85th Annual Academy Award Predictions [UPDATED: And Winners]

The biggest night of the year on the film calender is nigh; the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place tomorrow! Hosted by Seth MacFarlane and emanating from the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, this year's Oscars are close, very close. As such, it's time for me to let out my inner awards pundit and offer up A113Animation's predictions on what will be walking home with a golden statue at the end of the night.

Animation is a particularly close call this year; for months I was sure Laika's ParaNorman would take the prize, but the tide has turned, particularly after Disney's Wreck-It Ralph swept the Annies at the start of the month. Though Ralph is the best film of the five, it may well be Pixar's Brave that takes home the award, particularly after its swell of momentum at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and the Academy has always been fond of Pixar. Tim Burton's Frankenweenie had a lot of awards hype around it, but it doesn't seem to be a threat to Disney's other two offerings. It's great to see The Pirates! nominated, especially after getting so little recognition elsewhere, but it seems unlikely Aardman's latest will herald a second Oscar for them.

Short wise, it should be Disney's Paperman. Should be. But, personally, it seems more likely that Minkyu Lee's Adam and Dog will take the prize home, despite its lack of major advertising. Nonetheless, it's another close category. Life of Pi should and almost certainly will take home Best Visual Effects, a bittersweet win after Rhythm & Hues recently filed for bankruptcy.

On the live-action side, Argo seems a lock for Best Picture at this stage, and with the inexplicable omission of its helmer Ben Affleck from Best Director, the safe bet for that one is Spielberg. Most of the acting categories seem pretty sewn up (Daniel Day-Lewis is almost unbeatable at this stage, and a win will make him the only actor to ever win three Best Actor Oscars). Cinematography should be Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi - although Roger Deakins' work on Skyfall may well get the nod - and Best Original Song will definitely be Adele for "Skyfall". It's all really quite exciting!

Films we think should win are in bold, films we think will win are underlined; the winners will be highlighted in gold after the fact. No prediction indicates it's a category that I'm not knowledgeable about/haven't seen any of the nominees for.

Watch and Discuss: Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films

The Oscars are almost here, the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place two weeks from tomorrow, on Sunday 24th February, and it's almost time to start fielding predictions. But, before that, it certainly helps to be well informed: as we are A113Animation, obviously, one of the main awards at the Oscars for us is the Best Animated Feature one; however, often overlooked is the Best Animated Short Film prize. So, given that the Oscar nominated shorts are now all available in their entirety online, I thought it time to offer up my thoughts on the offerings, and get yours.

85th Annual Academy Award Nominations Revealed - And They're Exciting!

People are sure to complain about things (no Sam Mendes for Best Director? No Javier Bardem for Supporting Actor? No Dark Knight Rises at all?!), but there are certainly things to be happy about with today's Academy Award nominations: particularly so in animation!

The big news? The really bloody exciting news? After yesterday's very unexpected BAFTA snub, Aardman's fantastic film, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists scooped a Best Animated Feature nomination! Massive congratulations to Pete Lord, Gideon Defoe, Jeff Newitt and everyone at Aardman for the nomination! BAFTAs-Shmaftas.

10 Animated Shorts Make the Oscar Shortlist

Just last week we got the names of the animated shorts (and indeed features) submitted for Academy Award consideration, and today AMPAS have revealed the ten animated short films that have made it onto the Oscar short list. From these shorts - including last year's Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject winner, Adam and Dog, as well as Disney's Paperman and The Simpsons short The Longest Daycare - between three and five will progress to the final list of nominees.

The shortlist is as follows:

• "Adam and Dog," Minkyu Lee, director (Lodge Films)
• "Combustible," Katsuhiro Otomo, director (Sunrise Inc.)
• "Dripped," Léo Verrier, director (ChezEddy)
• "The Eagleman Stag," Mikey Please, director, and Benedict Please, music scores and sound design (Royal College of Art)
• "The Fall of the House of Usher," Raul Garcia, director, and Stephan Roelants, producer (Melusine Productions, R&R Communications Inc., Les Armateurs, The Big Farm)
• "Fresh Guacamole," PES, director (PES)
• "Head over Heels," Timothy Reckart, director, and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, producer (National Film and Television School)
• "Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”," David Silverman, director (Gracie Films)
• "Paperman," John Kahrs, director (Disney Animation Studios)
• "Tram," Michaela Pavlátová, director, and Ron Dyens, producer (Sacrebleu Productions)

I'm not even going to pretend I've seen all of these, but it'll be exciting to see which progress. Given all of its buzz and the mainstream audience it's getting with Wreck-It Ralph, Paperman seems set for a nomination; Adam and Dog seems likely too. And from a fanboy standpoint, it sure would be nice to see a Simpsons short get an Oscar nomination!

The 85th Academy Award nominations will be revealed on 10th January, 2013 and then the awards will be presented from the Dolby Theatre, at the Hollywood & Highland Centre, on 24th February. Until then, we'll keep you posted.

Via Cartoon Brew.

UPDATED: New 3D Simpsons Short to Precede Ice Age 4!

It was just announced last night that Maggie Simpson will star in her very own short film, "The Longest Daycare"! The short will show before Blue Sky Studios' (who're also owned by Fox) Ice Age 4 later this year. You can view a short promo for the short film above.

"The Longest Daycare" is touted as being in 3D, and hopefully this just means it will have stereoscopic 3D effects, and not that it's animated using CGI - it would just not look right for The Simpsons.

This is very exciting news for several reasons: it's Maggie's first starring role, it's the first Simpsons theatrical short film, and indeed the first Simpsons short film since 1989! If you weren't planning on seeing Ice Age 4 before, it's just became a must see.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift hits cinemas on 13th July.

Via Cartoon Brew.

Update:

Entertainment Weekly's site sports a mini-interview with Simpsons Exec. Producer, Al Jean, about "The Longest Daycare", which gives us a sizeable about of information about the short.

Jean says:

"Jim Brooks thought we should do an animated short — a la the ones Pixar does before their features, a la the cartoons you used to see in the theater years ago — as a fun thing to give our fans. We just wanted to do this as a way of saying, ‘We appreciate how much people have stayed with the show and watched it for 25 years."

The EW article also tells us that the short sees Maggie returning to the Ayn Rand School for Tots (need reminded?) and that it'll be 4 minutes long and directed by David Silverman. It also seems that in the short (rather than as hoped above) the "3D" doesn't mean the film will be in 3D, rather that it will be animated using CGI. Meh, I'd rather see it animated in the normal Simpsons mould, but I suppose it will give it a different feel and it worked rather well for Looney Tunes.

Also, of note, Al Jean spoke briefly about the long speculated The Simpsons Movie 2:

“There are no immediate plans for a feature, although as you see with this, you never know. It certainly made us excited to think that if we did another feature, maybe 3-D would be the way to go.”

Be sure to read the full article here!

Update 2:

Pardon my misreading, the director of The Simpsons Movie and "The Longest Daycare", David Silverman, told us on Twitter "Nope! - its 3D not CG. Drawn like the show, but several levels of cleanup, using After Effects to create 3D."

Phew. Like I said, I'm sure it would've been good as CG, but it'll be so much better without!