Oscar Week 2017: The Animated Features

By Gary Salem

Peter Doctor and Jonas Rivera, the directors of last year’s Oscar-winner Inside Out, were the perfect choice to host the Animated Feature nominees at The Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater last night. Their charming personalities and insightful questions made the event very funny and entertaining. This years nominees are “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Moana,” “My Life as a Zucchini,” “The Red Turtle” and “Zootopia.” With the Cesar Awards taking place this week, the directors of “The Red Turtle” and “My Life as a Zucchini” couldn’t attend but Studio Ghibli, a partner on “The Red Turtle” was represented by producer Toshio Suzuki.

Animation branch governor Bill Kroyer talked about what is considered an animated feature in this age of technical innovation. He said it’s not determined by how it looks – the 2016 version of “The Jungle Book” qualifies – because the Academy defines an animated feature as: “over 40 minutes in length, in which most of the principal characters’ performances have been created with frame-by-frame animation techniques.” The evening covered every time period from 1911 to the upcoming “Wreck-It Ralph 2” and every animation style including hand drawn, CGI and stop-motion plus insider scoops about Walt Disney Animation and their corporate sibling, Pixar. If you like animation, you’ll definitely enjoy the video of the first live-streamed Oscar Week event…

For more information and trailers, please visit:
http://oscar.go.com/nominees/animated-feature-film

The 89th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.