Five Anime Films Submitted for the 90th Academy Awards

The Best Animated Feature submission list has been revealed!

Throughout the past couple of years we have seen anime get some form of notice over at the Academy Awards. Spirited Away won the Best Animated Feature in 2003 at the 75th Academy Awards, but only a couple others (Howl’s Moving Castle, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There, The Wind Rises) have managed to get as far as a nomination. Disney has so far dominated the category almost every year.

Your Name was among the list of titles for the submission stage for last year’s Academy Awards but it never managed to reach the nomination stage. Many folks assumed Funimation didn’t provide much support over this, and the fact that the US theatrical date was in April 2017 instead of November 2016 probably didn’t help much either.

Today, the submissions for the 90th Academy Awards has been revealed and out of the 26 animated films listed – around five of them are from Japan. So here’s the five titles that were able to reach this stage of the process.

In This Corner of the World

Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni
この世界の片隅に

Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Animation Studio: MAPPA
Japanese Theatrical Date: 12th November 2016

Suzu is a quiet and ordinary — if not a bit of clumsy and daydreaming — girl growing up in the outskirts of the city of Hiroshima in mid-1930s. She loves drawing sketches with pencils — a hobby she is really good at. Following her parents’ arrangement in 1943, 18-year-old Suzu is married to a young man living in Kure, a neighboring city with a large naval base, in which he works as a civilian secretary for the military tribunal. There she faces a new life, a new family, as well as many new challenges and hardships, particularly with the worsening life conditions due to the Pacific War. Yet Suzu manages to find happiness and peace in her daily life.

Mary and The Witch’s Flower

Mary to Majo no Hana
メアリと魔女の花

Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Animation Studio: Studio Ponoc
Japanese Theatrical Date: 8th July 2017

It is Tib the black cat who leads Mary to the strange flower in the woods. When she discovers a little broomstick shortly afterwards, she is astonished to feel it jump in to action. Before she can gather her wits, it is whisking her over the treetops, above the clouds, and in to the grounds of Endor College, where: ‘All Examinations Coached for by A Competent Staff of Fully-Qualified Witches.’

Napping Princess: Ancien and the Magic Tablet

Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari
ひるね姫 ～知らないワタシの物語～

Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Animation Studio: Signal.MD
Japanese Theatrical Date: 18th March 2017

Kokone should be diligently studying for her university entrance exams, but she just can’t seem to stay awake. Aside from stealing precious study time, her napping is even more distracting, as it brings on strange dreams with warring machines that hint at family secrets that have been dormant for years.

A Silent Voice

Koe no Katachi
聲の形

Director: Naoko Yamada
Animation Studio: Kyoto Animation
Japanese Theatrical Date: 17th September 2016

A deaf elementary school girl, Shoko Nishimiya, upon transferring, meets a boy named Shoya Ishida in her new class. Shoya, who is not deaf, leads the class in bullying Shoko, because she is deaf. As the bullying continues, the class starts to bully Shoya for bullying Shoko. After graduating from elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other… until later, when Shoya, tormented over his past, decides he must see Shoko once more. Shoya wants to make amends for what he did in elementary school and be Shoko’s friend.

Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale

Sword Art Online -Ordinal Scale-
ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール-

Director: Tomohiko Ito
Animation Studio: A-1 Pictures
Japanese Theatrical Date: 18th February 2017

In 2026, two years since the SAO incident, a new game called “Oridinal Scale,” an Augmented-Reality MMO, is becoming popular among the players. But strange things are happening in the game and Kirito and the gang are facing a new danger.

That’s all of the nominated anime movies listed. Here are the other titles in the running:

• The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
• Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
• The Boss Baby
• The Breadwinner
• Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie
• Cars 3
• Cinderella the Cat
• Coco
• Despicable Me 3
• The Emoji Movie
• Ethel & Ernest
• Ferdinand
• The Girl without Hands
• The Lego Batman Movie
• The Lego Ninjago Movie
• Loving Vincent
• Moomins and the Winter Wonderland
• My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
• Smurfs: The Lost Village
• The Star
• Window Horses The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming

If we had to pick the obvious that would probably win anyway it’ll be Disney & Pixar’s Coco.

Source: Variety

Plot Synopsis Source: AnimeNewsNetwork