Funimation to Submit Summer Wars for Oscar Nomination

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Source:[quote="ANN"]Hollywood blog TheWrap reports and ANN has confirmed that Funimation is currently filling out paperwork to submit Mamoru Hosoda's anime film Summer Wars for consideration at the next Academy Awards. According to the site, the movie would be the 14th submission for the Best Animated Feature category. The Oscars rules are such that if there are 16 eligible films for the Best Animated Feature, there will be a total of five nominees]Thoughts? Can it win?

I am leaning towards a "no," but that has to do w/ the Academy and not the quality of the film.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Well, Spirited Away won and this is about 50 bajillion times better than Spirited Away, plus the only contenders I can think of would be Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon, which I suppose is pretty stiff competition, but hey, I'll be cheering for it.

[Atria35]

I'm soooooo really hoping it wins. Betting it loses out against Toy Story 3, but hey! A nomination is pretty darn cool!

[rocklobster]

The academy hates anime more than CN does, so I doubt it.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

The academy hates anime more than CN does, so I doubt it.

Then why did Spirited Away win Best Animated?

Also, if Cartoon Network hated anime so much, then why do they continue to show it? Yeah, adultswim makes fun of it on occasion, but I doubt they would keep it at all if they really hated it.

[ShiroiHikari]

Let's just not even go there.

Maybe I should actually watch this movie sometime if they think it's good enough to get an Oscar nomination.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I think the Academy is reluctant to recognize animation in general (the award for best animated feature hasn't even been around for ten years...and I have heard tell that it was only created so they would never have to give the nod to an animated film over a live-action one...not sure if that's true, but just sayin'), though, as been correctly pointed out, they finally have grudgingly come around to recognizing Miyazaki's work. Whether that is to do w/ Miyazaki being in bed w/ Disney, or some other personal connections, or Academy members genuinely acknonwledging his work is just speculation...

But anyway, you gotta believe Toy Story 3 wil win it this year.

[ChristianKitsune]

I believe that Toy Story 3, or How to Train your Dragon will win out this year, but they get kudos for trying!

And let's face it, an anime hasn't won an academy award in nearly 10 years, XD I'm not saying it's never going to happen, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I can't wait to see this movie by the way.

[blkmage]

Notice that Spirited Away is the only anime movie to have won one.

Summer Wars could have won, but up against Toy Story 3? lol no

Of course, I would love to be proven wrong.

[ShiroiHikari]

Summer Wars could have won, but up against Toy Story 3? lol no

Yeah, nobody's beating Pixar anytime soon.

[ich1990]

There is no possible way it could win against a western animation with the brand recognition of Toy Story 3. I would be sad about this, but I stopped caring about the Academy Awards a long time ago.

[Nate]

I may be dumb, but I don't see how this works given that Funimation didn't make Summer Wars. So like...if Summer Wars wins, does Funimation get the award? Does Mamoru Hosoda? Does Madhouse? I dunno.

Anyway yeah, no way it's going to beat Toy Story 3. But then again, I haven't seen Summer Wars and I did see Toy Story 3 and thought it was amazingly incredible and wish Armond White would die a slow excruciatingly painful death for keeping it from being a perfectly rated trilogy on RT. So if Toy Story 3 wins over Summer Wars, I'd be okay with this.

I mean I'm not saying Summer Wars isn't a fantastic movie but I feel some of the people here only want it to win because it's an anime and won't even consider that y'know, Toy Story 3 is a pretty phenomenal movie.

[ShiroiHikari]

Toy Story 3 is better than many other films I have seen in my lifetime. I hope it wins. I'm not really rooting for Summer Wars simply because I haven't seen it. Also it's only getting SUBMITTED to be nominated. It might not even get nominated at all. Plus...meh, the Oscars are kinda crap anyways.

[Radical Dreamer]

Summer Wars was great, but it didn't make me cry. XD And the Oscar goes to Toy Story 3. XD

Maybe animated movies that are not Pixar films will get their shot when Cars 2 goes up for the award next year. XD

[Nate]

I tried my hardest to not cry at Toy Story 3. I mostly succeeded, but not without a lot of effort.

And about Cars 2? I remember people saying the same thing about Toy Story 2. "Man, it didn't need a sequel! This movie will clearly not be as good as the first!" Then it actually came out and everyone ate their own words. Delicious, delicious words.

[Radical Dreamer]

I tried my hardest to not cry at Toy Story 3. I mostly succeeded, but not without a lot of effort.

And about Cars 2? I remember people saying the same thing about Toy Story 2. "Man, it didn't need a sequel! This movie will clearly not be as good as the first!" Then it actually came out and everyone ate their own words. Delicious, delicious words.

XD Yeah, the only difference here is that I personally didn't care too much for the first Cars (whereas I loved the first Toy Story). My quip at the end of my first post here was more about how I'm personally not looking forward to Cars 2 because I didn't love Cars, not because I think Pixar doesn't know how to make a good sequel (because they totally do). XD

Either way, I am looking forward to Brave so so so much more. XD

[Cognitive Gear]

Honestly, I think that the academy's tendancy to not award anime has a lot more to do with the fact that anime is foreign than any kind of bias against animation in general. I can't remember the last time that a foreign film won Best Picture. (I don't think that Slumdog Millionaire or Godfather Part 2 really count...)

Summer Wars is a great movie, but it doesn't really connect with the very American audience that makes up the Academy. That will be the reason that it doesn't have a chance, not that the Academy has some sort of vendetta against anime.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Since I somehow still haven't gotten around to seeing Summer Wars yet, I can't really speak for whether or not it deserves to win.

...and seeing as how I haven't watched the Academy Awards in... a LONG time, I can't really say how that matters in any way.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

According to Eiga.com, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved fifteen films including Summer Wars for possible Oscar nominations in the Best Animated Feature category of the 83rd Academy Awards. The final three nominees and the winner will be announced on January 25th and February 27th, respectively.

15 candidates:
Toy Story 3
How to Train Your Dragon
Shrek Forever After
Despicable Me
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Summer Wars
Tangled
Megamind
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
The Illusionist
Alpha and Omega
The Dreams of Jinsha
Idiots and Angels
My Dog Tulip
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Source: Eiga.com

Bold = should be the final nominees. Unless Despicable Me pulls off a surprise, that is.

[Radical Dreamer]

Based on what I know of these movies (and what I assume the movies I haven't seen will be like), Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Illusionist will (and should) get nominations. I'm not familiar with (or haven't seen) the rest (though I'll probably be looking into a few of the ones I haven't heard of but sound intriguing), but I will say that if either Alpha and Omega, Cats & Dogs, or Tinker Bell gets nominated, I will eat one of my various hats, and I won't be happy about it. XD

[FllMtl Novelist]

While it would be neat to see an anime get some sort of recognition (even if it is one I haven't seen:forehead:), I really liked Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon.

Not that I really pay attention to the Oscars anyway. XD