With the Oscars happening this weekend, it’s time to pick up where we left off in our analysis of each of the categories. Let’s dive into this year’s nominees for Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary, and Best International Feature. In case you missed them, check out our looks at the screenwriting categories, visual effects, make-up/hairstyling and audio categories, costume and production design, music, and the supporting performance races, and stay tuned as we build towards our thoughts on Best Picture.
Best Animated Feature
Nominees
Flow (Glint Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens, and Gregory Zalcman)
Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen)
Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney)
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, and Richard Beek)
The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann)
How could The Academy forget about… ?
It’s a tiny bit surprising that Moana 2 didn’t somehow sneak in here. Transformers One was well received by critics and audiences, but had almost no awards push. Even so, these five nominees cast a pretty big shadow.
So who’s going to win and who do you want to win?
I absolutely adore Aardman and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl with all my heart, and Memoir of a Snail is worthy, more adult skewing fare that tells a complex story, but this is firmly a three horse race.
In terms of widespread love and appeal, The Wild Robot takes the slim lead. But Inside Out 2 isn’t one of the highest grossing animated film of all time for nothing. People love that one, too. And then there’s Flow, a critical darling that has been pulling in a fair share of awards over its two more widely known competitors. That one also has a Best International Feature nomination, to boot. No matter who wins this category, people will be claiming an upset, but that will only be true if Wallace & Gromit or Memoir of a Snail end up winning. I’m giving a very tiny edge to Flow thanks to momentum at the moment, but a win for Inside Out 2, or, more likely, The Wild Robot, wouldn’t be all that shocking.
Best Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari, and Hanna Aqvilin)
No Other Land (Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Haman Ballal, and Yuval Abraham)
Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska, and Paula DuPre’Pesmen)
Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat (Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius, and Remi Grellety)
Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, and Kellen Quinn)
How could the Academy forget about…?
Daughters, a heart-breaking look at incarcerated fathers gearing up for a daddy-daughter dance behind bars, and Stephen Maing and Brett Story’s Union, a look at worker solidarity at a Staten Island Amazon warehouse, are better films than some of these nominees. The same could be said for Mati Diop’s heady and focused Dahomey, but that film’s blending of philosophy with reality might’ve hurt its chances and gone over some heads.
So who’s going to win and who do you want to win?
The big question here is asking just how political The Academy is going to get this year. If this were an award based on both merit, awareness and timeliness, No Other Land, a truly collaborative and eye opening account of life in the West Bank during wartime, should win. But given the political hot potato that is the Israeli-Palestinan conflict, especially in Hollywood, this one might end up splitting the voters, leaving the door open for some other heavyweight competition.
At the start of the year, it looked like Porcelain War, which premiered at Sundance to great acclaim and continued to get great notices throughout the year, was a frontrunner, but this film about artists working in Ukraine during the war has been overshadowed as of late. The same could be said about Shiori Ito’s deeply personal and close-to-the-bone look at sexual abuse, Black Box Diaries (another Sundance selection), but that surrounds an issue that will now and forever be front and centre in the minds of Hollywood.
Sugarcane, about abuse within the residential school system and the resulting generational trauma, boasts the first North American indigenous filmmaker to be nominated in this category, and it certainly packs a punch. And the truly epic and invigorating Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat, which takes jazz music, the Cold War, and civil resistance and thrown them into a blender, is one of the best films of any kind this past year.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat takes this one. It is the best film of the nominees, but let’s see if The Academy is up for sending a stronger message this year.
Best International Feature Film
Emilia Perez – France
Flow – Latvia
The Girl with the Needle – Denmark
I’m Still Here – Brazil
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Germany
How could The Academy forget about… ?
The snubbing of Payal Kapadia’s Cannes winner All We Imagine as Light is a borderline criminal offence. I would also like to show some Canadian pride for Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, one of the most original and touching comedies of the year.
What are they doing here?
This is an odd category. Emilia Perez is a French film that takes place in Mexico and is predominantly in Spanish, with some English here and there. Flow is an entirely wordless film, so I guess it technically qualifies here, even though it’s much more of a natural fit for the Animated Feature category. The nominees here are mish-mash of styles and tones, though, which makes this one worth keeping an eye on.
So what’s going to win and who do you want to win?
For the longest time Emilia Perez had the advantage until a tidal wave of backlash and controversy came crashing down upon it, likely souring a lot of the Academy voters on it. But did that backlash reach in time?
I would say it did, and as such, that probably led to Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here to also garner Best Picture and Best Actress nominations. This sprawling tale of a wife trying to get to the bottom of her husband’s disappearance at the hands of the Brazilian dictatorship in 1971 is an accomplished piece of storytelling and historical scholarship. I think I’m Still Here will and should win.
As for the other two, both The Seed of the Sacred Fig (which grows implausibly melodramatic in its later stages) and The Girl with the Needle (one of the absolute bleakest films in recent memory) might be a tad too dark and edgy for The Academy this year. Good, but flawed movies, and I doubt either of them will stand much of a chance against the two high profile front runners and the little animated movie that could.
Where to watch the nominees:
Black Box Diaries is now streaming on Paramount+ in the US. It is also available to buy or rent on digital platforms in Canada
Emilia Perez is now streaming on Netflix.
Flow is now playing in select cinemas. It is also available to buy or rent on digital platforms.
The Girl with the Needle is now streaming on MUBI.
I’m Still Here is now playing in select cinemas.
Inside Out 2 is now streaming on Disney+. It is also available to buy or rent on digital platforms, 4K, Blu-Ray, and DVD.
Memoir of a Snail is now available to buy or rent on digital platforms.
No Other Land is now playing in select cinemas.
Porcelain War is now playing in select cinemas.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is now available to rent and buy on digital platforms.
Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat is now playing in select cinemas.
Sugarcane is now streaming on Disney+. It is also available to rent or buy on digital platforms.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is now streaming on Netflix.
The Wild Robot is now streaming in Canada on Prime Video. It is also available to buy or rent on digital platforms, 4K, Blu-Ray, and DVD.
