The Academy has announced 26 films submitted for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. What’s most interesting here is some of the titles that weren’t submitted. Throughout the year, I try to keep track of new animated releases and add them to the Hopefuls list. Five films that were on that list aren’t on the below list. Leap!, My Little Pony: The Movie, The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, Rock Dog, and Spark: A Space Tail. None of them were very big contenders and three are from companies that don’t have massive Oscar campaign structures in place, but two: Leap! from The Weinstein Company and My Little Pony from Lionsgate certainly do. The former was likely sunk by Harvey Weinstein’s fall from grace. The other doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Ultimately, the question for selecting from this list, which will result in five Best Animated Feature nominees, is the updated selection rules for this branch. In recent years, major productions have fallen by the wayside while indie animated films took the spotlight. They rarely won. The animation changes presumably were put in place to broaden the voter base so they had more input in the process, but I suspect the ultimate reason was that the indie nominees caused some grief among studios like Disney/Pixar who were frustrated that their films were being overlooked.

We won’t know how these changes affect the selections until the nominees are announced, but a stronger focus on mass market offerings over indie films would is what many of us are expecting. However, we hope the independent streak continues and more of Hollywood’s lackluster products are ignored. Maybe they’ll start making better movies rather than mediocre ones that make money.

Below is the official press release from the Academy.

26 ANIMATED FEATURES SUBMITTED FOR 2017 OSCAR® RACE

LOS ANGELES, CA – Twenty-six features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 90th Academy Awards®.

The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales”
“Birdboy: The Forgotten Children”
“The Boss Baby”
“The Breadwinner”
“Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie”
“Cars 3”
“Cinderella the Cat”
“Coco”
“Despicable Me 3”
“The Emoji Movie”
“Ethel & Ernest”
“Ferdinand”
“The Girl without Hands”
“In This Corner of the World”
“The Lego Batman Movie”
“The Lego Ninjago Movie”
“Loving Vincent”
“Mary and the Witch’s Flower”
“Moomins and the Winter Wonderland”
“My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea”
“Napping Princess”
“A Silent Voice”
“Smurfs: The Lost Village”
“The Star”
“Sword Art Online: The Movie – Ordinal Scale”
“Window Horses The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming”

Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Depending on the number of films that qualify, two to five nominees may be voted. Sixteen or more films must qualify for the maximum of five nominees to be voted.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements.

For the first time, nominations voting in the Animated Feature Film category is open to the entire eligible voting membership.

Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

The 90th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.