Mar 12, 2023

2023 Academy Awards - Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio," "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse," and "Avatar" win Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has now announced the winners of this year's 95th Academy Awards, with all animation-related categories announced.

Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio," "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse," and "Avatar: The Water Path" won Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Short, and Best Visual Effects, respectively.

First to be announced was Best Animated Feature, and compared to last year's disastrous Disney Princess announcement, this year's announcement saw Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson aptly describe animation as "the very definition of cinema" and offer an olive branch:

Academy Awards The Rock at the: "Animation is the very definition of cinema itself, skillfully telling a sophisticated story frame by frame, tied to the origins of cinema itself, and encompassing all visual styles and techniques." pic.twitter.com/wRC1GOzttl

- cartoonbrew.com - Animation News (@cartoonbrew) March 13, 2023

In the weeks leading up to this year's awards, the eventual winner in all three categories almost began to feel almost inevitable. Pinocchio and Avatar swept the awards at the major Critics' and Craft Awards ceremonies, respectively, while The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse strengthened its claim by winning BAFTAs and Annie Awards.

The final winners were not necessarily surprising, but when their names were announced, several interesting stories were identified. With "Pinocchio" winning the award, Disney failed to win the animated feature trophy for the third time in 16 years and, more importantly, the second time in five years.

Pinocchio became only the second stop-motion film ever to win the Best Animated Feature: the first was "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," which won in 2005. Stop-motion veteran Marc Gustafon, who directed "Pinocchio" with del Toro, told the audience, "It's great to know that this art form we love so much, stop-motion, is alive and well.

Del Toro added his own commentary onstage, repeating the mantra he has been saying throughout the awards season: "Animation is cinema. Animation is cinema. Animation is cinema. We are all ready for it. Help us. Make animation a topic of conversation."

Apple won his first animation Oscar in 2021 for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, after narrowly missing out on the award for Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers.

The most dramatic category we covered this year was undoubtedly animated shorts. Of the nominees, only Wendy Tilby, creator of The Flying Sailor, and Amanda Forbis had been nominated in the past, giving the impression that this year's race was a big one.

"Ice Merchants" gained attention when it won an award at the Cannes Critics' Week and recently strengthened its momentum by winning the Annecy Award for Best Animated Short Film. My Year of Dicks," which won at Annecy, in particular, looked like a strong contender for much of the year; An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It had already won the Student Academy Award in September. And in the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse gained momentum by winning the Annie and BAFTA awards.

This year's visual effects awards have been considered a foregone conclusion since it was announced that "Avatar: World of Water" would be released in late 2022. James Cameron's films are likely to feature breathtaking and groundbreaking special effects, and "Way of Water" was no exception. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film had one of the largest budgets in film history, between $350 million and $400 million.