Five Animated Pics Nominated for Academy Awards

This morning (Jan. 16), the nominations for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced at a news conference at the Samuel Goldwyn theater in Beverly Hills. Here are the animation and vfx nominees:

Best Animated Feature

• Frozen (Disney)
• The Croods (Fox/DreamWorks)
• The Wind Rises (Disney/Studio Ghibli)
• Despicable Me 2 (Universal/Illumination)
• Ernest & Celestine (GKIDS)

Best Animated Short

• Feral by Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
• Get a Horse! by Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
• Mr. Hublot by Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
• Possessions by Shuhei Morita
• Room on the Broom by Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Best Visual Effects

• Gravity Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
• Iron Man 3 Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
• The Lone Ranger Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
• Star Trek Into Darkness Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Best Original Song

• “Alone Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone
  Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
• “Happy” from Despicable Me 2
  Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
• “Let It Go” from Frozen
  Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
• “The Moon Song” from Her
  Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
• “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

The shocker in the Feature Animation category was that Pixar’s Monsters University failed to make the cut. Also interesting is the survival of the Internationally produced 2D “art” feature, represented by Miyazaki’s acclaimed The Wind Rises and GKIDS’ beloved Ernest & Celestine, directed by French helmers Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner.

The Oscars for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be awarded on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, televised live on ABC and hosted by Ellen DeGeneres for a second time. Final voting begins February 14, and ballots are due back February 25 at 5 p.m.