With the Oscars Awards Ceremony 2025 closing in, an entire category of awards have been dedicated to animated films for the first time.

There is a serious animation issue at the Oscars. Only animated short films have their category, and animated films have been excluded from nominees for a large portion of the Oscars' history. Disney movies and children's movies in general soon took over the Best Animated Feature category once it was established in 2001.

Fortunately, it appears that the 2025 Oscars are doing something right. This year, the Academy recognized the potential of animated films, and they should be considered in a variety of categories since, like live-action films, they have distinct production departments that are very good at what they do.

The decrease in the number of Oscar nominations for Disney films has been one of the oddest trends of the past two years. No Disney animated film has been nominated for Best Animated Feature for the third consecutive year. Smaller, indie films have been able to gain attention and nominations as a result.

Two of the nominations this year are from minor distributors who have no prior experience running an Oscar campaign. "Flow" and "Memoir of a Snail" lack the resources and track record of a business like GKIDS or Neon, as well as the budget and workforce of a major studio like Pixar or DreamWorks. However, both movies were nominated for Oscars, which is a huge accomplishment.