Animated films have a rich history at the Academy Awards. Walt Disney received a special award in 1938 for the previous year’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was “recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon.”
Fifty years later, Richard Williams received a special achievement award for the animation direction of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film also won three competitive Oscars.
But it wasn’t until 1991’s Beauty and the Beast that an animated film was nominated for best picture. That same year, the rival Annie Awards added a category for best animated feature. Beauty and the Beast was their first winner, followed by such smash hits as Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1993-94), Pocahontas (1995) and Toy Story (1996).
Throughout the ’90s, the Oscars resisted adding a category for animated features, though John Lasseter received a special achievement award in 1995 “for his inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy Story team, resulting in the first feature-length computer-animated film.” It wasn’t until 2001 that the Academy finally added a category for best animated feature.
This year’s nominees in that category are Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Sea Beast and Turning Red. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio won the Annie Award in this category on Feb. 25 in a ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, which makes the Guillermo Del Toro-directed film the Oscar front-runner (though the two shows do not always agree, as you will see.)
Here’s a year-by-year recap of all the Oscar winners for best animated feature film.