Pixar almost always wins the best animated Oscar. Here’s when they didn’t.

At the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday, Soul Won Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Against netflix On the moon, Erdmann Animation Shaun the Sheep: Farmeddon, Pixar ahead, & Cartoon Salon Wolfwalker, Soul Received top prize.

Wolfwalker Fans vocally expected more, but still, it was fully expected.

In 20 years, the Best Animated Feature has been a category at the Academy Awards, with Pixar films winning 10 times – and in the years when a Pixar film was in a competition, they rarely lost. There are only three instances where a non-Pixar film beat a nominated Pixar film, and three cases where eligible Pixar films were not nominated. Every time a non-Pixar film won, it was in a year where there were no eligible Pixar films to nominate. Academy voters are notorious for consistently sidelining the animation category, speaking in interviews about how they didn’t bother to watch all the movies, and only voting for the most recognizable titles from the biggest companies. Even in years where worthy titles are preferred Loving Vincent, Persepolis, And Secret of Kells Were ready for the award, the victory went to Pixar.

For most of the category’s existence, the Academy’s Animation Branch was voted the Best Animated Feature nominee. But in 2018, a new rule opened up voting on nominations to anyone who wanted to participate (which is how Boss baby Nominations received in 2018). This naturally skewed the category from large studios towards American films, although it is not the case that smaller independent international features are reducing the top awards anyway. But as an anonymous Oscar voter in the Hollywood Reporter so brilliantly put it in 2015:

“For [The Lego Movie] These two obscure freakin ‘sugar fuckers’ shouldn’t be on things no one has ever seen [an apparent reference to Studio Ghibli’s film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which is Japanese, and the Irish film Song of the Sea]The She is my biggest bitch. Most people didn’t even know what they were! How does this happen? To me, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. “

Pixar films regarded as the best that American animation has to offer are beautifully animated with passionate moments tying the story together, often ending with unexpected finesse. But while Pixar movies are great, there are films nominated for the animation category that never really ever get a chance because by default the big budget American studios seem. Nevertheless, while Pixar has strangled the category since its early days, there have been instances where other films have managed to win awards. Let’s take a look at the six times Pixar films lost at the Oscars.

2001: Someone once told me

The 2001 first-year films were eligible in the category, meaning that no Disney Renaissance film ever won Best Animated Feature. (Although 1991 beauty and the Beast

Was nominated for Best Picture.) In the inaugural year of the award, three films were nominated: Pixar Monster Inc., Nickelodeon’s Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, And DreamWorks’ Shrek. It was Shrek That house took gold – and radically changed the landscape of American animation, but that’s a story for another time.

At this point it is odd to think how a film that gave birth to a million memos and was made as a big shit-you Disney won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. Peaked but cynical Shrek Was a novelty in its time, which was more honest Monster inc For the top award and setting a standard for CG animation. While many films made through various animation methods have nominated all the best animated picture winners except nomination. spirited Away Has been computer-animated. (although Spider-Man: In Spider-Year Definitely leaning more on hand-drawn stylisms than the other winners.)

2006: The Fault in Our Cars

No Pixar film was released in 2002, and the award was given for that year spirited Away. finding Nemo And That wonderful Brought Pixar’s magic in 2003 and 2004 respectively and snatched the top prize, Cars Reduced in 2006. Instead, Mad Max director George Miller Won that year’s award with Penguin Dance Comedy happy Feet. Other contenders of that year were Columbia Pictures’ child-oriented horror film haunted house.

There were no Pixar films released in 2005 – and coincidentally, the 2002 and 2005 awards were just two years in the entire history that non-American films won. However, it should be noted that both spirited Away And Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit Hollywood had relationships with some studios, the former being distributed by Disney and the latter produced by DreamWorks.

As Sam Adams wrote for Slate, aside from those two exceptions, it seems as if the “Best Animated Film Oscar is essentially passed from one Hollywood studio to the next, not counting the four years it went in front of Pixar.” Was sitting in the lobby. “

2011, 2013, 2016: The Lost Sequel

Pixar dominated the category years later. CarsWinning for 2007 RatatouilleOf 2008 To WALL-EIs of 2009 UP, Of 2010 Toy story 3And it’s 2012 Brave.… When cars 2 It surfaced in 2011 that it marked the first year that a character Pixar film had not been nominated for Best Animated Feature. It also triggered a pattern, as Pixar repeatedly lost in the category with sequels, which did not match the grandeur of the original. () toy Story The sequel is, as always, a major exception.) Of 2011 cars 2, Of 2013 monsters University, And of 2016 finding Dory All missed nominations – the winners were the year Paint And Disney’s Frozen And Zootopia. By this time, Disney had Pixar – so even when Pixar lost, the prize went to Disney twice out of three. Now I call it corporate synergy!

There were two other Pixar films that were not nominated (2015). The good dinosaur And it is 2017 Cars 3) But unfolded over the years where another Pixar film (Cocoa And from inside to outsideRespectively) did Instead ended the nomination and won.

2018: A new kind of superhero

Is of 2018 Spider-Man: In Spider-Year Expectations were broken about not only what an animated film could be, but also what a superhero film could be. It adopted the medium of animation, shedding cinematography for unpublished stylization. It is a love letter to cartoons and comic books.

It’s kinda funny that the Pixar movie was against Incredibles 2A superhero film, which was a very solid sequel for all intents and purposes. But it was hard to follow, and faced Spider verse, It surfaced and overtook.

In 2020, even with Netflix-distributed Klaus And I lost my body To challenge the reigning champion,Toy story 4 Took home the top prize. Together Soul Taking home the trophy this time, Pixar’s revival gains on the original films are reaping the benefits, as it emerged out of a slowdown in the company’s sequel in early 2010. Pixar is back to dominate the category, though in fact, with its original films (to save) car, But we’re not talking about that) it never really went away.