AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the sixteenth category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Onward

The winner: 

Weathering with You told a wonderful and magical story of the power of friendship and belief in the extraordinary.

Other nominees: 

Wolfwalkers
Over the Moon
Soul
Lupin III: The First

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 13th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

*One of the best animated films I saw this year, which was eligible for the Oscar, was “Weathering with You,” which I’ll include in my 2020 nominees due to its January release date.

The winner:
I Lost My Body presented an unusual premise and wove a wonderful, immensely watchable and endearing story around it.

Other nominees:
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles 
Missing Link
Abominable
Frozen II

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 12th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

*Fun note – this is one of just two categories in which my list matches up 100% with the Oscar list.

The winner:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a marvelous and unexpectedly original reboot of a franchise with so many film entries that a novel approach seemed impossible, equally wondrous in its plot as its animation.

Other nominees:
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Incredibles 2

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 11th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runner-up:
The Red Turtle

The winner:
Coco was a smart, touching look at death and how living family members can remember those who are gone with sweet characters, a lively soundtrack, and an overall positive message about relationships for children and adults alike.

Other nominees:
My Life as a Zucchini
The Breadwinner
Loving Vincent
Ferdinand

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 10th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runner-up:
Moana

The winner:
Zootopia was an instance of classic animated fun, a comedy far more intelligent than it might appear to be at first glance and capable of extraordinary multigenerational entertainment.

Other nominees:
Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings

*My choice to win the Oscar this year, My Life as a Zucchini, will contend for next year’s AFT Awards as it was released and screened by me in 2017.

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 8th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order in which I’ve ranked them, and I include runners-up this year since I wish I could include all ten since this was a great year for animation! Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Big Hero 6
The Lego Movie
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2

The winner:
The Wind Rises was an exquisite, imaginative chronicle of one young man’s exploration of his passion in a most unexpected setting with beautiful animation to illustrate that.

Other nominees:
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Rocks in My Pockets
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 7th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
Frozen was a wonderfully imaginative and involving adventure that felt classic and fresh at the same time, with a great soundtrack to boot.

Other nominees:
Ernest and Celestine
Monsters University

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the nineteenth category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
Brave was an invigorating and exciting venture into what could be perceived as familiar territory with an indestructible sense of perseverance and determination.

Other nominees:
Frankenweenie
Wreck-It Ralph

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Note: At this point, I’ve seen but one (“Rango”) of the Oscar nominees in this category.

The winner:
The Adventures of Tintin was a masterful and magnificent adventure, an achievement both in motion-capture animation and enthralling storytelling.

Other nominees:
Cars 2
Winnie the Pooh

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. Despite including two of my top ten favorite films of the year, 2010 did not boast too much terrific animation.

The winner:
Toy Story 3 was an absolutely fantastic return to childhood through the lens of a third series entry that had its own original story to tell.

Other nominees:
Tangled
The Illusionist

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
9 was an incredible journey of David and Goliath which took on a whole new meaning and fantastic form in its animated presentation.

Other nominees:
Up
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog

AFT Awards: Best Animated Feature

This is the seventeenth category of the 2nd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order.

The winner:
Waltz with Bashir was enormously successful in its attempts to explore the animated medium and tell its story in a masterfully creative manner.

Other nominees:
Chicago 10
Wall-E