86th Annual Academy Awards Predictions

Oscar night is upon us once again, so it's time for me to start pretending I know what I'm talking about and venture my guesses as to what's going to take home tonight's big awards! The animation awards are listed first, then the rest of the categories below that.

4th Annual A113Animation Award Nominations

New logo designed by Damien Chevrier.

It's that time of year again; we're in the throe of awards season glitz and self-congratulation - and loving every minute of it! So, it's time for us here at A113Animation to get in on the act, with our 4th Annual A113Animation Awards! The winners will be announced on Saturday 15th February, and here's the list of what's nominated (it's a slightly different line-up of awards from last year, but broadly the same).

Oscar Nominations Are In! Here's What's Competing This Year.

The Oscar nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards are in! There's a lot of deserving films nominated; American Hustle and Gravity are leading the pack with 10 nominations each, with hotly-tipped 12 Years a Slave racking up 9. But there are some strange choices in the categories that concern animation...

Frozen Takes Home WDAS' First Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature

It's not a shocker, but it's extremely well deserved nonetheless: last night at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, Walt Disney Animation Studios' acclaimed hit, Frozen, took home the statue for Best Animated Feature, making it the first WDAS film to do so since the award's inception seven years ago.

BAFTA Nominees Are In: Frozen, Monsters U and Despicable Me 2 Vie for Animation Prize

The nominations for the 67th British Academy Film Awards (or BAFTAs, because nobody wants to say that mouthful) were announced earlier today, and the animation nominees are a lot less contentious than those chosen by the Golden Globes.

Awards Predictions 2014: Golden Globes Edition

We're starting the Awards season and while the Oscar nominations won't be announced until a few weeks, other major awards have already announced their nominees, including the Golden Globes and the Annie Awards. I'll post my predictions for the Annie Awards at a later date but, for now, let's begin with the Golden Globes.

I must say, I'm very disappointed with this year's nominees for Best Animated Feature. First, I thought there would be five nominees instead of three, and that one of those nominees was going to be Pixar's Monsters University. The fact that Pixar got shut out for the first time with a film that's superior to both of its predecessors (both of which were nominated) is befuddling considering the fact that the film is better than two of the three actual nominees. Well, now that I got that out of my system let's begin with the predictions.

2014 Critics' Choice Nominations Revealed

Awards season is starting to gear up now, and you'll be happy to hear, after the somewhat controversial Golden Globe nominations last week, that the nominations for the 2014 Critics' Choice Awards are a lot more in line with what we were expecting. That is to say, Pixar's Monsters University and Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, notable omissions from the Globes, are both included in the animation line-up. Check the full list of five nominees for Best Animated Feature below.

Golden Globe Nominations: Frozen, Despicable Me 2 and The Croods Fight It Out, Monsters U Left Out

Controversy is always abound with awards ceremonies, and this latest batch of Golden Globe nominations is no exception. But first, the positive: three really stellar animated films earned nominations for Best Animated Feature, with Universal/Illumination's Despicable Me 2, Fox/DreamWorks' The Croods, and awards-favourite Frozen all snagging a nomination. Now what seems to be missing from that line-up?

Annie Nominations: Frozen and Monsters University Lead the Pack

The Awards season is upon us and the Annies have taken the lead, announcing their nominations for outstanding achievements in the animation field. For animation fans, this is the only time we can see animated films get rewarded in multiple categories, instead of just the usual "Best Animated Feature." Here's a full breakdown of the nominations for both production and individual categories in theatrical films:

Frozen, The Wind Rises, Monsters U and 16 More Submitted for Oscar Consideration

AMPAS have announced the 19 animated film that are in contention for a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the upcoming 86th Academy Awards. Among the contenders are the likely big-name frontrunners: Disney's upcoming Frozen, Miyazaki's final film, The Wind Rises, and Pixar's latest, Monsters University; there are also smaller scale films, like French animated pic, Ernest & Celestine (which won the Best Animated Film gong at the César Awards, the French equivalent to the Oscars, back in February). Check out the full list of films submitted for consideration below, complete with their Rotten Tomatoes score (current at the time of writing), where there is one.

Despicable Me Spin-Off, Minions, Also Delayed to 2015

It's not quite as drastic as Pixar's 18 month delay on The Good Dinosaur, but yet another highly anticipated 2014 animated film has been pushed back to the already packed 2015. Variety reports that Illumination Entertainment have delayed Minions, their spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise, from the originally reported 19th December, 2014 release date, to one of 10th July, 2015.

The A113Animation Podcast, Episode 4 - D23 and Despicable Me 2

Episode 4 of the A113Animation Podcast is a biggie - and you can download and/or listen to it right now! Our cast of co-hosts is once again in rotation, and joining William this week are Munir, Damien and, making her podcast debut, our Studio Ghibli writer, Mayra! This was a double feature episode, and in place of our normal news section, the four of us discussed solely the big animation news from Disney's D23 expo. Our film this week is Illumination Entertainment's minion-packed sequel, Despicable Me 2. As per, there's a bit of off-topic talk, with some discussion of the newest episodes of Breaking Bad, and the announcement of the twelfth Doctor. Forewarning, if you're listening to the podcast with youngish kids, there is some rather choice language, particularly in the Breaking Bad section - no F-bombs though.

As usual, enjoy the show, get in touch and, if you're particularly moved by the show, you could always help us out by heading on over to our Support page. The episode is available on Podomatic now, and will be appearing in our iTunes feed and Stitcher playlist very soon.

This Week on A113Animation (1st - 7th July, 2013)

This was a jam-packed week for animation fans, not least because we got 4 brand spanking new trailers on the same day. And that was just by Tuesday! We've also got box office updates, interviews, posters and set pictures. As well as your usual features, we've also got a review of Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2 and an editorial about the current state of Pixar. Check out links and summaries for all of that below.

This Was a Big Weekend for Despicable Me 2

While Monsters University started the week as the number 1 film in the US, it was usurped by another animated film this weekend, as Illumination's Despicable Me 2 took the top spot. The film, which had already been playing in foreign territories, including the UK, opened at #1, with an estimated $82.5 million haul over the weekend. That's impressively about on par with Pixar's mammoth hit, Monsters University. Factor into that the fact that Despicable Me 2 was made for allegedly about $200 million less than Monsters U, and this is a very good result for Illumination's parent company, Universal.

Despicable Me 2 Review - Illuminatingly Hilarious, Minion-Packed Fun

*This review is largely spoiler free, and most plot-details mentioned are evident in the trailers, but read cautiously if you haven’t seen the film yet*

2010 was a very strong year for animation, providing two of the best animated films of the last few decades with Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon; other great films were also released that year, including Tangled, Megamind and the debut feature from Illumination Entertainment, Despicable Me. The film won itself a lot of praise, with audiences loving the tender dynamic at the centre of the film, the adorable orphaned girls who Gru adopts and, most crucially, the hilarious little yellow swarms known as the minions. I loved the first film, but have been sorely disappointed by Illumination's two subsequent films, Hop and The Lorax. As such, I, sadly, didn't have high hopes for Despicable Me 2. And I've never been quite so spectacularly wrong: Despicable Me 2 is hilarious, well told and even manages to be better than the first film.

New Despicable Me 2 TV Spots Online

Just over a week ago, three new, genuinely interesting and actually exciting clips for Illumination's to their 2010 original, Despicable Me. These twenty second, quick-cutting clips focus on Gru, three girls in his care, a lot of action, and a budding romance with Kristen Wiig's Agent Lucy Wilde. One such spot is above and the other two are just below.

New Despicable Me 2 Poster Shows a Sea of Minions

Illumination have just rolled out a new poster for Despicable Me 2 on Twitter. Perhaps setting the stage for what's to come next year, the poster is awash with an endless collection of Gru's little nonsensical henchmen, topped off by the catchy tagline "When the world needed a hero, they called a villain."

Despicable Me 2 is directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud and hits UK cinemas on 28th June, and US ones on 3rd July.

New Despicable Me 2 Trailer Shows Gadgets, Girls and Gru

After a series of Minion vignettes, Universal have finally cranked out a trailer for Despicable Me 2 featuring its main character. iTunes Movie Trailers debuted the new trailer (embedded above) which returns Steve Carell to his role as the villainous Gru.

Sandra Bullock Turning Evil for Despicable Me Spin-Off, Minions

Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me spin-off based around the series' yellow henchmen, now seemingly titled Minions, just got its first voice cast member, America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock. The irony being that Bullock is following in Steve Carell's footsteps and playing an evil-doer in the film.

DISCUSS: What's Your Most Anticipated Animated Film of 2013?

2012 has passed and Awards season is upon us, so we'll soon know what the critical successes of 2012 were (in terms of box-office successes, I'll refer you to someone much more knowledgeable about that than I - though what I can easily judge, is that 2012 was not a good year for stop-motion). So, now we look to the future - or, more accurately, the present - and our inner film-savant surfaces as we offer our predictions on what will be big in 2013.