We had no films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

April and the Extraordinary World

What makes a film like April and the Extraordinary World so extraordinary? Apart from being one of few films still made with traditional hand-drawn animation? That it was picked up for distribution by GKids and that makes an immediate Oscar contender.

In recent years, films like Ernest & Celestine, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita have emerged from relative obscurity to become Oscar nominees. This year, we saw two films take slots away from movies many of us thought were sure things. When Marnie Was There and Boy and the World took surprise nominations away from likely nominees The Peanuts Movie and The Good Dinosaur.

While we don’t know precisely who the players will be this year, only one film has earned GKids’ seal of approval and that’s April and the Extraordinary World. It’s too early to tell if all critics will support the film, but ten reviews have shown up so far on Rotten Tomatoes and 9 on Metacritic. The results are strong with 100% of the ten voices on RT giving the film a positive review and nine more positives on Metacritic for a score of 87. That level of praise should be enough to give this film legs against an array of potential animated blockbusters this year to become another GKids nominee, this time perhaps not surprisingly.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Zack Snyder’s Oscar credits are anemic. In six prior big screen outings to date, he has yet to develop an Oscar nominee. Will Batman v. Superman change that?

Until now, the only projects Snyder has tackled that weren’t comic adaptations were Dawn of the Dead,Legends of the Guardians and Sucker Punch, though the latter can say its inspiration is drawn from the comics. He’s earned a reputation of creating somewhat flashy, intensely detailed films with plenty of eye-popping designs, but their fringe appeal has largely been ignored.

Man of Steel was the first film in his career that had the potential for Oscar nominations. It had tons of visual effects and plenty of sound effects. Yet, when the Oscar nominations came out, it was left behind. This could be an ominous sign for Batman v. Superman. Whether or not the film succeeds with Oscar may have more to do with its competition than any genuine belief that it deserves recognition. If its competition is light (which there are no signs of it being), then it could be in play. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it.