Mitchell Beaupre
Today the Academy has announced their lists of films eligible to compete for the Best Animated Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature Film, and International Feature Film categories.
On February 9th, 2021, the Academy will release the shortlists for the documentary and international film categories, narrowing down the competitors to a list of 15, of which 5 will be selected for the nominees announced on March 15th. The international shortlist, usually consisting of 10 films, was voted to be expanded this year to 15.
Twenty-seven films have been deemed eligible for the animated feature category. Only two of them really seem to be in the hunt for the win, as the category has long been narrowed down to a two-horse race between Pixar’s Soul and Apple/GKIDS’ Wolfwalkers. The remaining contenders are essentially fighting for an also-ran nomination slot, with three to split. Pixar had another release earlier in the year, one of the last films to receive a theatrical release before theaters closed their doors in the US, with Onward, which could certainly make the cut. Other competitors include Netflix’s Over the Moon and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, the sequel to 2015’s Oscar nominated Shaun the Sheep Movie.
Scoffing at that measly 27 are the mammoth 238 features that are eligible for the documentary category. This is a much less locked in category than animated is, with some of the heavy hitters on the critics award’s circuit including Time, Dick Johnson Is Dead, Collective, All In: The Fight for Democracy, Boys State, and Crip Camp. Remember also that documentary feature is quite possibly the most impossible to predict category when it comes to nominations, with some of the most acclaimed and beloved contenders missing out on nominations in the past, like Hoop Dreams, the Roger Ebert doc Life Itself, and of course the beloved Won’t You Be My Neighbor?.
The international feature category is also one of the most exciting this year, as 93 countries have submitted films to compete for the prize. The last two years saw very clear victories from Roma and Parasite, movies that we practically knew by their festival premieres were locks to win their categories, with Parasite being the first non-English movie ever to win the overall Best Picture prize, and Roma coming pretty darn close the year before, earning Alfonso Cuarõni the award for Best Director. Denmark’s Another Round, the latest from Thomas Vinterberg whose earlier film The Hunt was also nominated, has won the most critics groups so far, but it certainly isn’t a blowout by any means. Minari has been earning its share of critics prizes as well, but as it’s an American film it isn’t eligible here, which clears even more room for some big surprises.
For the full list of eligible contenders in each of the three categories, see below:
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus”
“Bombay Rose”
“Calamity”
“The Croods: A New Age”
“Demon Slayer -Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train”
“Dreambuilders”
“Lane”
“On-Gaku: Our Sound”
“Onward”
“Over the Moon”
“Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs”
“Ride Your Wave”
“Scoob!”
“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”
“Soul”
“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run”
“Terra Willy”
“Trolls World Tour”
“A Whisker Away”
“The Willoughbys”
“Wolfwalkers”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
“Acasa, My Home”
“Addicted to Ralphie”
“Aggie”
“All I Can Say”
“All In: The Fight for Democracy”
“The American Sector”
“American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself”
“America’s Forgotten”
“The Antidote”
“Apocalypse ’45”
“The Art of Living in Danger”
“The Art of Political Murder”
“Assassins”
“Aswang”
“Athlete A”
“Babenco – Tell Me When I Die”
“Be Water”
“Beastie Boys Story”
“Beautiful Something Left Behind”
“Becoming”
“Bedlam”
“Belly of the Beast”
“Belushi”
“Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint”
“The Big Scary “S” Word”
“Billie”
“Black Boys”
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”
“The Booksellers”
“Born to Be”
“Boys State”
“Bulletproof”
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn”
“Capital in the Twenty-First Century”
“Chicago: America’s Hidden War”
“Childhood 2.0”
“Chuck Berry”
“Circus of Books”
“City Dream”
“City Hall”
“Coded Bias”
“Collective”
“Colombia in My Arms”
“Coming Clean”
“Coronation”
“Coup 53”
“Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words”
“Creem: America’s Only Rock’ n’ Roll Magazine”
“Crip Camp”
“Crock of Gold – A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan”
“The Curve”
“Dads”
“Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time”
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
“Days of Cannibalism”
“Dear Santa”
“Death Protocol”
“Descent”
“Desert One”
“Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy”
“Dick Johnson Is Dead”
“Disclosure”
“The Dissident”
“The Dog Doc”
“The Donut King”
“Dope Is Death”
“Down a Dark Stairwell”
“Downstream to Kinshasa”
“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”
“Elementa”
“Ending Disease”
“Epicentro”
“Erased,___Ascent of the Invisible”
“Escape from Extinction”
“Everybody Flies”
“F11 and Be There”
“Fandango at the Wall”
“Father Soldier Son”
“Feels Good Man”
“The Fight”
“Find Your Groove”
“Finding Yingying”
“Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds”
“First Vote”
“First We Eat”
“Flannery”
“For They Know Not What They Do”
“The Forbidden Reel”
“40 Years a Prisoner”
“Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb”
“Freedia Got a Gun”
“The Ghost of Peter Sellers”
“Giving Voice”
“A Glitch in the Matrix”
“The Go-Go’s”
“Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind”
“Gunda”
“Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something”
“He Dreams of Giants”
“House of Cardin” “The Human Factor”
“Human Nature”
“I Am Greta”
“I Am Not Alone”
“I Owe You a Letter about Brazil”
“iHuman”
“In My Skin”
“Indian Space Dreams”
“The Infiltrators”
“Influence”
“(In)Visible Portraits”
“Irmi”
“Irradiés (Irradiated)”
“Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President”
“John Lewis: Good Trouble”
“Journey to Royal: A World War II Rescue Mission”
“Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl”
“A Kid from Coney Island”
“Kingdom of Silence”
“Kings of Capitol Hill”
“Kiss the Ground”
“La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla”
“Lance”
“Landfall”
“The Last Blockbuster”
“Last Call for Tomorrow”
“Lennox: The Untold Story”
“Lessons of Love”
“The Letter”
“Libelu – Down with the Dictatorship”
“Life Is Deadly”
“Lift Like a Girl”
“Lost Course”
“Lost in Face”
“Love Child”
“MLK/FBI”
“Made You Look: A True Story about Fake Art”
“Man in the Arena”
“Martin Margiela: In His Own Words”
“Mayor”
“Mighty Ira”
“Miss Americana”
“Mr. Soul!”
“The Mole Agent”
“The Monster inside Me”
“A Most Beautiful Thing”
“Mother to Earth: The Untold Story of Earth Bound”
“Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado”
“My Darling Supermarket”
“My Darling Vivian”
“My Octopus Teacher”
“My People: The Jews of Greece”
“My Psychedelic Love Story”
“My Rembrandt”
“Napoli Eden”
“Narciso Em Férias”
“Nasrin”
“The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel”
“9/11 Kids”
“915”
“9to5: The Story of a Movement”
“Notturno”
“Oliver Sacks: His Own Life”
“Olympia”
“On the Record”
“Once Upon a Time in Venezuela”
“Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band”
“Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles”
“Our Time Machine”
“Pahokee”
“The Painter and the Thief”
“A Pandemic: Away from the Motherland”
“The Phenomenon”
“Planet of the Humans”
“The Plot Against the President”
“The Pollinators”
“The Power of Movement”
“Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton”
“Public Trust”
“Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack”
“The Reason I Jump”
“Rebuilding Paradise”
“Red Penguins”
“Reunited”
“Rewind”
“The Right Girls”
“Ringside”
“Rising Phoenix”
“River City Drumbeat”
“River Tales”
“Runner”
“Searching for Mr. Rugoff”
“Self Portrait”
“17 Blocks The Final Cut”
“76 Days”
“Sky Blossom”
“Slay the Dragon”
“The Social Dilemma”
“Softie”
“Some Kind of Heaven”
“Songs of Repression”
“Soros”
“Spaceship Earth”
“Stars and Strife”
“The State of Texas vs. Melissa”
“Stray”
“Strip Down, Rise Up”
“System K”
“They Call Me Babu”
“This Is Not a Movie”
“This Is Paris”
“A Thousand Cuts”
“Through the Night”
“Time”
“The Times of Bill Cunningham”
“Totally Under Control”
“Transhood”
“The Truffle Hunters”
“Trust Me”
“Uncle Tom”
“#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump”
“Us Kids”
“WBCN and the American Revolution”
“The Walrus and the Whistleblower”
“The Way I See It”
“We Are the Radical Monarchs”
“We Don’t Deserve Dogs”
“Welcome to Chechnya”
“White Noise”
“Who Is Gatsby Randolph”
“Wild Daze”
“Wim Wenders: Desperado”
“With Drawn Arms”
“A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem”
“Women in Blue”
“You Cannot Kill David Arquette”
“Yusuf Hawkins: Storm over Brooklyn”
“Zappa”
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Albania, “Open Door”
Argentina, “The Sleepwalkers”
Armenia, “Songs of Solomon”
Austria, “What We Wanted”
Bangladesh, “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka”
Belgium, “Working Girls”
Bolivia, “Chaco”
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Brazil, “Babenco – Tell Me When I Die”
Bulgaria, “The Father”
Cambodia, “Fathers”
Cameroon, “The Fisherman’s Diary”
Canada, “14 Days, 12 Nights”
Chile, “The Mole Agent”
China, “Leap”
Colombia, “El Olvido Que Seremos (Memories of My Father)”
Costa Rica, “Land of Ashes”
Croatia, “Extracurricular”
Cuba, “Buscando a Casal”
Czech Republic, “Charlatan”
Denmark, “Another Round”
Dominican Republic, “A State of Madness”
Ecuador, “Emptiness”
Egypt, “When We’re Born”
Estonia, “The Last Ones”
Finland, “Tove”
France, “Two of Us”
Georgia, “Beginning”
Germany, “And Tomorrow the Entire World”
Greece, “Apples”
Guatemala, “La Llorona”
Honduras, “Days of Light”
Hong Kong, “Better Days”
Hungary, “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time”
Iceland, “Agnes Joy”
India, “Jallikattu”
Indonesia, “Impetigore”
Iran, “Sun Children”
Ireland, “Arracht”
Israel, “Asia”
Italy, “Notturno”
Ivory Coast, “Night of the Kings”
Japan, “True Mothers”
Jordan, “200 Meters”
Kazakhstan, “The Crying Steppe”
Kenya, “The Letter”
Kosovo, “Exile”
Kyrgyzstan, “Running to the Sky”
Latvia, “Blizzard of Souls”
Lebanon, “Broken Keys”
Lesotho, “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection”
Lithuania, “Nova Lituania”
Luxembourg, “River Tales”
Malaysia, “Roh”
Mexico, “I’m No Longer Here”
Mongolia, “Veins of the World”
Montenegro, “Breasts”
Morocco, “The Unknown Saint”
Netherlands, “Buladó”
Nigeria, “The Milkmaid”
North Macedonia, “Willow”
Norway, “Hope”
Pakistan, “Circus of Life”
Palestine, “Gaza Mon Amour”
Panama, “Operation Just Cause”
Paraguay, “Killing the Dead”
Peru, “Song Without a Name”
Philippines, “Mindanao”
Poland, “Never Gonna Snow Again”
Portugal, “Vitalina Varela”
Romania, “Collective”
Russia, “Dear Comrades!”
Saudi Arabia, “Scales”
Senegal, “Nafi’s Father”
Serbia, “Dara of Jasenovac”
Singapore, “Wet Season”
Slovakia, “The Auschwitz Report”
Slovenia, “Stories from the Chestnut Woods”
South Africa, “Toorbos”
South Korea, “The Man Standing Next”
Spain, “The Endless Trench”
Sudan, “You Will Die at Twenty”
Suriname, “Wiren”
Sweden, “Charter”
Switzerland, “My Little Sister”
Taiwan, “A Sun”
Thailand, “Happy Old Year”
Tunisia, “The Man Who Sold His Skin”
Turkey, “Miracle in Cell No. 7”
Ukraine, “Atlantis”
Uruguay, “Aleli”
Venezuela, “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela”
Vietnam, “Dreamy Eyes”
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