All CG Oscar race?
Posted by: Anthony Langlois
Date: November 8, 2004

With a successful opening week-end of over $70M, 'The Incredibles' not only upped the stakes a little more for the future of big screen 'toons, it strongly announced its presence in the Animated Oscar race.

With 11 animated contenders announced last Thursday by the Academy, the 3-Nominees rule will be applied. Like every category at the annual Academy Awards, the 4 year old Animated-Feature prize needs 16 entries during the year for the usual 5 nominees. Only one of the three previous years had the required applicants.

To qualify for the nod, a film must run a minimum 70 minutes, and be at least 75% constituted from one of three recognised techniques: computer generated images, stop-motion or traditional celluloid drawing (guess that means Team America is out).

And like year #1, the contest could very well be all CG. The 2001 battle was between Jimmy Neutron, Monsters Inc and winner Shrek. Among this year's crop are Shrek2 , Shark Tale, the upcoming Polar Express, and of course The Incredibles. There might a wild card, though. Mamoru Oshii's Ghost In The Shell 2 is generating quite some buzz around town.

The animated contenders will be announced with all other categories on January 25th. The 77th annual ceremony will be held on February 27th, at the Kodak Theatre.

Here's the complete list of eligible films:

"Clifford's Really Big Movie"
"Disney's Teacher's Pet"
"Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence"
"Home on the Range"
"The Incredibles"
"The Legend of Buddha"
"The Polar Express"
"Shrek 2"
"Shark Tale"
"Sky Blue"
"The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie"