The brutal admissions of some Academy voters in the animation category would confirm the feeling of many directors in the sector that they feel discriminated against their live action colleagues.
Despite the triumph of Guillermo del Toro and his Pinocchio at the 2023 Oscars, for some time the filmmakers who have been involved in animation they denounce decades of Academy sloppiness and snobbery and its members. Snobbery confirmed by the statements of an anonymous voter of the Academy, who would have admitted his total disinterest against the list of nominees in the best animated film category.
Before the Oscars, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed some members of the Academy in total anonymity asking them which films they voted for in each category. The first person to speak, identified as a male member of the 648 producer branch, reportedly said in no uncertain terms that of the five animated film nominees “he didn’t give a damn about anyone”. Here is his comment:
“I’ve watched at least a fraction of all the titles – a couple of them in their entirety – and I don’t give a damn about any of them. My favorite animated film of the year, Luck, wasn’t even nominated”.
This producer, however, deserves credit for explaining that he abstained from voting in the category, which is actually an improvement over Academy members asking their kids to suggest the winner of the animated category.
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The second Academy member interviewed, a male in the animation branch of 867 people, offered a far more troubling answer by saying he voted for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio even though he hadn’t bothered to watch the other films of the five:
“I haven’t seen The Sea Beast or Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. I liked Red. If Guillermo del Toro hadn’t done Pinocchio this year, Puss in Boots 2 would have deserved to win – it’s so good – but he did done. I love Guillermo, and I loved the animation and the way he told the story”.
That an Academy member voted without having seen all the films in the category seems more disconcerting than someone who admitted not voting because they weren’t interested, even more so given that they are the only voter of the 17 branches specializing in animation. The fact that voters don’t even bother watching movies for the branch they represent says a lot about the Oscars. Here the complaints of members of the animation sector who feel penalized are anything but gratuitous.