wild Robot is the film to finally break that 20-year curse and nothing major has happened to cast too much doubt on that.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE PREDICTIONS:
1. The Wild Robot (DreamWorks) – Annie, BAFTA, CCA, GG, PGA
2. Flow (Janus Films) – Annie, BAFTA, CCA, EFA, GG, PGA
3. Inside Out 2 (Disney/Pixar) – BAFTA, CCA, GG, PGA
4. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix) – BAFTA, CCA, GG, PGA
5. Memoir of a Snail (IFC Films) – CCA, GG
Will win: The Wild Robot
Should win: Flow
Possible shocker: Inside Out 2
Discover more from Filmotomy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
