The Academy Awards is the most prestigious movie ceremony in America and one of the most recognized institutions in the film industry worldwide. Like film festivals and awards all around the globe, this one has its quirks. There are so many different kinds of movies and aspects of the craft to celebrate that it can be difficult to categorize them. The definition of a Best Picture winner should be pretty straightforward: the best movie of the past year. Well, that has to be amended to best feature-length film of the past year. So, wait—does that mean a feature-length documentary can be nominated for Best Picture? That’s never happened, and people seem to be satisfied with separating them into the best feature-length and short documentary sections, but maybe one day. After all, the Best International Feature Film and Best Animated Feature categories have occasionally gone up for Best Picture (and Parasite even managed to win). This year alone has seen international features I’m Still Here and Emilia Pérez make it to the Best Picture nomination, but it does seem difficult for movies like these to transcend their categories.
That goes especially for animated films. You might think that widely recognized classics like Fantasia or 1994’s The Lion King would have been up for Best Picture, and you would be wrong. There are so many flawless animated movies that have been snubbed in favor of comparatively mediocre live-action films that the phenomenon counts as one of many things that make it difficult for some viewers to take the Oscars that seriously. It took a very, very long time for an animated film to get that coveted Best Picture nod, and only three have received such recognition from the Academy as of 2025. It’s obviously important to have specific categories for different genres so that a wide variety of films can be recognized for their craft, but it can feel a bit condescending when a superb movie that wins Best Animated Feature or Best International Feature doesn’t even get nominated for the big one. The following three animated films have helped to legitimize their medium by earning Best Picture nods. They’re all highly esteemed, so it’s better to rank them based on how likely they were to actually win Best Picture in their respective years. (Spoiler: none of them had much of a shot.)
3. ‘Toy Story 3’ (2010)
Nominated for the 83rd Academy Awards
Two of the three animated movies to receive Best Picture nominations got them back to back, and Toy Story 3 was the second. As bizarre as that sounds, the timing feels like more than a coincidence. After WALL-E and The Dark Knight were both snubbed from the Best Picture category at the 81st Oscars, the backlash was so intense that the Academy increased the number of Best Picture nominees from five back up to 10 the year after. Though this writer has nothing against this particular sequel in the beloved Pixar franchise, it seems that this fiasco from two Oscar seasons before was still fresh in the voters’ memory for the 83rd Oscars. No complaints here, as putting Toy Story 3 up for Best Picture was another step towards making up for past exclusions.
Having said that, the lineup for Best Picture in 2011 was way too strong for an animated (and not really necessary) sequel to a sequel (that had come out over a decade before) have a chance at winning. What was it up against? Black Swan, The Fighter, The Social Network, and Winter’s Bone were the strongest of them, a few of which were quite popular. They all wound up losing to The King’s Speech, oddly enough: an upset that only highlights further that Toy Story 3 never had a chance. Another thing to consider: Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were both of Best Picture caliber, so this also could have been something of a legacy choice. Was this third one great? Yes, and some say it’s their favorite. But only two other sequels have ever won Best Picture: The Godfather Part II and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the former being arguably the greatest sequel of all time and the latter being both a product of the Academy’s love for the entire trilogy and a somewhat weak Oscar season.
Toy Story 3
- Release Date
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June 18, 2010
- Runtime
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103 minutes
2. ‘Up’ (2009)
Nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards was the first one in decades that included 10 nominees in the Best Picture category, which gave an animated feature like Up a better chance of snagging a nomination and maybe a not-so-good chance of taking home the trophy (at least mathematically). It is possible that Up would have made the final list if there were still only five options, as it was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Animated Feature (winning those last two). Up‘s masterful early montage probably could have won Best Animated Short if that’s all there was, being the most lauded part of the movie to this day. Out of all the Pixar films, Up certainly ranks as one of their better efforts.
The competition in 2010 wasn’t the best in Oscars history, the aughts being considered one of the weakest decades. Movies like The Blind Side and Up in the Air didn’t stand a chance, while District 9 (arguably as strong as any other nominee) was too action and sci-fi heavy to really have a shot with the voters. There were also the stereotype-heavy Precious and the blockbuster behemoth Avatar, which would have been surprise wins for Best Picture. With The Hurt Locker, the critically lauded (if strange) A Serious Man, and Tarantino’s huge hit Inglourious Basterds, however, Up didn’t have much going for it. In the end, The Hurt Locker won.
Up
- Release Date
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June 11, 2009
- Runtime
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96minutes
- Director
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Pete Docter
- Writers
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Pete Docter
1. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991)
Nominated for the 64th Academy Awards
Considered one of the best Disney films of all time, Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to get the Best Picture nod at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992. That’s fifty years after Fantasia, but better late than never. The feat is especially notable because this is when the Oscars only allowed five entries to get the Best Picture nomination. Not the worst odds in the world, compared to nowadays. So what was it up against? The Silence of the Lambs, Bugsy, JFK, and The Prince of Tides. Other than The Silence of the Lambs, these other nominees haven’t really remained in the public consciousness. The gangster biopic Bugsy was nominated for 10 Oscars that year, though, which made it a formidable contender. Despite its controversial nature, the thriller JFK had a pretty big name behind it (director Oliver Stone) and was nominated for eight Oscars—so it clearly was liked by the voters. As for The Prince of Tides, the Academy stirred some controversy by not nominating Barbra Streisand for Best Director despite its seven other nominations—which also indicated that the film likely wouldn’t take home Best Picture.
In 1992, there wouldn’t even be a Best Animated Feature category until ten years later—so it’s not like the Academy cared that much about animation. And, given that Beauty and the Beast was the first animated movie to ever get a Best Picture nod, the likelihood of an unprecedented win for an unprecedented nomination wasn’t great. Big Five-winner The Silence of the Lambs proved to have better chances, though that was a historic moment in itself: a horror movie released early the year before? Talk about momentum. Suffice it to say, it’s hard to imagine that this important member of the Disney Renaissance would triumph far beyond its Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Though now considered a Stockholm Syndrome movie, the enormous success of the 2017 remake shows that Beauty and the Beast‘s legacy lives on nonetheless.
Beauty and the Beast
- Release Date
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November 21, 1991
- Runtime
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84 Minutes
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