Latest News -- A New Academy Award Category!

The Academy has already discussed the eligibility requirements for this new award. To be eligible, an animated feature must be at least 70 minutes in length, "primarily animated," and meet the other general requirements for feature film eligibility as published annually in the Academy Award Rules. The overseeing committee is expected to develop criteria for the definition of "primarily animated" in the coming months.

Films could use cel animation, computer animation, stop motion or other recognized animation techniques. The Oscar for the new category would be presented to "the key creative talent most clearly responsible for the overall achievement," normally a single individual, on behalf of the entire production. In no case will more than two statuettes be presented. As with all awards, the board of governors will make the final determination if an award is to be presented in the category in any given year.

And of course, films submitted for this new category can compete in other categories as well, much like films up for Foreign Film can compete elsewhere as well. Overall, I think this is a good thing ... while I've been against other proposals in the past, such as splitting up the main awards, especially Best Picture, into areas for Comedy and areas for Drama (which should NEVER happen), animated films are indeed on a different level, and deserve their own award. The past few years have seen some truly incredible animated film achievements, and not just from Disney. While Disney has still amazed with achievements like FANTASIA 2000, TARZAN, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, and MULAN in recent years, Dreamworks brought us THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, which was an incredible film. And computer animated films like the TOY STORY films or A BUG'S LIFE again demonstrate how there are some truly amazing and good feature films being made in the genre of animation. Animated feature films are definitely in a huge resurgence right now, and this Oscar should finally give some very talented craftsmen their due. Hopefully, the number of eligible animated features will increase, or otherwise we won't see such a respectable award. Too bad this Oscar wasn't around back when some of the great Disney classics were released, like PINOCCHIO or FANTASIA.

This always makes me think of what other categories should be included in the Oscars. Like I said before, the Academy should never start splitting up Oscars into comedic and dramatic categories like the

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